Process
- Clarify that a consultation actually needs to be done
- Identify what you want to find out about
- Decide on your overall approach to consultation and consider ways of involving children and young people in the process
- Clarify who should be involved in carrying out the consultation and identify roles
- Write out a timeline
- Identify which groups of children and young people you want to consult
- Identify how you will access these children and young people
- Clarify and ethical or confidentiality issues
- Decide on the consultation method/s to use
- Collect and record the information
- Depending on the method chosen analyse the information
- Give feedback to the children and young people
- Present your findings and/or recommendations
- Reflect on the process
- Record aspects of the consultation that worked well and list what you would do differently in the future.
Source: Page10
Re:action Consultation Toolkit: a practical toolkit for consulting with children and young people on policy issues, by Sarah Madden. Save the Children, 2001.
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Why Consult?
It is important to recognise that young people have a right to participate in the key decisions that affect their lives.
It is generally agreed that participation by young people results in tangible benefits for themselves and for the organisations that consult them.
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How does it benefit Young People?
- Skills development - communication, negotiation and teamwork
- Educational experience
- Engenders sense of responsibility for oneself and others
- Often fun and sociable
- Raises self esteem.
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How does it benefit the Organisation?
- Increased knowledge and understanding
- Better placed to make the right decisions
- Better placed to provide the right services.
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What rights do young people have?
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was drawn up in 1989 and gives children and young people under 18 their own special set of rights.
The UNCRC has 54 'Articles', which are about rights to different things.
Article 12 is about the views of the child. It's crucial principle is concerned with respecting and acting upon children's views and opinions. It is about respecting for the child's view in all matters affecting the child and giving children the opportunity to be heard in judicial or administrative proceedings affecting the child.
Check out Right Online a Save the Children resource to find out about young people's rights in more detail: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/rightonline/index.html
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Which methods?
Here are a few of the methods you can use for consultation:
| Recorded interviews |
Focus Groups |
Video |
| Questionnaires |
Debates |
Telephone surveys |
| Individual interviews |
Citizen's Juries |
Participatory Appraisal |
| Computer based consultation |
Role play |
Pictures |
| Individual Interviews |
Photography |
Collage |
| Murals |
Banners |
Quilts | For further detail on the pros and cons of each method see the Save The Children RE:action toolkit.
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What works?
A summary from "Taking the Initiative" (A Carnegie Trust publication to promote young people's involvement in public decision making).
- Young people are not a homogenous group. Do not expect young people to agree with each other and remember to include socially excluded groups.
- Participation requires a culture shift in adults and in organisations. A profound change in attitude is needed for adults and to relinquish some power and treat young people as partners.
- There are many methods of involving young people. It is likely that a combination of methods will work best, spend time working them out with young people.
- Young people lead different lives from adults. Young people's schedules should be taken into account and they should be comfortable in the venue.
- Value young people's contributions. This means a range of things: clarity about parameters, giving feedback, acknowledging and accrediting contributions, paying expenses, making the experience fun, saying thank you.
- Start with young people's agendas. Most participative work is reactive to adult agendas. Whenever possible ask young people what they want to work on.
- Leadership and champions. Support for participation needs to come from the top.
- Resources. Some participative work will fit into existing activity, but not all of it will; set aside time and money.
- Support for adults and young people. This work may be new to young people and adults. e.g. there will often be a need for some training.
For further information on the Carnegie Young People Initiative: The Practice of Participation, contact:
Carnegie Young People Initiative,
The Mezzanine,
Elizabeth House,
39 York Road
LONDON
SE1 7NQ
Email: carneigieypinitiative@rmplc.co.uk
Website: http://www.carnegie-youth.org.uk/
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Which degree of participation?
Here is a summary of the ladder of participation which appeared in "Children's Participation: from Tokenism to Citizenship," by Roger Hart, published by UNICEF.
| The step on the ladder |
|
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| 8. |
Children and young people initiated shared decisions with adults |
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Level of participation: depends on the degree to which young people take initiative, have ideas, make decisions, are able to apply those decisions, and the role of adults in the project |
| 7. |
Children and young people are directed |
|
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| 6. |
Adult initiated, shared decisions with children |
|
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| 5. |
Consulted but informed |
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Non-particpation: degrees of non-participation are governed by young people not being consulted, not understanding the issues and being used to fulfil adult agendas |
| 4. |
Assigned but informed |
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| 3. |
Tokenism |
|
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| 2. |
Decoration |
|
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| 1. |
Manipulation |
|
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How to monitor the progress?
Some of the most practical ways to monitor progress and make the best use of the time available include:
- Constantly refer back to the objectives and ask "Does this contribute to these objectives?" and if it does not then stop doing it
- Have a detailed timeline for the overall consultation and each section of the consultation
- Be well prepared in terms of the materials and resources needed
- Be realistic in terms of the amount of time that tasks take or one person can do in their allotted time
- Keep a consultation diary to record the process and tasks
- Start writing up as soon as possible
- Prioritise the tasks involved in each phase
- Anticipate potential problems during the planning stage
- If possible build in some flexibility into the time framework for things that cannot be predicted.
It can be difficult to take the time to reflect on the consultation process when there is very little time available to actually do the consultation.
Source: Page38
Re:action Consultation Toolkit: a practical toolkit for consulting with children and young people on policy issues, by Sarah Madden. Save the Children, 2001.
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What next? Communicating the ideas
Communicating ideas and information from children and young people to decision and policy makers forms an essential ingredient of effective consultation. The information transferred to the next stage needs to be clearly presented to accurately reflect the children and young people's views. To do this you may want to use a combination of methods and you may want to involve young people in the process (e.g. design, making a presentation etc). Some of the methods you may want to consider include:
- Reports
- Graphs and summary tables
- Posters
- Presentations
- Computer websites
- Power point presentations
- Video
- Audio-tape
- Press release format
- Drama
- Newsletter formats
- Summary letters written by young people
- Visual forms, e.g. art or photography
- Visual diagrams and summaries
- Exhibitions.
Source: Page113
Re:action Consultation Toolkit: a practical toolkit for consulting with children and young people on policy issues, by Sarah Madden. Save the Children, 2001.
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A Consultation Checklist
This checklist is based on the checklist in the 'Getting Ready' chapter of the Re:action toolkit p.42
 click here for printable checklist
| CONSULTATION |
Comments |
| Objectives |
|
| Have you written your objectives? |
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| Are they clear, specific and realistic? |
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Do the methods, tools and techniques
that you are planning to use allow you
to achieve the objectives? |
|
| Children and young people |
|
| How many children or young people are you aiming to consult with? |
|
| What age group are you targeting? |
|
| Are you targeting a specific group of young people? |
|
| Have you decided how to access or recruit young people? |
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| Are you going to involve young researchers in the data collection stage? |
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| Methods/ resources |
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| Have you decided on the approach/ methods you are going to use? |
|
| Do you have a rationale for the approach and methods you are going to use? |
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| Have you decided how the information is going to be recorded? |
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| Will the people you are consulting need any preparation material? |
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| Are you well prepared in terms of the resources needed? |
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| General |
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| Have you drawn out a timeline for the consultation (include finish dates for each stage)? |
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| Have you planned how you are going to give feedback to the people who participate? |
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| Have you considered what the potential problems might be? |
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| How do you plan to present the information once the consultation has taken place? |
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| Have you decided on the roles of each person involved? |
| | 
