1. In search of meaningful (children’s)
participation: Issues, challenges and
possibilities
Barry Percy-Smith
Associate Professor of Childhood Youth and Participatory
Practice
University of the West of England, Bristol
Barry.percy-smith@uwe.ac.uk

2. Origins of children’s participation
• United Nations Convention on the Rights of
the Child
Article 12: The right to say
“States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of
forming his or her own views the right to express those
views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of
the child being given due weight in accordance with the
age and maturity of the child.”

3. Other drivers:
• Sociology of Childhood (James and Prout 1990) –
children as competent social agents rather than
‘human becomings’
• Tradition of Participatory Practice (Eg. PRA/PAR) see
work of Chambers, Cornwall, Johnson etc)
• Children/environment studies in the 1970s/80s
(Hart, Moore, Lynch, Opies) – all recognised and
worked with children as active participants

4. Some issues and challenges
Young people still have little influence on decision making
With representative structures, only a few young people get to actively participate
Does anything change (how do adults respond)
Whose agenda? (Dominance of service agenda) Whose agenda?: ‘Having a say’ tends
to happen when it suits organisations and services, rather than when young
people need to communicate needs, issues, ideas and concerns.
Problems translating policy / legislation into practice (EU)
Understanding what participation means /lack of training (EU)
(not just about children having a say)
Cultural barriers (paternalism, view of childhood) (EU)
Political will ... danger of tokenism /tick boxing
Embedding participation/Developing a culture of participation in organisations
(getting young people to do research for adults is not the answer!)
Participation seems to be most effective when it is rooted in young people’s real life
issues

5. Issues with children’s participation in
research
Whose agenda?
What’s meaningful for cyp?
- Getting young people to do research for us or
- collaborating in a research process
For what purpose are we involving cyp in research?
- Providing a space for young people to articulate
their own views and experiences can often be
more powerful for informing service
improvement.
Research as collaborative action inquiry???

6. Appropriate methods: Using visuals to hear young people’s story

7. x2. Whose agenda – participation for what purpose?
•
Participation on adult/organisational terms for the purpose of public sector
decision making
..... rather than on terms that matter for young people.
•
‘having a say in matters that affect you’ means having a say when it suits
organisations and services, rather than when young people need to communicate
needs, issues, ideas and concerns.
What constitutes meaningful participation for a young offender or a mental health
service user? …. Effective services or their ability to engage with the world?
•
Fielding (2006): participation for human flourishing rather than participation for
effective organisations and services
•
Need to rebalance participation agenda away from organisational agenda and
think about participation in young people’s everyday lives

8. What does participation mean for young people?
Young people place more value on the process of taking part
and immediate personal benefits rather than just outcomes:
- their own personal achievement, learning & development,
- new experiences
- making connections with people /social value
- having responsibility / developing confidence and abilities
- realization of their own abilities / having control over their lives /making
informed choices
- making things happen / making a difference
- dialogue / mutual communication and understanding
- feeling their contribution has been valued /being respected
- just being involved /taking part / joining in
- opportunities and time to do things / having fun
How can we reconcile these with service agenda?

9. 3. Limited understanding of participation
involves
Limited ways participation seen as
consultation and voice - collection of
views - instrumental, functional view of
Participation.
But … the most pressing problems facing
us cannot be solved by simply voicing
what we already know. (Need reflection and
inquiry)
And what happens when different voices
come together? Who decides on which
voices prevail?
Participation is also about: …. inquiry,
reflection, dialogue, learning and action
in response to voice
Tradition of participatory research and
development as a post positivist paradigm

10. Participation and Participatory practice
PARTICIPATION: The act of being involved
/making a contribution
PARTICIPATORY PRACTICE: Concerns the way in
which people are involved
- An ethic defining the democratic way in
which involvement might happen involving
sharing of power at all stages of decision
making.

11. Beyond voice: From ‘perspectives’ to ‘power’ in decision making
For participation to be effective young people need to be involved and have
influence at all stages of the decision making cycle:
- planning, taking actions and evaluation as well as communicating issues

12. Fundamentals of participatory practice
1. Collaborative/relational – children
and adults work together to
identify, explore and respond to
issues
2. Involves learning and reflection –
challenging and changing
assumptions of self and others
(learning together) and systems.
3. Centrality of dialogue – considering
different perspectives together
4. Children taking initiative in decision
making and action (taking leadership
roles) sometimes
5. Critical reflexivity – ability to change
as a result of learning

13. Participation as social learning
The learning through participatory systems such as
groups, networks, organizations and communities, in
conditions which are new, unexpected, uncertain, conflictual
and hard to predict … when solutions have to be found for
unforeseen contextual problems. … emphasis is on the
optimal use of the problem-solving potential of which a
group, institution or community disposes. Social learning is
action- and experience-oriented, it is critically
reflective, meaning that actors question the validity of
particular
opinions, judgments, strategies, actions, emotions, feelings, et
c. It is cooperative and communicative, which means that the
dialogue between actors is crucial, continually involved in
implicit or explicit processes of negotiation (adapted from
Wildemeersch et al. 1998).

14. 4. Embedding children’s participation
• Problem of integrating children’s participation into
organisations and services (hierarchical/non
participatory)
• Conflicts between ideals of participation and statutory
responsibilities (eg as Corporate parents etc)
• Lack of culture and practices in organisations (for
reflexive learning) to respond to children’s
views/involvement
• Need to develop services/organisations capacity for
systemic learning and critical reflexivity.

