Children and young people’s

involvement in
formal meetings:
A practical guide
Participation Works is a partnership made up
of the British Youth Council (BYC), Children’s
Rights Alliance for England (CRAE), the
National Council for Voluntary Youth Services
(NCVYS), the National Youth Agency (NYA),
NCB and Save the Children - England.
Contents
Introduction 1

What are formal meetings? 2

Why involve children and young people in 3

formal meetings?

How to involve children and young people 9

effectively in formal meetings

What gets in the way of involving children and 18

young people?

Case studies 21

Where to find further information 26

Planning During After Planning During After
Acknowledgements
Thank you to the residential group made up of children, young people and adults who
work in the field of engaging children and young people in formal meetings, who
helped develop this practical guide. They are:
Ada, East Riding District Youth Council member
Ana Beaumont, Children and Young People’s Participation Strategy Officer, Haringey
Antonia Dixey, Children and Young People’s Participation Officer, Tower Hamlets
Danny, Kent Youth Council member
Gill Hanby, Children and Young People’s Active Involvement Manager, Huntingdonshire
Strategic Partnership
Jonathan Arundell (support worker) with the following young people from Medway Youth
Parliament: Chloe, David, Gamal, Katie, Megan, Phoebe, Yasmin, Kevin Donovan (support
worker) with Andrew from London Borough Barking and Dagenham Council Youth Council
Lara Nolan (support worker) with the following young people from East Hampshire
Youth Council: Elin, Ellie, Harriet,
Planning

Merrin Hunt, NCB

Mike, Thanet Youth Council member
Robin Konieczny, County Strategic Partnership Officer, Norfolk
Trudy Shephard, Young Lives
Planning

We are grateful to the following people for their contributions of case studies,
quotes and examples of good practice:
Gill Barn, Consultant
Samuel Botchey, Senior Participation Coordinator, Harrow Council
Tom Burke, Senior Policy and Change Officer, Children’s Rights Alliance for England
Renata Chavda, Youth Participation Officer, Brent
Anneka Deva, Graduate Programme Coordinator, Envision, along with some young board members
Samantha Dimmock, Head of Policy and Public Affairs, Children’s Rights Alliance for England
Antonia Dixey, Children and Young People’s Participation Officer, Tower Hamlets
Melissa Herman, Development Officer, Brighter Futures, Save the Children England Programme
Denise Hollingbery, Company Secretary, NCB
Emma Kirkbride, Training and Development Manager, YouthBank UK
Lara Nolan, Youth Council Coordinator, East Hampshire District Council
Suraya Patel, The Children’s Society, and some of its young board members: Jade, Simon and Patrick
Adele Styles, Young People’s Senior Consultation Officer, Chief Executive’s Office, Derby City Council

Specific thanks goes to Darren Matthews from the British Youth Council as our partner on this project.

