Supporting the Participation of Disabled Children and Young People in Decision‐making

Increasing children's and young people's participation in decisions, about their own care and about service development, is a policy priority. Although in general participation is increasing, disabled children are less likely to be involved than non‐disabled children and it is unclear to what extent children with complex needs or communication impairments are being included in participation activities. This article presents research exploring factors to support good practice in participation and discusses policy and practice implications.     

Facilitating Participation: Adults' Caring Support Roles within Child‐to‐Child Projects in Schools and After‐School Settings

Embedded hierarchical relationships between children and adults constrain children's voice. For adults to support children's participation in decisions they need to learn new ways of working; to enable children to communicate their views, develop their ideas, make group decisions and take joint action. This article explores the different roles that caring professionals adopt when facilitating children's participation within Child‐to‐Child community health projects. It shows how even committed adults can struggle with shifting their practice and highlights the importance of facilitators adopting a reflective approach rooted in genuine dialogue with children in order to determine the most appropriate level of adult support.     

Making a difference? Bringing children's and young people's views into policy‐making

As the participation of children and young people in policy decision‐making has spread in the UK, participation work is facing hard questions on its translation from principle to effective practice. The participation literature has been largely self‐referential in its consideration of policy influence. This paper considers the potential usefulness of the UK literature on policy networks, which categorises the relationships between government actors and other interests in policy‐making. A brief introduction is given to this literature. Then a participatory project is examined in light of certain key concepts within the policy network literature. The paper concludes by considering how both the participation and the policy networks literature might learn from each other in future conceptual and empirical work.     

Children's participation: control and self‐realisation in British late modernity

Children's participation in public life in contemporary Britain is examined in relation to the tension between control and self‐realisation found in late modernity. It is argued that, despite the recognition of children as persons in their own right, public policy and practice is marked by an intensification of control, regulation and surveillance around children. This tension is considered in relation to the constitution of children in the public sphere as human capital and therefore as a means of controlling the future. This is contrasted to the private sphere where children's potential for self‐realisation is increasingly sequestered in the family. It is suggested that these trends raise issues of social inequality, intergenerational justice and institutional disengagement in relation to children. This requires more serious attention to enabling children's participation in the society. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Principles and Ethics of Including Children with Disability in Child Research

This paper provides a set of principles and ethics, developed in collaboration between Pacific‐ and Australian‐based researchers, to guide research practice in a project enabling the self‐reporting of children with disability in Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea (PNG). The paper presents both a summary of academic literature relating to these principles and ethics, as well as their succinct ‘translation’ into a set of action statements for researchers working with children with disability. The paper offers a base for further development by others to guide research practice and foster the autonomous participation of children with disability in developing countries.     

Affordance of Participation Rights for Children in Home‐based Education and Care: An Interactive Process Model of Participation — 2007

Recent models relating to the affordance of children’s participation rights, based on articles 12 and 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights Of the Child (1989) , have focused on the role of and strategies used by the adults working with children (Children and Society 10 , 2001: 107–117; Children and Society 20 , 2006: 209–222). Whilst these adults play a pivotal role in affording participation rights, children, and their parents/family/whānau, play an equally important role. This paper explores the complex interplay of roles, relationships, and strategies used by adults and children in home‐based education settings in Aotearoa/New Zealand, that support the affordance of participation rights for children. It identifies key aspects of practice that underpin this, and presents an alternative model of participation that is in keeping with a sociocultural approach to children’s learning and development, and acknowledges them, in the right conditions, as having a voice and agency as citizens in their own right.     

Moving the participation agenda forward

This article sets the scene for the other papers in this Special Issue on children's and young people's participation, by outlining the nature of the ESRC Seminar Series from which all are derived and by developing the main themes discussed at the seminars. The focus of this Issue is participation by children and young people as this relates to differing notions of social exclusion and inclusion. This article critically examines participation in the contexts of policy, practice, research and theory. In many respects the environments in each of these domains is supportive of increased participation, yet there is also much evidence of limited impact by recent participative measures and of disillusionment by many young people who have been engaged in consultation and decision‐making. A way forward is suggested, which entails collaboration among all the key stakeholders including children and young people, connects participatory and social inclusion aims and mechanisms, and is committed to achieving tangible outcomes based on the wishes of children and young people.     

