Chapter 9
Youth participation in the UK
Bureaucratic disaster or triumph
of child rights?
Emily Middleton
You can’t ignore children any longer and get away with it.
Stephen Lewis, Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, 1999
Youth participation is about giving children and young people (usually up
to the age of 18) the opportunity to express their views on aspects of life
that affect them, and to use these opinions to inform and influence
decision-making. Youth participation has many forms, from school councils
to youth forums, from young board members to surveys. I have chosen to
discuss youth participation in the UK as I have been involved in several
youth participation projects, and wanted to find out more about the history,
methods and potential of involving young people. I want to go further than
this, however, and ask: how effective is youth participation in the UK? There
are many reports dedicated to why and how to develop youth participation,
but very few evaluating the extent of its impact. I have looked at a
wide variety of websites, articles, reports and research regarding youth
participation. […]
The chapter begins with an outline of the history of the development of youth
participation in the UK over the last 15 years. Emily Middleton, who wrote this
article as a young person involved in youth participation explores its use by the
government, as well as the methods various charities and other organizations
use to involve children and young people in their work, on both local and
national levels. The impact of youth participation on decision-making is assessed
and the problems facing youth participation are also considered, with a
particular emphasis on the issue of tokenism.
Rix, J., Nind, M., Sheehy, K., Simmons, K., & Walsh, C. (Eds.). (2010). Equality, participation and inclusion 1 : Diverse perspectives :
diverse perspectives. ProQuest Ebook Central Created from uel on 2021-03-19 04:46:22.
Copyright © 2010. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.
Youth participation in the UK 107
History of youth participation in the UK
The widespread participation of children and young people in decisionmaking is a relatively new phenomenon. Arguably, youth participation in
public decision-making was triggered by the United Nations Convention on
the Rights of the Child (1989) in which Article 12 clearly states that children
and young people should have their opinions taken into account in all major
decisions affecting their lives. Stephen Lewis, then the Deputy Executive
Director of UNICEF, argued at the Commission on Human Rights in 1999
that in fact the UN Convention’s most impressive effect was the wider
inclusion of children and young people in decision-making:
The most powerful change wrought by the Convention is the way
in which children have become visible. Politicians, media, NGOs
(non-governmental organizations) and broader civil society feel a
clear obligation to include children in their respective public domains,
interventions, dialogues, debates, mandates.
(Lewis 1999)
Indeed, the period between 1989 and 1991 (when the UK government
ratified the Convention) saw the beginnings of youth participation within
several organizations. Katherine Harding of Save the Children told me: “Save
the Children’s project work in the area of participation has only had real
emphasis since the late [19]80s.” Since then, in the words of Katherine
Harding, youth participation in Britain has been a “slow, evolutionary
process.” However, it now appears to be fairly well established in the UK
that anyone with anything to do with children and young people should
consult them:
There has been a shift in thinking where participation of young people
from being of marginal concern has now become a central issue for
organizations working with young people.
(“Child and Youth Participation,” www.article13.com, accessed
on 1 June 2010)
In the last seven years, the participation of children and young people has
been included in seven separate pieces of legislation in the United Kingdom,
ranging from the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to the Children Act 2004.
The involvement of young people in the government’s work has been
Rix, J., Nind, M., Sheehy, K., Simmons, K., & Walsh, C. (Eds.). (2010). Equality, participation and inclusion 1 : Diverse perspectives :
diverse perspectives. ProQuest Ebook Central Created from uel on 2021-03-19 04:46:22.
Copyright © 2010. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.
108 Emily Middleton
particularly important since 2001, however, when the European Youth White
Paper stated a “Common Objective of more Youth Participation.” The
Department for Education and Skills (DfES) completed a report on the UK’s
progress on this objective in 2005. Another example of the UK government’s
commitment to youth participation was the guidance on pupil participation
that was published for schools and local education authorities in 2004
entitled, “Working Together: Giving Children and Young People a Say.”
Youth participation in practice
When I asked the Rt Hon Beverley Hughes MP (the then newly appointed
Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families) why it was
important to involve children and young people in the work of the
Department for Education and Skills, she replied that it is
vitally important—essential, in fact—that we involve children and young
people directly in the work of Df ES, consult them about our proposals
… the decisions we take should be informed by the views of children
and young people themselves.
These are fine, honorable sentiments, but does it actually happen in practice?
Is the government’s use of youth participation effective?
