Participation is the process by which children and young people influence decision making which brings about change in them, others, their service and their communities.

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. This is recognised and promoted in law, policy and guidance: the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Every Child Matters, the Children Act 2004, Youth Matters, Children’s Trusts and inspections, especially Joint Area Reviews.

Standards are crucial to help assess what has been achieved - public and measurable promises to reach a level of activity or service. They need to be a catalyst for action: mapping, planning and evaluating change. Hear by Right offers tried and tested standards about participation. They work for organisations across the statutory and voluntary sector to assess and improve practice and policy on the active involvement of children and young people. The Hear by Right mapping and planning tool is key to making sure these standards prompt planning to improve the quality of participation and services delivered. It is then vital to recognise and record what has changed for children and young people themselves through listening and responding to them.

Participation of children and young people is about achieveing change. The National Youth Agency has a number of tools that when used in partnership are a power combination for change being achieved as a direct involvement of young people in the decision making process.  The Act by Right tool equips young people with the skills and knowlege to campaign and achieve change in their local communities.  For more information on this, please follow this link.

Why involve children and young people?

Five reasons for active involvement:

1. Children and young people’s voice and influence will lead to significant changes for them and the wider community.
2. Services will be more effective, better targeted and received. This saves money.
3. The health of our democratic community depends on the active involvement of children and young people.
4. Local and national policies encourage and require it and our performance will be evaluated on how well we do this.
5. The involvement of children and young people is a key to gaining funding and sustaining developments.

And it is children and young people’s right to be involved in the decisions that affect them (Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, or UNCRC). Of course, children and young people also have the right not to get involved if they wish......

'Fundamentally, our aim is not to stop until children and young people’s participation becomes a routine, unremarkable part of daily life,’ said one local authority councillor.

When one service asked what roles children and young people could not do assuming he necessary training, support and information the answer was ‘none’. In practice, how hey get involved can vary enormously and is often thought of by using the ladder of participation by Roger Hart. This has eight rungs, climbing from manipulation, through adult led but sharing decisions, reaching toward children and young people initiating and sharing decisions with adults. The ladder highlights that participation can take various forms and different degrees depending on a range of factors. It offers both a gauge to the nature of involvement and a guide guide to how its quality might be improved.