Much has been written about the benefits of participation on the wellbeing of children and young people, and about ways to achieve this. Different forms of children’s participation have been written about since Roger Hart’s Ladder of Participation.
The Participation Wheel provides a conceptual framework that highlights the significant role Leadership plays in promoting Participation within children’s social care settings.
The Participation Wheel has been developed together with the recently retired Advocate for Children in Care in Western Australia and reflects over 10 years’ experience in using Viewpoint across the State for Care Plan Reviews. Currently over 3000 children and young people each year undertake self-assessments using the digital tool in WA.
In a study of the use of Viewpoint ACASI (Audio Computer Assisted Self-Interviewing) in two large authorities by the Open University in England, the authors commented: ‘Managers in general seemed concerned that, unlike the young people, they as managers may not be delivering on their side of this particular participatory bargain’. They described that the managers who responded had a good understanding of what constituted effective participation and gave examples of ACASI data contributing to adjustments in policy, but ‘on the whole, managers reported patchy, uncoordinated and fragmented systems for feedback.’
We wonder how much has changed.
In the Participation Wheel we refer to the importance of Leadership Teams receiving regular feedback from young people and demonstrating that this information is being used to inform performance and service development. Knowing that the Leadership Team is aware of what’s going well and not so well for young people promotes similar interest throughout the department. This is also reflected in The Promise in Scotland: ‘Decision makers must listen with an expectation that what they hear will form the basis of their decisions'.
Using engaging database-backed digital tools to enable young people to inform their individual plans ensures also that up-to-date aggregate data reports are immediately available and easily generated. In Viewpoint, for example, response data can be structured to report against the UNCRC Clusters of Rights or key wellbeing indicators.
Knowing that the Leadership Team is actively interested in using and reacting to the views of young people encourages supervisors and practitioners to use digital tools consistently. But they also need to find value in the tools and understand that the primary purpose is to benefit young people, to help them communicate about the positive and not so positive aspects of their lives and to build relationships. For young people the quality of the relationship with their worker matters a lot. Professor Munro’s Review of Child Protection in England highlighted this: ‘What they [young people] value most are good relationships with professionals they can trust and practice that focuses on their needs...this is important as it provides children and young people with ways of getting information, knowing their rights, having their say and making choices’.
There is a growing recognition of the value of digital tools. For example, The Promise in Scotland recognises that: ‘digital tools...reflect how children communicate and allow greater ownership and control of information’. However, using a digital tool is not an end in itself. ‘Engagement and Follow Through’ as described in the Participation Wheel is important. Digital tools help young people communicate but responses need to be discussed with their worker to identify key outcomes and how these can be achieved. Working with young people, we have added functionality to Viewpoint that allows practitioners, together with young people, to add ‘actions’ to completed self-assessment reports, so adding to the information available at review meetings.
Practice supervision provides a bridge between leadership and practice, reflecting leadership expectations, and modelling reflective practice. Young people can become visible in supervision when their actual responses are focussed on. Research demonstrates the importance of practice supervision in supporting good outcomes for children and young people and ‘Assessment Practice’ provides an example from Ontario. Practice in Ontario supports a child-centred approach and ensures that supervisors are reviewing responses, including the scales and measures built into the modules completed by young people. The Participation Wheel model is completed in Ontario with Ottawa University providing agency data reports to agency leaders.