Children's Consultation and Participation

Participation of children and young people in decisions about their lives is an essential part of growing up and, if done well, it enhances children's safety and well-being and improves services designed to support and protect them. In the world of social care participation work often takes place in complex and emotionally charged situations. To be done well it requires a commitment at all levels of the organisation to reflect on and promote:

• Positive attitudes to children;
• Effective communication skills;
• Dedicated financial resources;
• Commitment to developing services which support children's participation, such as advocacy and participation services;
• Realistic expectations and honesty about the level of willingness to change existing services and decisions in response to children's views.

Local authorities actively seek to ensure children and young people are consulted about decisions and processes that affect them. The Munro Review made clear that what is important to children and young people is 'reliability, honesty and continuity'. Barnsley MBC is committed to ensuring that children and young people are informed about what is happening to them and promotes opportunities for them to contribute to what is happening. The aim is to share and practise positive approaches to effective communication and learning through active listening. Barnsley MBC is committed to both speaking and listening clearly, purposefully and honestly with children and young people.

Barnsley MBC seeks to consider identity, diversity, culture, sexual orientation, language, disability, delayed speech, low confidence and trust in all its interactions with both children and adults.

Barnsley MBC also seeks to ensure that children’s views are understood and taken into account as part of ensuring that their rights and entitlements are met.

Children, including those who communicate non-verbally, are supported to actively participate in decisions about their lives. They will be sensitively helped to understand when it may not be possible to act on their wishes and why other action is taken that is in their best interests. Children have access to, and are actively encouraged to involve, an independent advocate and, where appropriate, an independent visitor (see Advocacy and Independent Visitors Procedure).

Children can identify a trusted adult who they can talk to about any concerns, who will listen to them, take their concerns seriously and respond appropriately.

Every member of our staff is committed to seeking and recording the views of every child they work with. They will also record the decisions that are made and the influence that the views of the child/young person have had on those decisions. Where decisions are made that are different from or contrary to the views of the child or young person this will be clearly recorded with the reasons for the decision clearly explained.

In addition, Barnsley MBC will ensure that systems are in place to support formal consultation with young people's groups and will seek to aggregate individual issues and concerns so that managers may consider the impact that current services have on young people. This information may be used to inform future developments.

The Participation of children in Barnsley is supported through:

• Children's Rights Coordinator;
• The Participation Officer;
• The Care 4 Us Council;
• The Independent Visitor Scheme;
• The Barnardo's Advocacy Scheme for children subject to Child Protection Conferences.

Much has been written on the benefits of and barriers to participation by young people in matters that affect them. In brief the benefits for children and young people are:

• Having a safe space to reflect on the events that have brought them into contact with Social Care;
• The opportunity to give their version of what has happened to them and to say what they would like to happen in the future;
• The sense of empowerment that comes from being listened to and seeing what they have said making a difference to what happens;
• The possibility of having their concerns and issues dealt with at an early stage, which could have an immediate impact for them in terms of how they identify their 'quality of life';
• The opportunity to have explained to them what is happening in the present moment and what is likely to happen in the future and what will be done to keep them (and their siblings) safe.

For parents/carers the benefits of children's participation can be:

• The opportunity (perhaps for the first time) to hear their children's views about what has happened and what they want to change;
• A model of communicating that may improve their relationship with their child(ren).

For professionals and organisations offering services to children and young people the benefits can be:

• Reinforcement of a focus on the child's safety and wellbeing;
• A self auditing tool;
• The greater likelihood of effective engagement with the Plan by the child / young person themselves;
• A focus for all professionals to work from.

There are a number of barriers to participation. Broadly speaking these are:

• Structural - complex procedures and lack of clarity about responsibilities; too many changes of personnel;
• A lack of clarity about what participation is or confusion over how it will be addressed; a lack of clarity about what it can and cannot change and what it should deliver for the child, the family and the organisation;
• Competence - staff lacking in experience or having an inability to effectively communicate with children, or children of a particular age or from a particular culture;
• Capacity - a lack of time (e.g. staff too overwhelmed by other pressures)or other resources required to enable participation, thus 'rushing' or making it a 'box ticking' exercise;
• Inadequate plans that fail to be clear about who will be responsible for ensuring participation;
• Children's behaviour - can be misinterpreted and sometimes causes a barrier for professionals and carers. Those seeking to engage often need a variety of tools / methods and patience / space to deal with this to promote engagement;
• Children themselves can become disinterested and disengaged because of delays;
• Children are far more spontaneous and their timescales are far shorter;
• Professionals need to ensure that children have a variety of times, people, places and approaches to participation available to them (i.e. seeing children on their own, allowing time after traumatic events).

Barnsley MBC has a number of formal processes for seeking the participation and consultation of children and young people. Staff, carers, managers and others who come into contact with children are encouraged and enabled to see each and every interaction as a potential opportunity to develop trust and confidence such that children and young people feel able to confide and state their views and preferences in matters that affect them.

The most important means of encouraging and enabling participation by Children in Care in decisions that affect them and their lives remains the relationship with their Social Worker and other significant professionals and adults in their lives.

Enabling children and young people who have not previously had opportunities to express their views is demanding and can be challenging work that requires creativity, empathy and resilience on the part of the worker. Consultations need to be planned for, reflected on and, if necessary, returned to in order that children and young people are given every opportunity to express their views.

In order for them to express views about matters that affect them it is also vital that children and young people are in possession of information and have experiences that enable them to make informed choices.

