News Stories

Equipping the team: involving young people in museums

BillB — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:15:09 +0100

Those working in museums have tended to underplay their pulling power, their successes and their own skills and knowledge in involving children and young people. But they are often leaders not followers, drawing on captivating resources, great expertise and strong partnerships with schools, youth projects and local community groups.

Many museums have developed their skills base through recruiting to specialist posts, as well as offering whole staff training opportunities. While particular skills are needed from those engaging directly with children and young people on specific projects, many museums recognise this as a whole staff process as this Tweet from @kidsinmuseums captures: "Just been greeted on going into Ashmolean - 'thanks for coming to see us today'. Makes us visitors feel very welcome and valued." Investing in staff development pays dividends for the individuals and also organisations and partnerships. The report attached here from Northern Ireland shows a day on participation in action, including exploration of values, approaches and conundrums. You can find out more on participation in museums at http://hbr.nya.org.uk/sector/Museums+and+Galleries

There is much innovation too in developing and crediting the skills and knowledge of the young people taking part. In Newark ( British Museum funded People and Places project) a small group of young people began by choosing favourite objects, then researched them locally and with a trip to the British Museum and are building toward offering guided tours and their own exhibition. In Bolton, Sam Elliot, Communities Access Officer, developed links with an Entry to Employment programme, leading to the creation of the Cell by Date project exploring Victorian and contemporary attitudes and responses to offending. The young people had to apply to undertake a range of tasks. Sam Elliot pointed out that "E2E is all about employment, so it was important this wasn't only some arts activities but something real and useful." They have built confidence and range of skills equipping them better for applying for jobs.

You can find out what a range of organisations have done to develop their skills and knowledge at: http://hbr.nya.org.uk/standards/skills_and_knowledge

Leading from the back: involving young people in museums

BillB — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 21:41:53 +0100

As organisations seek to build in, not simply bolt on, the participation of young people in their work, so the explicit backing from leaders and managers is needed. As young people share in decision making, relationships with managers become transformative, not simply transactional. Participation becomes a whole organisational process, not one easily confined to the special interests category of a few fringe staff.

A range of examples show how the style of leadership is crucial to get active backing and support. Linda Ballard, Curator of Social Life, National Museums Northern Ireland (another SOTW partner), described how their young people's panel required support from finance, human resources and other central functions. Senior managers at Bristol Museums and Archives invested in a leadership development programme to map activity and plan priorities. Brighton and Hove has a strong advocate and champion in the Head of Service and strategic directors' meetings hold regular reviews on participation progress. The Geffrye Museum in Hackney, London, used the clout of Stories of the World to extend ownership and expand impact of young people's participation. Alison Lightbown, Head of Education and Learning, described how it "galvanised the museum to think about how we can involve young people and communities in all aspects of the work of the museum, from collections knowledge to programming events, exhibitions and marketing."

Such progress can only happen with the explicit support of managers and an open and embracing style of leadership, supporting innovation, accepting risks of mistakes, committed to reflection and learning and publicly celebrating young people's participation in projects, programmes and wider decision making in the museum.

You can find out what a range of organisations have done to develop their style of leadership at: http://hbr.nya.org.uk/standards/style_of_leadership; a range of examples of participation in museums and galleries can be found at http://hbr.nya.org.uk/sector/Museums+and+Galleries

Leadership and management in Bristol's Museums and Archives

BillB — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:35:30 +0100

Strategic leadership and executive management are crucial in helping ensure the participation of children and young people is built in and not bolted on. Shared values and clear strategy help set the style and culture of the organisation which are crucial in developing the safe, sound and effective involvement of younger citizens.

On 11 May, a seminar with the management team of Bristol's museums and archives explored attitudes and values, barriers and opportunities and core priorities for action to take forward children and young people's participation in Bristol's museums and archives. The aims of the session were for the wider management team to:

Explore and agree the values and principles behind the participation of children and young people across its work
Explore barriers and opportunity
Identify its core priorities and draft an action plan

The full story and the report are available here:

http://hbr.nya.org.uk/resources/leadership_and_management_bristols_museums_and_archives

YWCA Senior Management Team agree top participation priorities

BillB — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:56:26 +0100

In February 2010, The Senior Management Team met to review participation progress across the organisation and to agree the top participation priorities that required the direct ownership and leadership of SMT

The attached report gives evidence of this process. This followed on from young women meeting senior managers in August 2009 to map and plan for participation at local and national level. The report is available at: http://hbr.nya.org.uk/resources/ywca_takes_hear_right_agree_participation_priorities

CWDC advancing participation across the organisation

BillB — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:03:58 +0100

The Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) is building in the voice and influence of children and young people with strong strategic leadership and effective executive coordination. The recent report approved by the Senior Management Team summarises progress and affirms next steps.