Compiled by Ruth Dalzell, with Barbara Hearn and Janine Young, NCB, September 2010
1. Introduction
1.1 Background to this practical
guide
Children and young people are active
contributors to many areas of public services.
It is a child’s right to be involved in decision-
making that affects them. As children and
young people increasingly expect to make a
direct contribution in meetings, the pressure
on those who have traditionally run adult-only
meetings is changing. It is more and more likely
that adult-led meetings will need to include the
voices of children and young people.
While consulting children and young people
outside of the decision-making process
remains the most popular way of listening to
them (Davey, 2010), this method is gradually
becoming unsatisfactory. Within some local
authority departments and child related non
government offices we are moving towards
the point where children and/or young people
are included in all meetings where the content
impacts on their lives. This contact may extend
from matters that affect them solely, such as
the design and delivery of youth provision
and the governorship of schools, through to
transport, local planning and NHS provision,
which concern us all.
This guide aims to help those who want to
more effectively include children and young
people in their adult-led meetings. It explores
the way in which children and young people
can make a real and lasting contribution
to a wide range of formal decision-making
meetings. It provides practical examples of
what helps during meetings and gives detailed
advice on planning for those meetings,
on supporting children and young people
and on making the most of their energy
and imagination. Other useful sources of
information are also signposted.
In order to inform the development of this
guide we engaged with children, young
people and professionals who work with them
early on. NCB and BYC organised, facilitated
1.
and analysed the findings from a number of
Introduction
telephone discussions consultation workshops
with children, young people and adults around
England. This work was undertaken by NCB’s
Chris Thompson (now working at Croydon
Council) and BYC’s Zoe Cumberland, Scott
Forbes and Nadia Shabir.
This guide includes case studies contributed
from across the statutory and voluntary sector,
and will evolve as further case studies and
contributions are added in 2010.
1.2 Who is this guide aimed at?
This guide is primarily aimed at all those
responsible for organising and/or administering
formal decision-making meetings. It offers some
advice to those adults who chair these meetings
as well. Typically these are meetings within
local councils, local strategic partnerships, large
voluntary organisations, health agencies or
other formal settings. The aim is to ensure that
children and young people are effectively
involved in these meetings, that their
contribution is valued and that they genuinely
inform the plans and actions which emerge.
If you are at the start of your participation
journey and, for example, have not yet
engaged children and young people in
your area of work we have developed
Children and young people’s involvement
in formal meeting: an extended guide with
more detail which can be found on the
Participation Works gateway:
www.participationworks.co.uk
1
 2. What are formal meetings?
A formal meeting is a pre-planned meeting
which, in general, has a predetermined set
of topics to be discussed along with a set of
objectives that it is hoped will be achieved
2. What are formal meetings?
by the end of the meeting. There are many
different kinds of formal meeting.
At a formal meeting the roles and structures
are usually clearly defined. There is a chair who
leads the meeting, a minute taker to take notes
or minutes, and other roles according to the
group’s needs. Those who attend the meeting
are often given a considerable period of notice
before the meeting, preferably through formal
means such as memos. A formal meeting is
likely to have an agenda, which is usually sent
out in advance of the meeting to those due to
attend along with previous minutes or reports
stating what was said at the last meeting, and
what the group has agreed to do. An example
of a formal meeting includes Care Councils
and through individual care-planning meetings,
children in public care have increasingly had
their voices heard in decisions about their care
and care services.
By their very design formal meetings can
exclude adults as well as children, young
people.Therefore in formal decision-making
meetings, children and young people sit
alongside adults and have to work within
a framework that feels comfortable and
familiar to adults and which has been
established over many decades. Effectively
including children and/or young people means
adjusting the format and recognising where
compromises need to be made without losing
the involvement of adults. It is important to
remember, however, that the formality of
the structure is not simply to suit adults but
has developed to ensure that all present can
have their say, managed by the chair; that
differences can be debated and resolved;
2
and that decisions can be made, minuted
and monitored. ning During After this process the
PlanThroughout
meeting administrator, clerk or secretary plays
a key role. Hence, it is essential that he or
she is informed of, can be proactive in and
does not feel undermined by the inclusion of
younger members.
Children and young people are involved in
formal meetings in the following settings:
• Children’s trust partnerships
• children and young people’s associations
• school councils
• youth councils
• Youth Opportunity Fund panels
• local councils – at all levels from cabinet
to scrutiny
• neighbourhood renewal committees,
community safety partnerships and safer
