Involvement and Participation
There are so many opportunities for children and young people to take an active part in shaping where they live, the services they use and the running of local and national organisations. They have a right to be involved in the decisions that affect them. Their participation is essential to improve services and respond to their needs (Hear by Right)
At its simplest, participation can mean ‘the act of taking part'. For children and young people, participation typically refers to their opportunity to express themselves on decisions affecting them. This could be in individual decisions (such as where a child goes to school) or ‘public' or ‘collective' decision-making (such as a steering group for a youth service or involvement in a government consultation or commissioning).
Children and young people also participate on their own terms, without adult decision-making structures, for example in terms of decisions about what they do and where they go in their free time.
Children's and young people's involvement in decisions that affect them has become a key policy principle in the UK - and internationally, through the work of non-governmental organisations and the United Nations - and has increasingly permeated practice.
Acceptance of the principle of children's involvement is being turned into practice through a variety of participation activities across a range of organisations.
This page pulls together some of these examples of involving children and young people, and is a place for you to add your resources and examples to share with others.
The Eastern Region Involvement and Participation Compendium on the right contains useful documents and examples of good practice categorised by county, the Eastern region, and national resources. The resources are also searchable by age group: pre-school, school age and adolescence.
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