After a comprehensive staff development programme across CWDC, leaders and managers agreed key strategic participation priorities. These included a more proactive championing role with external partners, scrutiny to ensure participation is more regularly built in to their projects, programmes, tenders and commissioning and fuller attention is paid to monitoring and evaluating the impact of participation, including through feedback from children and young people themselves.

When CWDC adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 2006, it then began using the Hear by Right participation standards framework to engage staff, establish priorities and plan agreed actions. It made significant progress on, for example, shared values, involving young people in recruitment and having participation champions in each department.

CWDC then embarked on this next phase in 2009. This included a staff training programme that reached 121 staff, 100% of whom said it was either very important or important to involve children and young people in its work. 37.5% said participation activity was in place, while 62.5% said it was currently being established.

“We've come along way but we have a long way to go; we need to be tough on ourselves about the impact - what difference would or has it made? What do children and young people say the difference is?”

The programme partnership of Investing in Children, Practical Participation and NYA was delivered with young people from Barnardo’s Willow Young Carers Project in Leeds, Investing in Children and London Borough of Richmond Looked After and Leaving Care young people. It was coordinated by Alice Taylor at CWDC: Alice.Taylor@cwdcouncil.org.uk.

Developing Young People’s Voice and Influence in Health Services

jackieo — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:49:20 +0000

The seminar which was held on the 2nd February in Leicester, attracted 30 delegates, speakers and young people and was aimed at colleagues in health organisations and/or their youth service partners with a strategic role in young people’s participation.

The aim of the seminar was to enable delegates attending to:

Understand better the context and drivers for an enhanced focus on young people’s engagement in a variety of health settings
Learn from examples of good practice about key features of this work including the ‘You’re Welcome’ quality criteria
Understand the NYA’s participation offer and how the use of the Hear by Right (HBR)framework can contribute to this work, and how in return delegates can inform the NYA work in this area
Meet and network with like minded colleagues

· Leave the training with an action plan to further improve the engagement of young people in health settings

Speakers:

Richard McKie - National Programme Manager, National Youth Agency

Developing Young People’s Voice and Influence in Health Services

National Programme Manager Richard McKie facilitated the event. His initial presentation examined the context and drivers for young people’s voice and influence work.

Siobhan Lloyd - Participation Officer, Dudley Youth Service

Hayley Jennings - Young People Stop Smoking Adviser, Dudley PCT

Joe Dutton and George Heeley – You’re Welcome Young Inspectors, Dudley

Our Voice, Our Help, Our Health

The presentation from Dudley explored how the youth service, the Primary Care Trust and young people are working together to assess the quality and standards of young people’s health services and provision. It initially examined the area’s C-Card Scheme, how the partnership between Dudley Youth Service and NHS Dudley is developing a healthy youth work standards framework (building on NYA’s Good Practice Guidelines for Health Youth Work) and smoking cessation work. The latter offers opportunities for youth workers to train as smoking cessation workers and for young people to train as decision makers through the Peer Support Programme and be involved in the related youth advocacy project – ‘Kick Ash’

Initial work towards the You’re Welcome quality criteria has been undertaken in Dudley. This has included mapping similarities between NYA’s HBR framework and You’re Welcome, sessions with GP practices and sexual health services, training for young people as young inspectors, developing a health service pledge based on You’re Welcome and identifying one particular area of You’re Welcome to initially develop, as part of a ‘step-by-step’ approach.

Joe and George, two You’re Welcome Young Inspectors talked about their experiences, how they initially became involved and the process of developing the work. The next steps for the young Inspectors in Dudley will be to roll out the assessment of services across the area linked to the You’re Welcome: quality criteria.