How Children and Young People Influence Policy‐Makers: Lessons from Nicaragua

This article describes a participatory research project, which explored four case studies of children and young people's successful political advocacy in Nicaragua. The analysis combined a human rights‐based approach and a human development approach, and included concepts of multiple settings and levels, interrelated participation spaces, children and young people's citizenship, inclusion and exclusion, democracy, advocacy and empowerment. The main problems faced by children and young people seeking to influence policy‐makers were identified as adultism, dependency and lack of accountability. The research identified pre‐conditions, participation spaces and ways of organising for effective advocacy, and facilitation methods that had proved effective. It concludes that children and young people who achieve effective advocacy are generally self‐empowered, but can count on effective adult support and facilitation. They work through coordination with the authorities and not by clashing with them, but need to ensure effective follow up if they want politicians to keep their promises.     

Children and regeneration: setting an agenda for community participation and integration

Unlike other marginalised groups children are often not in a position to enter into dialogue with adults about their community needs and environmental concerns. Despite the current emphasis on involving communities in the regeneration of their own neighbourhoods, young people are still seemingly invisible in decision‐making processes. This paper looks at recent attempts to increase public participation in local decision‐making, proposes a typology of community action that recognises the different ways in which children may be drawn into the process of neighbourhood renewal and offers a set of recommendations that, if taken up, provide an agenda that will strengthen the active social commitment of young people in general. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Children and Families’ Involvement in Social Work Decision Making

This review summarises the research literature on children’s and parents’ involvement in social work decision making, which is regarded, in policy terms, as increasingly important. In practice, however, it tends to be messy, difficult and compromised. Different individuals or groups may have different understandings of participation and related concepts, while differences of age and disability also mediate effective user engagement. The literature highlights common themes in effective participatory practice with both children and their parents. Central to this are the establishment of relationships of trust and respect, clear communication and information and appropriate support to participate.     

Ascertaining the Perspectives of Young Children in Care: Case Studies in the Use of Reality Boxes

This article describes the use of an innovative method, reality boxes, to elicit the perspectives of children, ages four to seven years, in state care. Using examples from a broader research project based on children in Northern Ireland, which was concerned with their participation rights, the article considers how the children used the boxes to express their views. Informed by a child rights‐based approach, the article highlights the processes and practices involved and concludes by stressing the potential importance of this method, used in the context of this framework, in social work practice with young children.     

Relatives in Residence: Relatedness of Household Members Drives Schooling Differentials in Mozambique

Children typically receive investments from their fathers, but absent fathers often invest at low levels. In a father's absence, what types of nonfathers invest heavily in children? This article investigates educational participation as a reflection of childhood investments on Ibo Island, Mozambique, where only one third of school‐aged children live with their biological fathers. Father‐present children generally attended school at the highest rates. Stepchildren and father‐absent relatives (e.g., grandchildren, nieces) attended school at comparably high rates if any coresiding children were father‐present. This may signal high altruism among present fathers toward some nonoffspring. Consistent with this result, a fixed effects model indicates that, within the same household, adult males invested equally in their own children, relatives, and stepchildren. Prejudicially lower investments were made in children who were unrelated to the household's adult males, however; this result has strong negative implications for the well‐being of African children fostered by nonrelatives.     

Obstacles for child participation in care and protection cases—why Norwegian social workers find it difficult

Although some attempts are being made to increase children's participation in Norwegian child protection cases, much needs to be done in order to comply with the participation principle in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This paper reports on a study of factors that are likely to predict if social workers will attempt to give children an effective voice in decision making processes. 53 child protection case managers and 33 social work students participated in a questionnaire survey in which they were asked to agree or disagree with 20 statements about child participation. Statistical factor analysis was used in order to identify underlying factors in the dataset. The results suggest three main reasons for children not being allowed to participate: communication difficulties (communication factor); because child participation was not deemed necessary (participation advocacy factor); or that participation was considered inappropriate because it might be harmful (protectionism factor). This research suggests that, if we are to improve participation within the child protection system, formal regulations and guidelines need to be accompanied by a greater attention to development of social work skills in working with children through participatory processes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Promotion of Children's and Adolescents’ Social Participation in Italy and Scotland

This article presents the theoretical framework, methodology and the main results of a comparative research on the promotion of children's social participation in Italy and Scotland, which was based on politicians’, managers’ and practitioners’ representations. Promotion of participation here is considered a form of social intervention in which adults construct and treat children as citizens entitled to be involved in decision‐making processes, due to their competence in self‐expression and making choices. The study revealed a coexistence of different images of childhood and social intervention, as well as some interesting differences and similarities between the two socio‐cultural contexts.     