neighbourhoods groups
• Local Strategic Partnership Boards
– addressing issues such as town
planning, health provision and safer
neighbourhoods
• boards of trustees
• panels of national funding bodies
• police authorities – scrutiny of police
services and consultation
• health commissioning groups – currently
Primary Care Trusts (PCTs)
• careers advice and guidance services –
currently Connexions services.
Their roles include:
• writing corporate plans
• representing the interests of specific
groups, for example disabled young
people, young carers, black minority and
ethnic perspectives, travellers, young
mothers.
They sit alongside senior officers, public
figures and elected members.
.
 3. Why involve children and young people in formal
meetings?
Engaging children and young people in
formal meetings and decision-making
processes
gniruD gninnalmeans
P
that they are actively
retfA involved in decisions that affect their lives and
communities. Some of the most persuasive
reasons for involving children and young
people are examined below.
3.1 Children and young people’s
rights
As the experts in their own lives, children and
young people have the right, as do adults, to
be meaningfully involved in all decisions that
affect them.
The purpose of participation is
to ensure improved outcomes
for children and young people
themselves and also for the
organisation and the wider
community. Effective participation is
likely to mean that the involvement
of children actually leads to change
(where they identify that change is
needed). (Kirby and others, 2003)
The UK government ratified the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)
in 1991 to protect the rights of all children.
Article 12 states that any child or young person
has a right to express their views and have
those views given due weight in decisions
affecting them, in accordance with their age
and maturity. Given that formal meetings are
primarily about making decisions, children and
young people must be included where the
content impacts on their lives. Section 8 points
you to where you can find out more about the
legislative and policy framework relating to
children and young people’s participation
One of the key principles of the 1989 Children
Act is that children should be treated as
individuals, their opinions should be listened
to and that decisions should take account of
3. Why involve children and young people in formal meetings?
the wishes and feelings of the child helping
them to achieve more. This principle is also
strengthened by the 2004 Children Act which
aims to ensure that policies and services are
designed around the needs of children and
young people, and that they are involved in
decisions at a local and national level.
Alongside this, the Local Government and
Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 and
Local Government and Public Involvement
Network Regulations 2008 have developed
new Local Involvement Networks (LINks).
Each local authority must now enter into a
contractual relationship with an independent
body to ensure the involvement of local people
(including children and young people) in the
commissioning, provision and scrutiny of
health and social services.
The Equality Act 2010 will come into effect from
April 2011 and includes a new ‘public sector
equality duty’. This new duty will require local
authorities to show they are promoting the
participation of marginalised groups in public
life. They may do this, for example, by ensuring
that a broad and diverse range of young people
is included in adult decision-making groups.
3.2 Better services
Services designed and developed with the
input of children and young people and driven
by feedback from the children and young
people who know and use those services are
more likely to be relevant to those individuals
and to meet their needs.
3
 3.3 Having a voice
Children and young people can attend formal
meetings to get their own voices heard as well
3. Why involve children and young people in formal meetings?
as to advocate for other children and young
people. This inevitably enhances the democratic
process by ensuring a wide representation of
children and young people’s views.
We can bring a different perspective
on those issues that are affecting
us and policy that involves us. I
think that it is, and always will be,
imperative to the work of the board
and in turn to NCB as a whole.
(young NCB board member)
Children and young people want to contribute
to their communities and play an active role
in debates and decisions surrounding issues
that affect their lives. Participation in formal
meetings helps them to play their part in
influencing change and moving things forward.
3.4 Innovation
Children and young people’s enthusiasm and
fresh ideas frequently have a positive influence
on the process of decision-making in formal
meetings. Children and young people’s unique
experience brings a fresh perspective and can
lead to new solutions.
3.5 Skills and experience
Through involvement in formal meetings,
children and young people can gain skills
that enhance their employability. They often
take what they learn and pass it on to other
children and young people. The development
4
of new skills brings additional benefits such
as greater confidence, self esteem and the
Planning During
possibility of gaining additional qualifications. After
Confidence is a major factor – If you’d
asked me when I wasn’t on the board,
I don’t think I’d have been able to
speak to a room of adults so freely,
but through the board I’ve learnt to
talk and question people’s ideas.
(young NCB board member)
3.6 Improved communication and
understanding
Children and young people’s involvement in
adult decision-making meetings improves
understanding across the generations, creating
opportunities for each to better appreciate the