+ Handouts:

Dudley Handout 1 - Initial Mapping of Hear by Right and Your Welcome Standards

Dudley Handout 2 - Young Inspector Training – Day 1 Trainer Notes

Dudley Handout 3 - Giving Young People a Voice

Kate O'Farrell - Involving Young People Co-ordinator, Connexions Leicestershire

Mark Roberts - Service Development Manager, Leicestershire County and Rutland Community Health Services (LCRCHS)

Hear by Right in Community Health Services

This presentation explored LCRCHS’s organisational approach to involving young people using the HBR framework as part of this process - working in partnership with Connexions Leicestershire and young people. Mark Roberts and Kate O’Farrell described the journey that LCRCHS has experienced to date and highlighted lessons learnt. LCRCHS future plans include moving from an ‘emerging’ to ‘established’ organisation (based on the HBR Framework). Among other future plans the organisation is also exploring the establishment of a young people’s network, involving young people in an audit of services.

Examples of LCRCHS HBR maps and plans evidencing young people’s participation are available on the Hear by Right website >>

Catherine Alexander – You’re Welcome Lead, Government Office North West

You’re Welcome: quality criteria - Overview

Catherine is based at Government Office in the North West region and leads on You’re Welcome. the Department of Health’s (DH) quality criteria for making health services young people friendly, designed through consultation with young people. DH’s vision is that by 2020, all health services that are regularly used by young people - including those based in education settings - meet the You’re Welcome quality criteria.

Catherine gave an overview of the vision and ambitions of this work and its links to Healthy Child Programmes, presented You’re Welcome’s 10 standards, the processes that organisations should follow and gave examples of the ways young people can be involved and the benefits that this can create.

Jackie O’Brien – Project Officer, National Youth Agency

Hear by Right Website and Resources – Overview

Jackie gave delegates a tour of the HbR website - described as a depository to link good practice to HBR’s indicators. Jackie explored the site highlighting the standards and indicators noting resources that organisations have supplied to demonstrate practice in action.

Also introduced to the group were the website’s news section, the local network map (essentially the HBR community) and templates for HBR Mapping and Planning process and What’s Changed/What’s Changing case studies.

The final sessions of the day further explored developing young people’s voice and influence in health services. Delegates were given the opportunity to work together to map seven of the You’re Welcome standards to the Hear by Right standards.

Next Steps

The National Youth Agency will build on the work done by delegates to re-enforce the mutually supportive links between Hear by Right and You’re Welcome by working with the Department of Health to clarify and make explicit how the two approaches can help ensure ‘young people friendly’ services.

For further information email Richard McKie.

Y Care International is full steam ahead!

jackieo — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:38:10 +0000

Over the past 18 months, the team at Y Care International (YCI) have been working hard to deliver the organisation’s youth participation strategy following a scoping exercise carried out with support from a Participation Consultant from the National Youth Agency.

In August 2008, a range of staff at YCI's London offices used the Hear by Right standards and Self Assessment Tool to map and evaluate the level of youth participation happening in the work of the organisation. The aim was to discover what the potential for youth participation within the organisation was and to research how the organisation will achieve the required change by developing an action plan to improve it.

Stuart Wroe is the Senior Global Youth Work Co-ordinator at Y Care International. Stuart says “Y Care International is the overseas relief and development agency of the YMCA Movement, but we also engage marginalised young people in the UK and Ireland in campaigning and global youth work on issues that are of importance to them. As such we work with individual YMCAs and National YMCA structures in England, Scotland, Wales and the whole of Ireland”.

“Participation is a key theme in YCI's Mission, Vision, Values and Beliefs”.

Y Care International (YCI) takes Article 12 of the UNCRC very seriously. In the organisation’s 2007 strategic review the promotion of youth participation was highlighted and given, for the first time, its own strategic objective. YCI’s Key Strategic Objective 6, ‘ YCI’s youth focus and YMCA identity’, aims ‘to increase effective youth participation within YCI as its expression of YMCA ethos and identity.’

“Stuart adds “Since undertaking the scoping exercise in August 2008, we are all heartened by the extent to which the organisation has progressed. Staff have taken responsibility for driving this forward and there are named staff in each department to do this”.

“A cross-organisational working group is ensuring that youth participation is mainstreamed, any gaps are identified, recommendations contained in the scoping exercise are addressed, and that cross departmental learning about participation is shared within the organisation. A budget has been designated for this programme of work. Young people from our Board and organisational sub committees inform this area”.

An annual plan around YCI Strategic Objective 6: Youth Focus and Identity was produced and is being implemented for 2009-1010.

“The NYA Hear by Right standards inform our annual plan and are the standard by which progress is measured”.

