Consultation and Participation

Children's views, wishes and feelings are acted upon, unless this is contrary to their interests or adversely affects other members of the foster care household.

Children understand how their views have been taken into account and where significant wishes or concerns are not acted upon, they are helped to understand why.

Children communicate their views on all aspects of their care and support.

The views of the child, the child's family, social worker and Independent Reviewing Officer  are sought regularly on the child's care (unless in individual cases this is not appropriate).

Children have access to independent advice and support from adults who they can contact directly and in private about problems or concerns, which is appropriate to their age and understanding. Children know their rights to advocacy, how to access an advocate and how to contact The Children's Commissioner for England. Children can take up issues in the most appropriate way with support, without fear that this will result in any adverse consequences. Children receive prompt feedback on any concerns or complaints raised and are kept informed of progress.

The wishes, feelings and views of children and those significant to them are taken into account in monitoring foster carers and developing the fostering service.

Children and young people, including those who communicate non-verbally, should be supported to actively participate in decisions about their lives. They should 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 will 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 and young people can identify a trusted adult who they can talk to about any concerns. They must be confident that adults listen to them, take their concerns seriously and respond appropriately.

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 it is often happening in complex and emotionally charged situations. To be done well it requires a commitment at all levels of an organisation to reflect on and promote:

• Positive attitudes to children;
• Skills at communicating;
• Financial resources;
• Commitment to developing services which support children's participation, such as advocacy and participation services;
• Honest consideration of what expectations are of what can be achieved and what the level of willingness is to change existing services and decisions in response to children's views.

The Agency is committed to ensuring children and young people are consulted and informed about decisions and processes that affect them. The Agency seeks to consider age, identity, diversity, culture, sexual orientation, language, and disability, in all its interactions with both children and adults.

All staff and carers are 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.

Consultation should take place on a regular and frequent basis with those who need to be consulted and assumptions should not be made about the inability or lack of interest of those who should be consulted.

Consultation should be carried out with children in a form they will understand in either their preferred language or an appropriate method of communication. If as a result of the consultation change is not possible or is restricted for whatever reason, steps should be taken to ensure those affected and involved are informed of decisions as soon as practicable after they are made, and an explanation for the decision given. Methods of consultation may include postal surveys, group discussions or exit interviews.

Much has been written on the benefits and barriers to participation of children and 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 one has 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 and 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).

The Agency has a number of 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.

Managers must ensure that staff and carers have the time and resources available to them to ensure the effective participation of children and young people. This includes:

• Using supervision to consider issues relating to the voice of the child in on-going cases;
• Reviewing complaints or concerns raised by children and young people and what actions have been taken to address these;
• Reviewing compliments to build on these;
• Considering how representative issues raised by children and young people are in relation to such issues as gender, culture, sexuality and disability;
• Ensuring processes designed to gather issues raised by stakeholders including children and young people are in place and are routinely being used, reviewed and assessed for their impact;
• Ensuring processes are in place to provide feedback to stakeholders including children and young people what changes have been made and if not why not.

Unless otherwise stated in specific procedures in this manual, it is assumed that people working in this organisation will take reasonable steps to keep their Managers informed of their actions; and will consult and seek their approval where they do not have decision making responsibility delegated to them.

In order to facilitate this, Managers must ensure that effective lines of communication are established and maintained. If procedures in this manual require that Managers are informed within specified timescales or their approval is sought before actions are taken, this must be complied with.

1. Children and young people can be involved in:
   1. Recruitment;
   2. Mentoring;
   3. Training.
2. Looked After Reviews and other Meetings (see Reviews and Meetings 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;
3. 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;
4. Support to children who have communication difficulties;
5. 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 the professionals supporting them  or by using social media applications.