other’s perspectives and for the development
of positive and supportive relationships. This
improved communication can be a protective
factor for children and young people.
These points reflect the vision underpinning
organisations like NCB, the British Youth
Council (BYC) and the Participation Works
partnership. One young person involved in
this project commented:
Perhaps we don’t spend enough time
explaining all this to adults who
haven’t really thought about it
before.
4. How to involve children and young people
effectively in formal meetings
4.1 Getting started
One of the most important messages emerging
from research and children and young
people’s experience of participation is that
good planning is a key to success. A number
of questions can usefully be asked at the
beginning of the planning process. Firstly, do
you need the support of a participation worker
or someone who has experience of working
with children and young people? Unless you
have experience of talking or working with
children and young people, you will probably
need this help. It may be that once the
participation worker has helped you to identify
and gather the initial young members for the
meeting, you can manage without further
assistance. You will, however, need to ask
further questions, such as those covered in this
section.
Where are you now and where do you
want to get to?
Understanding the level of experience of and
mechanisms for involving children and young
people within your agency, organisation or
local authority will provide a baseline on which
to build. Defining your starting point and being
clear about what you want to achieve can help
in developing a shared vision. This vision may
include how children and young people might
be involved in the future and reveal differences
in the aspirations and expectations of the
adults involved. Before inviting young members
into the meeting, time should be set aside to
discuss with the chair and other adult members
of the group what it is that you want to
achieve. Best practice would be to have these
discussions alongside the children and young
people you want to involve to ensure their
involvement is sustained and meaningful.
Why do you want to involve children and
young people?
This question provides an opportunity for
4. How to involve children and young people effectively in formal meetings
you to assess the levels of understanding
and commitment that exist among the adults
involved. It also provides an opportunity
for consciousness raising and sharing an
understanding of the drivers for and benefits
of involving children and young people. It is
important that everyone is clear about the
relevance of why you are engaging children
and young people to ensure that it is not
tokenistic and short lived. It will also help you
to enthuse others to engage with children
and young people with this clarity of purpose.
Ultimately, success will depend upon good
leadership from the chair supported by the
administrator. If the chair is keen and the
administrator is confident that the elements
of the meetings can be sensitive to younger
members, you are a long way down the path
to success. If the chair is ambivalent then there
may be a case for encouraging conversations
with chairs of formal meetings that already
include children and young people. The
administrator can search these out and may
also benefit from talking to his or her opposite
number in other places.
What support and resources do you need
to effectively involve children and young
people?
Involving children and young people requires
commitment and resources, including:
• senior level sponsorship
• commitment of an officer’s time in initially
organising, contacting and preparing and
then continuing to support children and
young people (although young people
over 18 may, after initial induction and a
5
 few meetings, manage themselves, only
demanding help if they need it, unless they
have specific difficulties due to disability or
reading ability, for example)
4. How to involve children and young people effectively in formal meetings
• support offered to individual children and
young people, regardless of their age or
background, or particular disability, and
may change over time. This support will
vary in what is offered and how much is
offered but time needs to be taken to find
out what it might be.
• training and induction for adults and the
children and young people
• publicity to attract the right mix of children
and young people for the specific meeting
and so to ensure that children and young
people are adequately represented
• agreement about the type of rewards or
recognition offered to children and young
people for attendance
• resources to help communicate the
outcomes of children and young people’s
involvement.
It is important to think carefully about these
commitments, and map out what is affordable
and deliverable as cutting corners at this stage
can lead to frustration and disappointment
later. Above all, you need to put aside enough
time to ensure that children and young people
are involved effectively.
Who are the children and young people
that you want to involve?
You need to decide whether you want to
engage children and young people with
specific experiences or who have a special
interest in a decision-making process relevant
to their experience. For example, children and
young people with specific health needs may
be most appropriate to sit on a Primary Care
6
Trust board. Alternatively, your formal meeting
may have a very broad remit and so you may
wish to increase children and young people’s
representation in a number of dimensions, e.g.
ethnicity, age or locality if for a community-
based forum, such as neighbourhood planning.
Children and young people who are rarely
engaged in decision-making processes because