“In September 2008 it was decided that three forthcoming trustee vacancies should be filled by young people (under the age of 25) and YCI’s Board has had discussions about ways in which the Board’s style and processes may need to change to allow young trustees to make the best contribution.

“Importantly, a Youth Participation Policy has been drafted, accepted and is in place, working to the NYA’s Hear by Right standards. This policy stands alongside a Working with Children and Young People policy which benefited from the input of opinions from a wide range of marginalised young people. The policy promotes good practice in working with children and young people, ensuring the quality of our work, whilst also ensuring that the organisation safeguards children and young people”.

Other achievements have included holding a Youth Participation Day involving young people for YCI trustees showcasing projects and case studies of youth participation and advocacy projects; all-staff training in participatory methodologies led by De Montfort University; the involvement of young people in the global youth work sub committee, which is Chaired by a young person aged 18 who will also join the Board in December; the involvement and facilitation of young people in the planning committee of the YMCA Europe Prague Festival; our Youth Justice campaign country reports and campaign planning drafted and led by young people; the popular YCI Changing Your World lobbying and campaigning courses for young people in partnership with YMCA England.

A commitment to youth participation is consistent with YCI’s identity and membership of the YMCA movement, and with YCI’s desire to develop relevant, high quality programmes. In promoting youth participation at all levels, YCI believes that it is good development practice to involve beneficiaries as it increases effectiveness, and that it reflects the role that YCI gives to a rights based approach to development.

Through its extensive links with various parts of the world YMCA movement, YCI has the potential to be a positive influence in encouraging a commitment to youth participation, and creating significant opportunities for young people to develop skills and influence their own and their communities’ development. Within the YMCA movement there is much to be learned about ways to involve young people.

You can find further information about how Y Care International is using Hear by Right here http://hbr.nya.org.uk/organisations/y_care_international_uk and for more details about the organisation visit their website at www.ycareinternaitonal.org/gyw .

Museums by Right: Young People’s Voice & Influence in Museums

jackieo — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:42:42 +0000

Museums by Right: Young People’s Voice & Influence in Museums - A workshop delivering inspiration, tools and support for developing youth engagement with museums on Friday 22 January 2010, Bradford 1 Gallery, Bradford

Using Stories of the World - one of the ten major projects at the heart of the Cultural Olympiad, project as a focus, the workshop’s overarching aim was to explore voice and influence of children and young people in museums and archives.

The seminar was arranged by a consortium of museums and archives in the Yorkshire and Humberside region - one of 14 UK regional partnerships involved in Stories of the World. The project is led by the MLA in partnership with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG).The Yorkshire and Humberside partnership’s project ‘Precious Cargo’ will examine how objects, ideas and customs have found their way across the world and become 'precious' items of heritage in the process.

The objectives of the workshop were to review progress through a general consortium update, the NYA’s Hear by Right framework Maps & Plans and a series of case study presentations. The day would also enable partners to identify any further support required. It was attended by NYA’s National Programme Manager Richard McKie and Development Officer Roger Morford as NYA have been contracted to provide advice, support and training on young people’s participation to the project’s partnerships.

Jon Bradley, the regional coordinator introduced the day. He highlighted a need to ensure young people are part of museum provision and that ‘Precious Cargo’ can be a driver for that process. Members were asked to consider how young people’s voice and influence can be part of their work and how to ensure interaction between young people and museum professionals. Jon also noted the benefits - such as new skills for both young people and the museum staff engaging in this process.

Jon noted that youth engagement in the region has a good reputation and is well recognised, citing Bradford’s Young Ambassadors and Sheffield Youth Forum as examples. The challenge, he felt, is to build on strengths that have been established.

Richard McKie from NYA spoke briefly on the context and drivers for young people’s voice and influence work. He drew the group’s attention to Article 12 of UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and highlighted the convention’s Article 31 which focuses on their right to access to cultural events.

Four presentations followed

Bradford Museum’s and Galleries
The Young Ambassadors is a well established group formed in 2005 that met as part of a previous project called ‘Connect’. The group enjoys good support from Bradford Museum’s and Galleries management and is facilitated by a Community Outreach Officer. The group is actively involved in sharing ideas and dialogue across the service, engaging with artists through workshops, collaborating with staff and ‘Friends groups’, and volunteering to help staff events such as new exhibitions etc.