So far my limited experience has been fairly constructive. For example, the
department seems to be working hard to obtain the responses of as many
young people as possible to the youth Green Paper, Youth Matters, which
was published in the summer of 2005. However, one young person I spoke
to who had been on the Board last year said:
The actual policy work we were told we were impacting on was actually
decided way in advance to the Board’s August start. I think we were just
there to be Df ES skivvies.
Such a response is far from positive, and suggests a complete waste of the
time of the young people involved as well as the DfES.
It is not just the UK government that has become increasingly active in the
area of youth participation. According to a report published by the National
Youth Agency in 2004, around 80 per cent of both statutory and voluntary
sector organizations currently involve young people in decision-making.
Youth-controlled wings of children’s charities are becoming increasingly
common, many of which contain a “young advisory group” made up of
young people. One of the first was started by the National Children’s
Rix, J., Nind, M., Sheehy, K., Simmons, K., & Walsh, C. (Eds.). (2010). Equality, participation and inclusion 1 : Diverse perspectives :
diverse perspectives. ProQuest Ebook Central Created from uel on 2021-03-19 04:46:22.
Copyright © 2010. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.
Youth participation in the UK 109
Bureau (NCB). It took the lead by establishing Young NCB in 1999, which
encourages young people to voice their opinions, and works hard to make
sure the right people hear those opinions and take note of them.
But why use up valuable resources in establishing youth-led offshoots in
the first place? Lucy Morris, who is currently in charge of Young NCB, told
me it was
with the aim of making sure that NCB practices what it preaches in our
second mission which is to “work with children and young people to
ensure that they are involved in all matters that affect their lives.”
NCB’s motive to set up Young NCB may also lie in its mission statement,
which states that “NCB promotes the voices … of all children and young
people across every aspect of their lives.”
This may well be the incentive behind similar projects that have been set
up by other children’s charities such as UNICEF, Save the Children and the
Children’s Rights Alliance for England; in the words of a report published by
Save the Children:
an organization that seeks to promote and speak on behalf of the rights
of children needs to be directly accountable to children themselves.
(Lansdown 2003, 5)
Some independent organizations have been set up specifically to encourage
young people to participate in local and national decision-making. One such
organization is the UK Youth Parliament, which was formed in 2001. Its aim
is that
by 2006 young people in the UK will be aware that they have their own
Youth Parliament, and that … they have the right to vote for an MYP,
and the right to stand as an MYP if they so wish.
(UK Youth Parliament website)
More unusual, however, is the practice of appointing young people on adult
Boards of Management and including them within other meetings designed
for adults rather than for children. This form of youth participation has been
relatively recent. The research paper Participation in Our Village found that
children and young people responded well when meetings were
organized specifically for them … but less well when they were asked to
attend meetings designed for adults.
(Forum for Rural Young People and Children 2005, 10)
Rix, J., Nind, M., Sheehy, K., Simmons, K., & Walsh, C. (Eds.). (2010). Equality, participation and inclusion 1 : Diverse perspectives :
diverse perspectives. ProQuest Ebook Central Created from uel on 2021-03-19 04:46:22.
Copyright © 2010. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.
110 Emily Middleton
There are, in my opinion, only two possible solutions to this problem: not
inviting children to “adult” meetings, or altering the meetings to make them
more child-friendly. In the early days of young people being included in
NCB’s Board of Management, the young members asked for lunch to be
longer and earlier in the meeting, and for there to be a break later on.
The necessary amendments were made, with the result that more than a
few adult Board members thanked the young Board members and said
that they had wanted a break but did not know how to ask for one. So
it seems that in making meetings more child-friendly, they can be made
more adult-friendly, too.
Yet apart from increasing the number of breaks, do young people actually
have an impact on the decisions an adult Board or meeting makes? I have sat
as a young member on NCB’s Board of Management for almost a year and
can report that in this particular organization, young people do have an
impact—probably because our suggestions are taken seriously and we have
sufficient support. As part of a discussion on NCB’s policy on healthy school
meals, for example, we reminded the Board of the importance of having
unhealthy as well as healthy options in schools: we argued that healthy eating
education is useless when adults do not trust pupils to put this knowledge
into practice. As a result, NCB’s policy position (which is referred to by
many different professionals and organizations within the children’s services
sector) was altered accordingly.
The Children’s Rights Alliance for England is looking to go a step further,
however, and make some young people full trustees on its Board of
Management. This would carry a legal and financial burden on the young
people involved. Is this one step too far on the road to comprehensive youth
participation? It is rarely acknowledged by youth participation reports that
knowing where to draw the line is essential. In my opinion, youth
participation is all about involving young people in the decision-making
process, whether in schools, government or organizations, and using their
opinions to help improve services and enhance the decisions that are made.
