The consultation was actively geared towards engaging with children and young people: a youth-friendly questionnaire and specific consultation events helped realise education secretary Alan Johnson's vision of "a conversation between Government, the care system, and children and young people".
On the other hand, the Home Office, currently consulting on reforms to the asylum process for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children aged 18 and under, is distinctly reluctant to engage with children. There is no youth-friendly version of the consultation and no intention of creating one.
The Home Office initially said it had no intention of actively consulting young people, although it said they were welcome to comment if they wanted. But under pressure from groups like the Refugee Children's Consortium, it grudgingly conceded that it might engage with a group of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children towards the end of the consultation period.
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