Barnsley Museums
Barnsley Museums has been inspired by the work undertaken in Bradford and is aiming to get close to where they are currently through a process of developing and embedding a new way of working with young people. This is a new way of working for the museums. Initial work undertaken with Barnsley Youth Council and several meetings have taken place to date with young people sharing some interesting ideas on the redevelopment of one space in particular, Moorcroft Pottery. There have been challenges, transport, getting more young people to be involved and enabling joined up working with the area’s Arts Development Team. However the project is on target for completing its first phase which the staff feel is excellent especially in this new way of working. The project has attracted a group of vibrant young people who are at the core helping to take this forward.

Leeds
Leeds Museums considers itself a service that is outward looking to the community which employs ambitious creative staff. Staff presenting described this as ‘an exciting time’ for Leeds to be involved Stories of the World. Those involved in Precious Cargo are keen for young people to have a voice and to participate. The aim is to run short projects under the Precious Cargo ‘umbrella’ to enable staff and young people to engage and staff hope this will lead to young people’s further active engagement and participation in decision making processes. Some work has been undertaken to date a ‘Wiki’ project to enable young people to communicate and share ideas, work on a fashion project and an ArtSpace project which is led by young people and showcases their work online. Leeds Museums has also designed the ‘Follow Alex’ campaign to attract young people - a joint marketing exercise with ‘Breeze’ Leeds IYSS Positive Activities programme. Challenges were reported for example when funding ends on small projects there is a duty to ensure the young people still engage. However as more projects are formed in Leeds staff hope that young people will take up the opportunity to take part.

Sheffield

Sheffield Museums Service Youth forum was created to give young people a voice in the use of gallery space and to enable them to contribute to the organisation. Consisting of young people aged 15-19 the forum meets on a weekly basis. It is currently engaged on a ‘Visual Dialogues’ programme looking at the museum service’s Modern British collection with an aim of creating interpretation work with artists for an exhibition in mid February.. Previously the group have also commissioned artists to produce work for the galleries such as a diary room at Graves Art Gallery to encourage visitors to feedback on the work exhibited there. Data collected was subsequently used by the gallery’s marketing team to decide what was exhibited. Challenges do exist around sustainability, funding and a there is recognition of the need to embed the Youth Forum in the work of the whole organisation.

Afternoon sessions examined national and regional perspectives and good practice and included an exercise on priorities with participation. The group looked at the NYA’s ‘Hear by Right’ framework standards and indicators and how to use its ‘Mapping and Planning’ tools. They also explored practical ways of capturing good practice through using the Hear by Right ‘What’s Changed’ tool and a new forthcoming case study template which NYA is putting together. The day closed with a brief round-up of project’s proposed next steps for taking this work forward.

Woodraft Folk TREE steering group records and celebrates participation

BillB — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:59:02 +0000

In January 2010, 10 children and young people from the national Steering Group of Woodcraft Folk's BIG Lottery funded TREE programme met to review progress and plan ahead.

They had a busy, action packed two day residential in Birmingham. The attached newsletter was prepared and produced over the weekend, with everyone leaving with their own copy. It is an example of how to record, celebrate and share effective participative practice, giving an immediate account and feedback to those taking part and offering an effective tool for sharing more widely in an accessible and informative way.

Read the attached newsletter to find out what more about TREE and what they did on the evaluation, the Refugees and Asylum Seekers campaigning, TREE at camps, Follow the Trail and the constitution revolution.

NYA Seminar - Developing Young People's Voice and Influence in Health Services - Tuesday February 2nd, NYA, Leicester

jackieo — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:24:46 +0000

Developing Young People’s Voice and Influence in Health Services

The National Youth Agency is hosting a seminar on Tuesday 2 February 2010 aimed at strategic heads in health organisations responsible for young people's participation which will discuss young people’s voice and influence in health services.

There is a requirement for health services to provide for the systematic involvement of young people and their parents in service development .In order to demonstrate that they meet the Department of Health You’re Welcome quality criteria, health service providers are required to show evidence of young people’s active participation. This seminar will examine examples of existing practice and discuss the use of accredited frameworks for young people’s involvement such as ‘Hear by Right’. The day will include presentations from colleagues involved in young people’s participation in health service provision and Richard McKie, National Programme Manager who leads on young people’s participation and health at NYA. This free event will provide a useful opportunity for delegates to scope, capture and suggest improvements a number of aspects of current practice centred on the growing use of the Hear by Right standards alongside the You’re Welcome quality criteria in health settings.