Allowing children to assume responsibility for their own advisory groups and
projects is an important part of this, but any financial responsibilities, I would
argue, are beyond the remit of youth participation.
Effective change?
In recent years, local youth participation has grown considerably in the
UK, with more opportunities for young people to have a voice in their
local communities than ever before. Indeed, many local authorities and city
Rix, J., Nind, M., Sheehy, K., Simmons, K., & Walsh, C. (Eds.). (2010). Equality, participation and inclusion 1 : Diverse perspectives :
diverse perspectives. ProQuest Ebook Central Created from uel on 2021-03-19 04:46:22.
Copyright © 2010. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.
Youth participation in the UK 111
councils have made commitments to encourage youth participation, such as
the following statement made by Gloucester City Council:
The City Council: upholds the right of young people to participate in
decisions about public services that affect them…[and] encourages and
supports the involvement of young people in the planning, delivery and
evaluation of city council services.
(2002)
The achievements of local youth participation initiatives vary greatly, but
some of the more successful results include a new bus service for young
people in Chideok, Dorset and setting up a local youth club in Halgate ward,
Cumbria (Forum for Rural Young People and Children 2005).
Youth councils, also known as youth forums, are one of the most popular
forms of local youth participation. Many such groups provide focused,
directed discussion as to how to improve their local area. The Wiltshire
Agenda for Youth, for example, comprised of 22 elected young people from
across the county, recently published an “Agenda for Action.”
Under their policy promises, many local authorities should be supporting
and nurturing such groups—yet the British Youth Council (BYC) reports
that among their network (which comprises over 500 youth councils
from across the UK) “only 16 percent of youth councils have some form
of staff support.” In my opinion this is clearly not good enough. After all,
the UK government’s green paper Every Child Matters, published in 2003,
asserted:
Real service improvement is only attainable through involving children
and young people and listening to their views.
(10)
Local government in the UK is, with a few honorable exceptions, failing to
recognize and support the young people who are trying to make a difference
and setting up their own forums for debate. (BYC claims that the majority of
youth councils are established by young people.) BYC cites “limited
resources including staff, funding and appropriate expertise” as a major
problem that limits the effectiveness of youth councils today.
Encouragingly, youth participation is undoubtedly on the increase—one
report states that around eight out of ten respondents whose organizations
involved young people said “that the amount of work they did to involve
young people in decision-making had increased over the past four years”
Rix, J., Nind, M., Sheehy, K., Simmons, K., & Walsh, C. (Eds.). (2010). Equality, participation and inclusion 1 : Diverse perspectives :
diverse perspectives. ProQuest Ebook Central Created from uel on 2021-03-19 04:46:22.
Copyright © 2010. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.
112 Emily Middleton
(Oldfield with Fowler 2004, 3). The research report Building a Culture of
Participation agrees:
Increasingly, acceptance of the principle of children’s involvement is
being turned into practice through a variety of participation activities
across a range of organizations.
(Kirby with Lanyon, Cronin and Sinclair 2003, 3)
But is this increase of youth participation doing anyone any good? Are young
people actually influencing decisions more than they used to or, as an article
on the Carnegie Young People Initiative’s (CYPI) website asks: “Will
participation be another case of organizations ticking boxes but not
fundamentally reforming?” The latter suggestion is an unhappy possibility.
Governmental organizations certainly feel pressured to meet the targets set
by the government in the area of youth participation. One young person I
spoke to complained about the “restrictions and targets ridiculously imposed
by the government.” The CYPI report Measuring the Magic? talked about
bureaucracy as one of the “barriers to involving young people in area-wide
strategic planning” (Kirby with Bryson 2002, 6). Although targets might fuel
local authorities into setting up more youth participation projects, they are
not sufficient to encourage good practice.
Dangerously, the practice of ticking bureaucratic boxes can manifest itself
in “tokenism”: asking young people for their opinions but failing to ask
enough young people to make a significant impact, or failing to act upon
their opinions or take them very seriously. I heard one young person speak
about a conference he attended a few years ago, organized by Margaret
Hodge (who was at the time Minister of State for Children, Young People
and Families). He said that one young person had angrily asked the Minister,
“Why have you invited us here? … To tick boxes on bits of government
paper?” This incident highlights the dangers of tokenism at any level: the
young people involved can feel mistreated and under-valued as a result.
There is substantial evidence that good participatory work benefits the
participating young people, but that token involvement may not.