Participation—for a change: Disabled young people lead the way

Virtually every Government programme for children and every Government Department in the UK is expected to involve children and young people in its policy development and service delivery (Children and Young People's Unit, 2001). It is the new orthodoxy. Yet, hard questions are often avoided when reciting the mantra of participation. Why bother? What has changed as a result? This paper first seeks to explore the constraints and limitations of this drive in public policy in England. Secondly, by looking at one specific example, it considers elements of practice to enable participation to be effective as a catalyst for change. Third, it proposes a framework that sets out an agenda for social inclusion that is itself influenced by children and young people and not reliant on the changing and often clashing fashions in Government.     

‘It’s the way they do it’: Expressions of Agency in Child–Adult Relations at Home and School

This article examines children's (8–9 years) and young people’s (14–15 years) views about their own participation in decision‐making processes with adults, within the context of home and school in Norway. A difference‐centred theoretical perspective is used to identify children’s participation as expressions of agency embedded in intricate child–adult relations, in which children and adults are positioned differently. It is argued that children not necessarily ask for increased independence from adults, but rather to be recognised as ‘differently equal’ partners in shared decision‐making processes, where children are being treated with dignity and respect as valuable persons.     

Autonomy,spontaneity and creativity in research with children. A study of experience and participation,in central Italy and North West England

ABSTRACT

Research involving children, deemed to have difficulties with conventional means of communication, can perpetuate reductive forms of representation of children’s knowledges and experiences. This article focuses on the possibilities and opportunities that visual and creative methods can offer to researching with children. Children advance their views in and through spontaneous and concrete forms of participation. Autonomy in aesthetic acts is central to this methodology; to explore practices that produce and reproduce presuppositions deriving from societal attitudes affecting research with children, their agency and self-presentation. This cross-cultural study was conducted in Central Italy and North West England: children contributed their perspectives and experiences through participation in a series of creative encounters resulting in aesthetic and embodied outcomes of sociological and educational significance. The study contributes to the debate on children’s autonomy and the value and quality of participation through artistic practice. Examples from the corpus of data, which includes a series of artefacts and over 900 photographs from each geo-cultural context, are presented. The study shows that it is possible to harmonise power imbalances in spaces of creative freedom, in research and education, where children’s choices and agency are respected.     

Social Research and the Privacy and Participation of Children: Reflections on Researching Australian Children's Playlore

Social research into the daily activities of children is important if we are to understand how children perceive themselves in relationship to their world. Ethically managed social research that allows children to speak as informed and competent subjects is thus vital. However, research regulatory bodies may be more concerned with protecting the privacy of children than facilitating their participation in research projects. In a context where publicly funded researchers are encouraged to make their data available for reuse, the bureaucratisation of the consent and ethics processes may impinge on the conduct and benefits, and the future accessibility, of the research itself. Reflecting on the findings of the Childhood, Tradition and Change research on playlore in Australian primary schools, we argue for a more balanced approach from regulatory authorities between protection and participation in relation to low‐risk social research with children.     

Children's Participation,Childhood Publics and Social Change: A Review

Progress in the implementation of children's participation rights in England is reviewed and situated within a broader agenda of social change. The article argues that much of the energy for ‘change for children’ has resided within a governance pathway across policy, practice and research. An alternative perspective is offered by re‐connecting children's rights debates to those of social movements and asking whether childhood publics are possible, what they might look like and where they might be found. It is concluded that a cross‐national and longitudinal perspective grounded in everyday life is likely to provide a more nuanced understanding of the change for children.     

Participation and young people involved in prostitution

This paper discusses a campaign which involves young people with experience of prostitution in influencing policy and practice which affects this group: the National Youth Campaign on Sexual Exploitation (the Youth Campaign). It is argued that participation is critical to improving outcomes for young people involved in prostitution, yet is often overlooked. Through participation, young people with experience of prostitution can build their self‐esteem whilst also helping agencies and policy makers develop more effective strategies on youth prostitution. The paper examines in detail one piece of work undertaken by the Youth Campaign: a workshop run by two young women at a national conference on sexual exploitation. In addition, it gives an overview of current research, policy and practice on participation and young people involved in prostitution and makes recommendations for how practice in this area could be improved. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.