The seminar will run from 10.30 am to 3pm. Lunch will be provided.

The venue - The National Youth Agency, Eastgate House, 19-23 Humberstone Road Leicester LE5 3GJ.

Places are limited - if you wish to attend please email Roger Morford by January 22nd 2009.

Vision for museum futures in the South West

BillB — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:03:33 +0000

On 18 December 2009, the Stories of the World leads for the South West met to progress the participation of children and young people in museums. Discussion of vision, aims and objectives was central. A powerful commentary was that museums can offer one of the few public places and spaces for the young without prejudice, “A neutral and comfortable non-threatening space where there are free thinking opportunities to gain knowledge;” “A shared space of shared interest where people, including the young, can let their minds go free and can make whatever connections and conversations they want;” “museums as spaces, places and collections that spark interest, engage, surprise and offer insight and understand of the past.” The aim in the South West is clear: “To energise activity with and for children and young people to facilitate connections between them and the world culturally and historically.”

Four key objectives were agreed to steer the involvement of children and young people in the work and direction of museums in the South West:

• To activate individual and collective opportunities for children and young people to take part in decision making to improve the work of museums;

• To seek and harness the expertise and resources of partners to compliment each other;

• To ensure our current and future collecting and collections are informed by and relevant to children and young people;

• To ensure the environments in which museums operate are culturally, socially and physically relevant to children and young people.

Built in not bolted on

The Stories of the World partnerships are looking to build in rather than bolt on the participation of children and young people across the work and activity of museums. To help in this, museums across the UK are using Hear by Right, the participation framework, based on Peters and Waterman’s 7 Standards model of organisational change (Badham and Wade, 2008). The group mapped current approaches to involving children and young people in its work in museums and planned further activity.

“Our map shows we are mostly doing stand alone, externally funded projects which makes it more difficult to embed participation and enable children and young people to have a wider influence through ongoing forums or advisory groups to influence wider decision making in our museums.”

“Our plan shows we can build on what we are doing to extend the amount and range of involvement opportunities, including networks, larger events and advisory groups.”

To build participation into the fabric of museums, partnerships agreed in summer 2009 seven participation priorities, one from each Hear by Right standard. These are for the organisation to demonstrate participation as a central commitment, ensure a resourced plan is in place, set up a range of relevant approaches, record and evaluate evidence of dialogue and change, build participation into key job roles, build staff capacity and have key managers and leaders as effective champions for the voice and influence of children and young people.

How are we doing?

The South West Stories of the World participation leads felt “very encouraged by shared inspiration and values,” while recognising that “We need to build the argument with those with the power to affect wider change.” The greater inclusion of children and young people in museums is not a distant vision. It is happening now where museums are “Places where children and young people of all backgrounds use our resources and services, also offering support to other organisations; spaces for representing children and young people to other generations, giving people a voice and area for shared issues, discussion and exploration and fun.”

The top seven Hear by Right indicators in full

1.1 The participation of children and young people is a central commitment of the organisation

2.2 The strategic plan for active involvement is agreed and in place, with key staff, roles and resources identified for its implementation

3.1 Children and young people are consulted on and help review structures for their active involvement

4.3 Recording and evaluation systems are in place to identify and share learning and evidence of change arising from children and young people’s participation

5.1 Relevant job descriptions specify skills and commitment to active involvement

6.2 There is capacity building for staff to gain skills for the safe, sound and effective participation of children and young people

7.1 Key managers and leaders act as champions for the active involvement of children and young people, with clearly identified responsibilities

Hear by Right and Early Years National Learning Group - 28th January 2010 in Leicester

jackieo — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:14:03 +0000

Do you have any questions about involving 0-5 year olds in the Hear by Right participation process? Then come along to the free Hear by Right and Early Years National Learning Group on 28th January 2010 which is being run by National Youth Agency as part of Participation Works.

