Building a culture of participation

PK Research Consultancy and the National Children's Bureau have researched the most effective ways of involving children and young people in services. A useful handbook has been produced for practitioners, backed up by a research report.

The handbook draws on the findings of a research study that explored the experiences of 29 organisations in seeking to listen to young people and take action on what they said. The research points to this being most likely to succeed where organisations had worked to sustain and embed their participation activity.

The handbook and the accompanying research report both aim to stimulate thinking and provide useful ideas about how to actively involve children and young people within services and policy making.

The handbook focuses on how to listen to children and young people so that their views bring about change. It aims specifically to:

Identify and illustrate the benefits of child and youth participation
Guide organisations in thinking about how to create appropriate environments in which children and young people can be involved in meaningful ways, so that their views are listened to and acted upon
Help organisations explore how they can develop cultures and infrastructures which sustain and embed participation throughout all their activity

Documents

Handbook - Building a Culture of Participation

Research report - Building a Culture of Participation

Learning to listen - Core Principles for the Involvement of Children and Young People