(Kirby with Bryson 2002, 6)
Another young person with whom I spoke told me, “tokenism is a very
big problem today and I think it will be for months, if not years to come.”
At a conference at which I spoke on the youth green paper Youth Matters,
one young person asked at the end of our presentation, “Don’t you think
that only inviting four young people to speak at this conference is a bit
Rix, J., Nind, M., Sheehy, K., Simmons, K., & Walsh, C. (Eds.). (2010). Equality, participation and inclusion 1 : Diverse perspectives :
diverse perspectives. ProQuest Ebook Central Created from uel on 2021-03-19 04:46:22.
Copyright © 2010. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.
Youth participation in the UK 113
tokenistic?” He had a point. Out of numerous speakers on panels and in
presentations throughout the day, just four were young people, and only
three of them were in the 13–19 age range on which the green paper was
focused. On the other hand, inviting young people to speak would have been
unlikely to happen at all ten years ago.
It seems that an optimum level needs to be found for youth participation
within events designed primarily for adults. Involving too many young
people could prove impractical, but when young people are the subject
matter, they should undoubtedly be involved. One youth worker told
me proudly that a conference she was organizing would be attended by
25 young people—25 per cent of the total number of attendees. She
had good reason to be pleased with this figure: it certainly surpassed the
percentage of young people at the conference on the youth green paper
that I attended.
Nevertheless, despite increased levels of involvement, the question of
effectiveness should not be ignored. Are young people influencing decisions
more than they used to? Unfortunately, some recent reports suggest that in
general they are not. One report stated:
the evidence from existing evaluations is that they [young people] are
still having little impact on public decision making.
(Kirby with Bryson 2002, 5)
Significantly, the report continues, “although this varies across contexts and
between different types of organizations.” It is in the latter extract that hope
for successful youth participation can be found. A report by Save the
Children stated:
Children’s participation within the organization has challenged some of
the assumptions which underlie the organization’s policies and thinking.
(Lansdown 2003, 14)
One can only imagine what far-reaching consequences such an effect may
have. It seems that the effectiveness of youth participation varies widely
across different projects, but the fact that it can sometimes produce impressive
results gives children and professionals alike a target at which to aim.
However, as asserted by an article on the Carnegie Young People’s
Initiative website, “there remains the danger that young people’s participation
will become yet another glossy policy which will be quickly forgotten.”
Admittedly, there is a long way to go before the ideals of the “glossy policy”
produce impressive results across the board.
Rix, J., Nind, M., Sheehy, K., Simmons, K., & Walsh, C. (Eds.). (2010). Equality, participation and inclusion 1 : Diverse perspectives :
diverse perspectives. ProQuest Ebook Central Created from uel on 2021-03-19 04:46:22.
Copyright © 2010. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.
114 Emily Middleton
Future directions for youth participation
in the UK
Having considered the evidence of numerous projects, reports and accounts,
the following are the issues that I believe need to be addressed in order to
develop youth participation over the coming years.
First, organizations outside the children’s services sector need to embrace
youth participation and use it to inform decisions that affect young people.
The National Health Service (NHS), for example, is increasing their use of
youth participation. In the Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, for instance,
there is now a young person on the Board of Governors. More institutions
as well as non-governmental organizations need to make youth participation
a matter of course.
Second, the quality of youth participation needs to be improved. One
young person said that, in his experience, “local Youth Community Services
are over-stretched and under-resourced.” Youth participation can only
improve in local areas if more money and qualified staff become available.
More resources and support for young people would also help to tackle the
unintentional practice of tokenism. Youth participation would be more
successful more often if the following were established:
definite aims and outcomes, clarity about the basis on which children
and young people are involved, and ensuring that children and young
people have the support they need.
(Oldfield with Fowler 2004, 5)
The development of a major new website will help foster these aims: www.
participationworks.org.uk will become the centre for sharing good practice
in the UK.
Third, youth participation needs to become more popular among young
people themselves. The report Measuring the Magic? admitted “only a
minority of young people get involved in public decision making” (Kirby
with Bryson 2002, 5). The opportunities available and the possible benefits
for young people need to be more widely advertised (a hopeful outcome of
more resources being put into local projects). Youth participation also needs
to become more accessible by bringing opportunities to young people rather
than expecting them to find out about them, and also through using
alternative methods such as “music, drama and dance to engage with young
people” (Lucy Morris, NCB). If the opinions gained from young people
become more representative of young people as a whole, perhaps they will
be better listened to.
Rix, J., Nind, M., Sheehy, K., Simmons, K., & Walsh, C. (Eds.). (2010). Equality, participation and inclusion 1 : Diverse perspectives :
diverse perspectives. ProQuest Ebook Central Created from uel on 2021-03-19 04:46:22.