As well as a forum in which to discuss your specific questions in an open space format, this session will also be an opportunity to contribute to a briefing paper and practical toolkit The National Youth Agency has been drafting, that we hope to share with you before the meeting. To this end, I would be very interested in hearing from you before the meeting about:

Whether you have already used Hear by Right in an Early Years setting
Any general participation activities you have found particularly useful with 0-5 year olds
But whether you have actually used Hear by Right in an early years setting, or you work in an early years setting and are interested in taking part, we would warmly welcome your input and your expertise at the session

This learning group, held at the National Youth Agency in Leicester, will run from 11.00 - 15.30, lunch will be provided, and the group is free to attend. To book your place, please go to www.participationworks.org.uk/training, select the Hear by Right and Early Years event on the 28th Jan and follow the instructions

I have attached a flyer about the event in case this is useful to you, please feel free to forward to anyone you think may be interested in this session. For more details, please contact Jake Manning, Development Officer (Participation Works) on 07872376390 or jakem@nya.org.uk

Hear by Right for Health - ensuring the participation, voice and influence of young people in health provision.

jackieo — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:45:25 +0000

NYA is working with the Association of Young People’s Health (AYPH) on a project to disseminate the learning generated from the Department of Health funded “Teenage health Demonstration sites” (THDS). Based on the practice developed across 4 sites in England, NYA will produce a set of practical information, guidance and case studies on one key aspect of the developmental work - ensuring the participation, voice and influence of young people in health provision.

This participation strand is one of a total of six areas that AYPH are highlighting on young people’s health. They are primarily aimed at trustees and strategic leads across health services and their partners to further promote and develop this work in Strategic Health Authorities, PCTs, NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts and other health services.

The NYA resources will include:

A ‘Hear by Right for Health’ guide on the range of activities being used to promote the voice of young people in health settings and how to maximise impact across the Children’s Trust landscape. The guide indicates how health services can meet Statutory Guidance and explores how to use the Hear by Right standards framework at strategic and operational levels across partnerships. The guide also discusses Hear by Right’s use as a helpful tool for health services working to The Department of Health (DH) You’re Welcome: quality criteria: Making health services young people friendly.

A ‘How To’ guide, available via the AYPH site to assist PCTs and other Children’s Trust partners to develop the participation of young people in health settings.

A set of Case Studies to highlight good practice of young people’s participation, based on examples from health services in the four THDS areas in Portsmouth, Hackney, Bolton and Northumberland, plus two further projects from the voluntary and community sector.

NYA is also planning to work with a number of PCTs to scope, capture and suggest improvements to a number of aspects of current practice involving young people in these areas; these will include the growing use of the Hear by Right standards and how these might be used to inform the work on You’re Welcome in health settings. An initial seminar is planned for January 2010.

Availability

Initial documents will be launched in December 2009 with work completed by January 2010. A link from the health section of the Hear by Right website to the documentation located on the AYPH site will be provided.

More Information

For more information about this project, you can contact Roger Morford who is a Developement Officer at the NYA via email at rogerm@nya.org.uk

Hear by Right takes centre stage in Japan

jackieo — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:25:45 +0100

Japanese television paid a visit to The National Youth Agency recently to film material about Hear by Right and interview its author Harry Wade.

It will feature in a series of programnmes entitled Support Network for Children 2009 which NHK, the Japanese public broadcaster, will be showing later in the autumn. The aim of the series is to support and encourage children’s healthy development and promote a better environment for them. During a planned two-hour discussion programme interesting examples of children’s policy and services in France, Holland and the UK will be aired – which is where the Hear by Right story comes in.

NHK Researcher Ikuko White said: “As you know Japan is behind in recognising and promoting children’s and young people’s rights and we think including The NYA and Hear by Right in the programme will make a good and inspiring example to Japanese viewers.”

Hear by Right and Disability Learning Group II. Thursday November 12th in Leicester.

jackieo — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:12:48 +0100

The National Youth Agency for Participation Works is convening a second national learning group looking at involving disabled children and young people in the Hear by Right participation process. We ran a similar event last year and the evaluation from colleagues valued the networking, contacts and the variety of organisations sharing similar issues and trying for solutions. Others said they felt more confident to push for using Hear by Right to promote the participation of children and young people with disabilities and felt more able to get support for more time to include disabled children and young people.

The learning group, held in the Albion Room at The National Youth Agency in Leicester, will run from 11-5 and lunch will be provided. The group is free to attend. Because of limited capacity of 25 people, unfortunately we only have space for one person per organisation.

One of the key recommendations from last year was to produce a Hear by Right briefing paper focusing on work with disabled children and young people. NYA has been working with NCDC to draft something that we hope to share with you before the meeting in November and for the meeting in turn to influence the final publication.

For more details, please contact Harry Wade, Development Officer (Participation Works) on 07715 767951 or harryw@nya.org.uk or to book your place go to
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/426177709.