Participation in Action: How the Royal College gains youthful insight on health

The 15 members, aged from 12 to 18, are recruited from across the UK and serve for three years, campaigning locally and helping the college in its national role of scrutinising and developing health policy.

Bharti Mepani, children and young people's participation and advocacy manager at the RCPCH describes the panel as invaluable. "They give us more of a real-life perspective," she says. "It is easier to get caught up in the policy and theory, so it helps to have that input direct from young people."

Among the panel's most recent projects has been the development of a report on how the participation of children and young people across the NHS can be more effective.

Launched in December 2011, Involving Children and Young People in Health Services is seen as particularly important ahead of changes to the structure of the NHS outlined in the Health and Social Care Bill.

Among its measures, the bill proposes to set up local clinical commissioning groups as well as HealthWatch patient forums. Traditionally, local health participation groups have been dominated by older people and have effectively excluded young people from joining, through poor promotion and arranging meetings in school hours.

Mepani says: "Timing of meetings and access to participation was a big issue for the young people and there was a strong feeling that children and young people cannot continue to be left out."

In compiling the report, three members of the youth panel were invited to a discussion event last September involving around 70 child health professionals. They were also shown drafts of the report to comment on and took part in its launch event in December.

Recruitment under way

Panel members are recruited through local youth panels set up by health trusts, through the college's website or word of mouth from existing members. The search for new recruits is now under way as some of the current cohort are coming to the end of their tenure.

One of the outgoing members is 19-year-old Ravi Mistry, who is now a first year medical degree student and heard about the panel while researching paediatric careers online.

"It has been a really worthwhile experience," he says. "Another part of the work has been helping medical firms ensure their literature and promotion is young-people friendly."

Ravi has also interviewed candidates for senior roles at the college and he was involved in drafting the recent participation report.

He says some health trusts are good at involving young people and wants this good practice to be copied nationwide. "Above all I want to ensure that young people's participation is not tokenistic and that it can make a real difference."