Copyright © 2010. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.
Youth participation in the UK 115
Conclusion
It is imperative that society does not give up on youth participation, however
hopeless or ineffective it can seem at times. On the whole, the benefits of
involving young people in decision-making outweigh the problems. It is
important to remember that the involvement of young people in decisionmaking at a strategic level has only really got underway in the last five years
in the UK: think what can be achieved in another five. […]
References
British Youth Council (2005) The Youth Green Paper Strong Local Voices: BYC’s Vision for
Building a Vibrant Network of Local Youth Councils, London: British Youth Council.
‘Child and Youth Participation.’ Available from http://www.article13.com/A13_ContentList.
asp?strAction=GetPublication&PNID=713 (accessed on 1 June 2010).
Department for Education and Skills (2004) Listening to Learn 2004: How the Department for
Education and Skills involves children and young people in its work, London: Department for
Education and Skills.
Forum for Rural Children and Young People (2005) Participation in Our Village: Involving
Children and Young People in the Development of Parish and Town Plans, London: National
Children’s Bureau.
Gloucester City Council (2002) Youth Participation Policy, Gloucester: Gloucester City
Council.
Harnett, Robert (2003) Peer Advocacy for Children and Young People, Highlight no. 202,
London: National Children’s Bureau.
HM Government (2003) Every Child Matters, London: The Stationery Office on behalf of
HM Government.
HM Government (2004) Every Child Matters: Change for Children, London: The Stationery
Office on behalf of HM Government.
HM Government (2005)Youth Matters. London: The Stationery Office on behalf of HM
Government.Youth Participation in the UK: Bureaucratic Disaster or Triumph of Child
Rights? 189.
Kirby, Perpetua with Sara Bryson (2002) Measuring the Magic? Evaluating and Researching
Young People’s Participation in Public Decision Making, London: Carnegie Young People
Initiative.
Kirby, Perpetua with Claire Lanyon, Kathleen Cronin and Ruth Sinclair (2003) Building a
Culture of Participation, London: Department for Education and Skills.
Lansdown, Gerison (2003) Involvement of Children and Young People in Shaping the Work of Save
the Children, London: Save the Children UK.
Lewis, Stephen (1999) Commission on Human Rights press release HR/CN 912, 14 April.
Oldfield, Carolyn with Clare Fowler (2004) Mapping Children and Young People’s Participation
in England, London: Department for Education and Skills.
Save the Children (2005). Practice Standards in Children’s Participation, London: Save the
Children UK.
Rix, J., Nind, M., Sheehy, K., Simmons, K., & Walsh, C. (Eds.). (2010). Equality, participation and inclusion 1 : Diverse perspectives :
diverse perspectives. ProQuest Ebook Central Created from uel on 2021-03-19 04:46:22.
Copyright © 2010. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.
116 Emily Middleton
Examining the future of youth participation in the UK, the chapter concludes
that organizations outside the children’s services sector need to embrace youth
participation and the quality of youth participation should be improved. The
chapter asserts that youth participation needs to become more popular among
young people and would benefi t from a wider range of young people being
involved.
Rix, J., Nind, M., Sheehy, K., Simmons, K., & Walsh, C. (Eds.). (2010). Equality, participation and inclusion 1 : Diverse perspectives :
diverse perspectives. ProQuest Ebook Central Created from uel on 2021-03-19 04:46:22.
Copyright © 2010. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.
Part 3
Looking from within
Barriers and opportunities
Rix, J., Nind, M., Sheehy, K., Simmons, K., & Walsh, C. (Eds.). (2010). Equality, participation and inclusion 1 : Diverse perspectives :
diverse perspectives. ProQuest Ebook Central Created from uel on 2021-03-19 04:46:22.
Copyright © 2010. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.
Rix, J., Nind, M., Sheehy, K., Simmons, K., & Walsh, C. (Eds.). (2010). Equality, participation and inclusion 1 : Diverse perspectives :
diverse perspectives. ProQuest Ebook Central Created from uel on 2021-03-19 04:46:22.
Copyright © 2010. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.
AssignmentTutorOnline
- Assignment status: Already Solved By Our Experts
- (USA, AUS, UK & CA PhD. Writers)
- CLICK HERE TO GET A PROFESSIONAL WRITER TO WORK ON THIS PAPER AND OTHER SIMILAR PAPERS, GET A NON PLAGIARIZED PAPER FROM OUR EXPERTS