If participation is not possible or is restricted for whatever reason, steps should be taken to ensure those affected are informed of decisions as soon as practicable after they are made, and an explanation for the decision taken, together with the opportunity to make a comment and express their views.

If it is then felt that a different decision may have been appropriate, steps should be taken to reconsider the decision.

If decisions are made against people's wishes, they should be informed of the decision and the reasons for the decision should be explained. In these circumstances, the person should be informed of any rights they have to formally challenge the decision, and of the availability of the Complaints Procedure (see Complaints and Representations Procedure).

Sometimes children and young people express their preferences through their behaviour rather than through words i.e. by running away or by having tantrums. It is important to attempt to see beyond the behaviour and to try to understand what the child or young person is trying to express. (Note: that where children have returned home from having run away, the 'return' interviews should be conducted by a trained and independent person.

For the procedures relating to children who go missing please see the Barnsley Safeguarding Children Partnership Child Protection Policies and Procedures.

Finally, children and young people should be made aware of the systems and processes available to them if they wish to raise concerns or complain and what, if any, other forms of redress may be available to them if things go wrong.

Managers must ensure that social workers and/or staff have the time and resources available to them to ensure the effective participation of children and young people.

Managers should:

• Use supervision to consider issues relating to the Voice of the Child in ongoing cases;
• Check that records show where and how the Voice of the Child has been sought, what was said and how the child's wishes have been responded to and, if not, why not;
• Review, on a regular basis, the various methodologies whereby children's views are sought;
• Review complaints or concerns raised by children and young people and what actions have been taken to address these;
• Review compliments to build on this;
• Consider how representative issues raised by children and young people are in relation to such issues as gender, culture, sexuality and disability;
• Ensure processes designed to aggregate issues raised by children and young people are in place and are routinely being used;
• Ensure processes are in place whereby it can be fed back to both individual children and the wider group what changes have been made as a result of issues raised.

A core responsibility of the Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) with regard to Children in Care is to "ensure that any ascertained wishes and feelings of the child concerning the case are given due consideration by the appropriate authority". In order to achieve this, the IRO will contact the child before their review to ensure that the young person's views are fully understood and considered. The IRO will refer a child to the Advocacy Service and/or Independent Visitors scheme when necessary. The IRO will support the child's understanding and involvement with the Care 4 Us Council and ensure that the child has an understanding of the Barnsley MBC Pledge.

1. Children and young people can be involved in the development of services through the Care 4 Us Council. The Care 4 Us Council enables Children in Care in Barnsley to meet and discuss what is important to them and affects their lives. The Council will meet the senior managers, elected members and others that make the decisions that can impact on their lives and are responsible for their care as a Corporate Parent;
2. The Participation Officer within the Integrated Youth Service supports the development and work of the Care 4 Us Council including promoting the involvement and representation of Children in Care in the Care 4 Us Council. The Participation Officer ensures good communication between the Council and the Corporate Parenting Panel;
   
   
3. The Barnsley MBC Corporate Parenting Panel is the means by which the Authority fulfils its corporate parenting role. The Panel consist of elected members, senior management, carers and partner agencies. The Panel is charged with acting as a 'pushy parent' on behalf of the Council's Children in Care. This involves challenging the authority and partner agencies to improve the effectiveness of services to children in care and determine better outcomes;
   
   
4. Children in Care can request advocate to support them. The Children's Rights Coordinator within the Integrated Youth Support Service will act in the capacity of advocate for all Children in Care who require an advocacy service;
   
   
5. Children and young people can also be involved in:
   1. Recruitment;
   2. Mentoring;
   3. Training.
      
      
6. Looked After Reviews and other Meetings (see Looked After Reviews Procedure).
   
   Every Review and/or meeting relating to a child's case is an opportunity for children and young people to participate in their Care Plan and arrangements;
   
   
7. Advocacy and Independent Visitors (see Advocacy and Independent Visitors Procedure).
   
   Advocates and Independent Visitors support and assist children and young people to participate in the services offered;
   
   
8. Support to children who have communication difficulties see also Children and Young People Aged 0-25 with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Procedure.
   
   Support and specialist services to children who have communication difficulties will always be offered. For children for whom English is not their first language a translator should be considered to enable the child to contribute. For children with communication difficulties as a result of physical or learning disabilities people who can use whatever medium of communication is most helpful to the child will be used;
   
   
9. The Barnardos' Advocacy Service will provide advocacy for all children aged over 11 years who are subject to an initial or review child protection conference;
   
   
10. Social media.
    
    Increasingly children and young people are becoming confident users of social media such as Facebook, texting, Twitter and other apps. We see this as an opportunity for enabling children and young people to participate in decisions about their life whether by texting their IRO or by using social media applications.

Barnsley MBC as a corporate parent is determined, like all parents, to achieve the best for their children. Barnsley MBC is committed to being a good corporate parent and to improve outcomes for all Children in Care. In order to ensure that Children in Care have an understanding of how Barnsley MBC as a corporate parent will support them to achieve the best possible outcomes a Pledge has been determined (see Barnsley MBC website - Our Pledge to Children in Care). The development of the Pledge involved Children in Care.

The Pledge determines how Barnsley will:

• Place Children in Care in a safe and caring home;
• Promote, support, and respect the child's identity;
• Ensure that the child receives a good education;
• Support the child to be to be healthy;
• Prepare the child for adulthood;
• Involve the child in all decisions taking into account their views.