Skills for the Job: Running a youth-led consultation

What is the value of a consultation led by young people?
Allowing young people to lead the agenda can have a number of benefits.

Rather than expecting them to fit into adult structures, the consultation will be much more meaningful to them if they are involved, and a wider range of views are likely to be fed in, reflecting the real experiences and issues that young people face. In turn, this will lead to better outcomes for individual young people as they will be empowered by being part of decision-making and influencing the priorities of your organisation.

It will also lead to better outcomes for organisations conducting consultations, as they will be able to respond to the real issues of stakeholders.

Children and young people can also develop creative solutions about how to make sessions interesting and accessible for other young people.

How do you go about setting one up?
You need to allocate time and resources; be flexible and willing to try new things and adapt how you work. Have a regular contact to provide advice and support to young people, shaping the consultation as needed, and ensure all group members are equally involved in planning and decision-making. This way everyone feels valued and has ownership of the work. Facilitate the group to set their expectations, agenda and outcomes, and identify anything they may require help with.

It is also important to find out as much as you can about the children and young people who are participating in advance, so you know whether additional support is required to ensure the group is inclusive.

It may also be worth thinking about some preparatory work with the young people to address issues such as stereotyping and preconceptions that could affect how they work together and relate to each other.

How do you best involve disengaged or vulnerable children?
Be clear about the difference between inclusion and participation. Inclusion is about the right of all children and young people to access the same opportunities.

Be inclusive in your approach by proactively identifying and removing barriers that prevent certain groups from being involved. Start off not by thinking if you can involve certain groups of children and young people, but how you can involve them.

Use existing networks to contact groups you might not normally engage and talk to children and young people to find out the specific barriers they experience and solutions that work for them.

Provide a range of activities and options to ensure all children and young people can participate.

Also, information is key to children and young people’s participation and inclusion.

Make sure that any information is available in a range of formats to suit the needs of individuals and that children and young people get information when they need it and in the way they need it.

How can you use, and act on, the results?
You can use results of young people’s consultation for a range of purposes, including evidence for research; to campaign to change national or local policy or practice; to develop or commission services; or fundraise for a project.

For example, the Council for Disabled Children’s Young Ambassadors is a national pan-disability group that came together to discuss the issues that affect disabled young people. After mapping and prioritising the issues that were important to them, they developed a campaigning film to challenge attitudes and address stereotyping of disability.

The group presented the film in parliament to a group of MPs and policy-makers and were also involved in a consultation event for the government’s SEND green paper in May 2011.

Pamela Shaw, senior development officer for participation, Council for Disabled Children, National Children’s Bureau

Resources

• Participation Works has developed a “how to” guide on supporting inclusive groups at www.participationworks.org.uk
• The Children’s Society’s disability toolkit is an invaluable website for professionals working in disabled children and young people’s decision-making at sites.childrenssociety.org.uk/disabilitytoolkit
• The Council for Disabled Children has a number of resources about involving disabled children and young people in your work at www.councilfordisabledchildren.org.uk/resources