services find them a challenge to engage or
locate must also be considered for involvement,
for example asylum-seeking children and
young people, disabled children and young
people, or the unconvinced and unenthusiastic
such as youth involved in anti-social behaviour.
It is important to explore these issues at the
planning stage to ensure that your young
members reflect the issues with which your
formal meetings are concerned.
As a rule of thumb, you should never construct
your meeting to involve only one young member.
A minimum of two ensures mutual support
and a chance to share thoughts with a peer.
Ideally, up to four can be nominated or identified
but with an optimum attendance of two at any
one time. As young people have many demands
upon them, a group of four will usually mean
that two can make it to the meetings.
The Home Office, former Department of
Children, Schools and Families and the
Ministry of Justice together held a Youth
Crime Action Plan steering group of key
stakeholders. Within that group there
was a changing group of four young
people (seven over time) who haddiverse
experiences, such as being victims of crime,
which inform the debates. Their ages, 13–
17, reflected the focus of the youth crime
agenda and their home locations ensure a
 diversity of experience. Their contribution
helped to shape the presentation and
development of the policy so that it
engaged children and young people.
You may need to agree the age of the target
children and young people in advance. If the
limit is under 18s, for example, there also
needs to be a plan for 18-year-olds leaving the
group. As with other members, there need to
be explicit rules about behaviour, attendance
and retirement. The younger members need
to understand all this before making their
commitment.
Who holds the power?
The format of the decision-making meeting
needs to be clear to everyone taking part.
Decisions should be made about children
and young people’s voting rights and about
issues such as commissioning and budgetary
responsibility. Giving children and young
people voting rights and a share in the
responsibility for budgetary decisions is a way
of demonstrating that their involvement is not
simply tokenistic and that there is a willingness
to hand over some power. You may need to
check your constitution to see if decision-
making by voting is allowed for all ages and if
it is not, if there is another method, which can
be used to show that the children and young
people do influence decisions. This could be
through the mode of chairing and recording
of decisions taken. The extended guide on
engagement of children and young people
summarises the rules of engagement for the
voluntary and community sector.
4.2 Before the meeting
It is important to think through any access
issues that may occur before, during and after
4. How to involve children and young people effectively in formal meetings
a meeting and to take the necessary steps to
ensure that the meeting will be experienced as
welcoming and open to the younger members.
Once you have agreement about the purpose
of the children and young people’s involvement
and who is coming, there are further steps you
can take before the meeting to maximise the
chances of success. Section 7 contains some
helpful resources to assist you in being inclusive
Adult members
It is essential to discuss the involvement
of children and young people with adult
members of the meeting so they have a shared
understanding and expectations. Explain how
the meeting format might change to ensure
the meeting is engaging for all members.
Outline the benefits of the children and
young people’s engagement and reassure the
adults of the value of their contributions (see
section 3). Create a process in which the adult
members can share their views and possible
concerns. This may be via email or at the end
of a formal meeting prior to the inclusion of
younger members. (See personal development
and support in section 4.4 for more ideas.)
Chair
The chair should enable children and young
people to participate effectively by establishing
the right format and ensuring that children and
young people are able both to speak out and
to understand the content of the discussions.
The chair must be aware of the need for jargon
to be kept to a minimum and may suggest
some mechanisms to deter people from using
7
 it, such as raising a red flag or card every
time any member of the meeting does not
understand what another has said. As some
meetings can have a competitive flavour, the
4. How to involve children and young people effectively in formal meetings
chair should ensure that younger members
have a space to share their views. If there is a
cover or vice chair, or when the chair changes,
it is essential that he or she is briefed on these
points too. Co-chairing alongside a young
person has proven successful in the past if
the adult and young person work together to
prepare the meeting and establish how their
relationship will work. It may be appropriate
for a child or young person to char a meeting,
particularly where a ‘rotating chair’ system is in
place, or where children have put forward their
main agenda items.
Effective meetings that involve young
people and adults need to have time
spent up front to plan and prepare.
It is vital to build confidence, trust
and, therefore, relationships.
Structures and processes should be
designed around both the needs of
the meeting and the people, and
time should be given for groups to
capture their learning.
(Youth Council Coordinator, East
Hampshire District Council, February 2010)
Accessibility
To ensure that all children and young people
are able to participate effectively the following
steps should be taken.
1. Look to the allocated support/participation
