There was a lot of good feeling from the delegates about how participation is spreading across all sorts of settings, and how it is becoming more commonplace for young people's views to be taken into account.
But I also picked up feelings of frustration from some of the delegates.
Many talked of having to constantly battle with colleagues and external partners to promote the views of children and young people, for example reminding people in meetings that children and young people might have quite useful, important and valuable views about the leisure centre being built in their area.
In most cases participation workers are on short-term contracts, struggling every year as March approaches to continue with their normal workload while searching for new funding. A lot of participation workers are employed by local authorities or voluntary organisations who rely on short-term funding.
Participation work must be supported and prioritised in the long term in order for it to really bring about change.
Young people rely on participation workers to be effective at building up and nurturing those all-important relationships with senior colleagues and decision-makers. When participation posts are short term and insecure, it is only too easy for others to make excuses for why they are letting the participation of children and young people slip.
At the conference the network launched a DVD called They help you get respect. The "they" in question are participation workers, who young people on film described in glowing terms - "creative and inspirational", "open to all opinions", "willing to listen and learn" and "patient" were just some of the tributes.
Young people in the DVD also talk about having their voices heard. One boy believes "it is a form of rudeness" not to be listened to.
The leaflet accompanying the DVD talks about the skills and qualities necessary to be an effective participation worker, such as diplomacy and negotiation, talents that are all too useful in power struggles globally.
It's time adults followed the example of young people, and valued their participation worker.
- Got something to say in Soapbox? steve.barrett@haynet.com or 020 8267 4707.