15. Becoming learning organisations
“ To develop meaningful participatory practice, organizations
have to establish the infrastructure that will promote and
support new ways of working, this means becoming learning
organizations that experiment and reflect on practice. Change
needs to happen at staff levels, at senior levels and in policy”
“The ‘true challenge’ of participation is in organizations
‘transforming themselves’. This includes ‘profound changes in
an institution’s prevailing attitudes, behaviours, norms, skills
and procedures’”.
(Kirby et al., Building a Culture of Participation, 2003 p.7)
How do we become learning organisations where all
stakeholders can be routinely involved in ongoing reflection,
learning and change?

16. ‘Hear by Right’ model – provides a useful framework for organisational participation
standards
(www.nya.org.uk/quality/hear-by-right/)
Participation needs to
involve everybody not just
one advocate
But .. is important to have
Participation Champions:
-In practice
- in policy
-See also Kitemark standards
in Wales

17. Building in learning from practice
Policy
Young
people’s
reality
Practice
Practitioners are listening to young people but who listens to practitioners ?

18. Creating spaces for
reflection, dialogue, inquiry, creativity
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Reflection on action
Learning from practice /experience
“How can we improve what we do?”
... Practitioners hold the intelligence in
the system (clients needs and how system
works)
.. So workers are pivotal in change
initiatives.
Providing a space for practitioners to
reflect on and make sense of their own
practice experiences is:
- key to improving services
- important for professional learning.
- beneficial for team building colleagues
- informs systems change

20. Where can we build in opportunities for dialogue and learning
with young people in our services and organisations?
• What autonomy do practitioners have to listen and respond on an
everyday basis to young people? • What spaces exist for teams to reflect on practice together
• What systems exist for management to continually learn from practice
with young people?
• Where are the opportunities for practitioners and young people to
engage in dialogue and learning with managers and service leads?
• What are the implications for professional relationships with young
people?
• Practitioners need the opportunity to explore how participation relates
to what they do so as to enmesh participation into service provision
Need a network of structures and systems but also a culture and
ethos of learning & reflection amongst staff and with young
people

21. Examples of embedding participation:
Mind the Gap!: Creating spaces for Policy learning
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Exploring young people’s health needs
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according to their own terms
Youth peer research
Day workshop (67 young people/ 34 adults )
Cross sector representation
Started from young people’s experiences
not policy
Action inquiry approach
Emphasis on dialogue (young people/adults)
Challenged assumptions about young
people’s health needs
Used to inform future policy
Identified alternative policy focus
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23. Evaluation: Case Study : The Youth Inspection Team ‘Check It
Out’ (South Tyneside)
Consists of 12 young people.
Joint initiative with neighbouring authorities
Inspections undertaken of youth service projects.
Young people decide which inspections to carry out
Projects given one weeks notice.
Young people provide grading according to 5 levels
of award
Written report discussed with centre manager
Manager has two weeks to respond.
Return visit of inspection team 2 months later
Strategic issues can be taken up further with
City Departments

24. Children in Care Councils Evaluation: Participatory
workshop with young people, practitioners, managers and councillors
Reflection and inquiry in
response to learning from
evaluation to inform decisions
about how to enhance
effectiveness of participation

25. Young people as change agents
through community based action
research
• Ambassadors of change
• Young people delivering sexual health
education
• Community education: Research
/campaigns to promote sustainable
shopping
• ‘Don’t judge me until you know me’
Campaign (Devon)
• Young volunteers (Turkey) – action
to improve neighbourhood
• Community Research – GUIC &
Child reporters of Orissa
• Peer educators: Child-to-child; &
Promotores (Nicaragua)

26. What are we learning about what
Children’s Participation means?
Accessing, taking part, engaging in activities/services/opportunities
Consultation /expressing a view is just one element of a participatory
process.
Ultimately participation is about exercising power and influence over
issues (that effect you but also of collective importance)
Participation involves engaging in relation to the world around you – is
therefore necessarily relational, involving shared processes ((inter)action,
dialogue, learning, decision-making, etc)
Young people engaged in actions/delivering services
Participation can also involve autonomous action and self determination
according to their own agenda (the world is not shaped just by professionals!)

27. Revised framework for assessing good practice in children’s
participation
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Revised framework for assessing good practice in children’s participation
Inclusive - All children have an opportunity to actively participate (i.e. not exclusive)
Participation is informed and transparent
Children’s contribution is valued, respected and taken seriously
Children have the opportunity to influence the agenda and/or initiate the agenda
Participation is voluntary
Context and approaches are appropriate and child friendly according to the age and maturity of the child.
Opportunities for learning (adult and children) are built into the participation process
Active roles in all phases of decision making cycle, not just expressing a view
- Inquiry and analysis (Exploring/researching issues and synthesising results)
- Involves discussion and reflection
- Developing / communicating proposals for action/change
Monitoring and evaluation
Is meaningful and relevant for participants (children fully aware of the context of their participation and have a common
vision /sense of ownership and commitment)
Children’s contributions are confidential and free from risk
Increases awareness/builds social capital/empowers children
Children get support, training and resources where needed
Involves dialogue/collaboration with adults
Outcomes/change happens - (Policy /practice impact; and / or Benefits for children/community)
Possibility for children taking action/implementing solutions
On-going /sustainable (beyond project), not a one off event.
Children’s participation is linked to wider civic and/or organisational decision making
Systems and culture of learning and change exist in response to children’s participation

28. • Children and young people’s participation
learning network
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/ChildParticipationNetwork.html
(to subscribe)
For help with developing (children’s)
participation in your research, service or
organisation contact:
barry.percy-smith@uwe.ac.uk