worker for advice about the children and
young people’s individual needs – for
example, communication methods or
support requirements. Where appropriate,
set up the mechanisms to manage these.
8
2. Check the processes to ensure accessibility
within the meeting with the chair
beforehand.
3. Provide children and young people in
advance with the terms of reference of
the meeting (with simplification if needed)
and a summary of the typical issues that
will be covered. This will enable children
and young people to think these through
and formulate their thoughts, and they will
find this reassuring if they are unsure or
nervous about attending.
4. Offer the children and young people the
opportunity to meet with the chair and
clerk and/or a member of the meeting
in advance of attending the first formal
session.
Top tip
The engagement team within Harrow
Council suggests that a consultation and
meeting template (designed by children
and young people) is completed by
adults and sent to children and young
people before meetings. Children and
young people then have time to study
the briefing notes to ensure that the
outcomes will benefit children and
young people before agreeing to attend
meetings.
Communication plan
It is important to have a standard format
for all meetings. The format will typically
include having a named person responsible
for calling or texting the invited children and
young people in the days running up to the
meeting to ensure that they have their papers,
know where they are to attend and who will
meet them (this could be an administrator,
chair, staff member, participation worker or
administrator).
Documents
All relevant documents should be presented in
a format that is easy to read by all participants
and be sent out before the meeting. Children
and young people should be contacted and, as
part of the communication plan, asked if they
have any questions about the documents.
The young people in my group stated
that they would prefer either all
attendees to receive a ‘young person’
friendly format of the documents or
not to receive them at all.
Participation Worker
Time and place
The meeting should ideally be arranged at
a venue that the children and young people
feel comfortable in or have been able to visit
in advance of their first meeting. If this is
impossible, think about how you can make the
venue more welcoming, e.g. by informing the
receptionist that children and young people
will be attending meetings; making sure
security staff are aware if there is a check-in
place which can be intimidating; putting their
names on cards where they are to sit and
having name plates for everyone attending
the meeting; starting the meeting with drinks
or snacks so there is a chance for informal
engagement with the adult members before
the formal business begins.
The meeting should be at a time when children
and young people can attend and, where
possible, not during school hours or too
late into the evening. However, this can be
difficult as meetings are primarily designed for
adults whose working day is typically limited
4. How to involve children and young people effectively in formal meetings
from 8am to 6pm or thereabouts. Where
adult members themselves have childcare
responsibilities it may not be possible to extend
meetings, or to reschedule them to weekends
or holidays when the adults expect to be with
their own children. However, options should
be discussed with all members. An email
questionnaire to all members of the board
could produce options for the chair to put to
members.
Involvement in decision-making meetings can
enable children and young people to learn
new skills and develop knowledge of benefit
to them and to their school or college, but
timing in school hours should be through
agreement with parents and schools. It should
be made clear to children and young people
that flexibility may be required around timing
before they put themselves forward as a
young member in order to avoid unnecessary
aggravation.
Getting there
You need to ensure that the children and
young people can get to the meeting and
have their costs reimbursed before they set off
for the meeting unless tickets are sent out in
advance. In some cases parents or carers may
escort and will need their costs reimbursed as
well. Where the formal meeting has a regional
or national remit the travel costs may be
significant. This needs to be factored in at the
outset. If the meeting is local then it may make
sense to make transport available if required,
e.g. cab or bus.
9

Top tip
Brighter Futures who work specifically
with asylum seekers suggest:
4. How to involve children and young people effectively in formal meetings
• confirming with all the participants the
day before
• organising transport to and from the
venue for young people
• organising interpreters well in advance,
if needed.
Contributions to the agenda
Children and young people should be invited
to contribute to the agenda in advance. They
can be given a dedicated slot on the agenda
or just be invited to comment on everything as
it arises or both. If they have dedicated time,
they should have choice as to where their
items are placed in the agenda.
Informed consent
Informed consent is the responsibility of the
support/participation worker. Contact should
be made with the child or young person’s
parents/carers and school in advance of the
meeting, as appropriate to their age.
Consideration needs to be given to the
consents that may need to be given by parents/
carers and the information that is provided to
them about the process in which their child is
engaging. Parents/carers could be invited to an
induction session to address these issues.
Briefing
Before the meeting, the children and young
people should be given a refresher on what
meetings are like. The aim of this is to get them
out of ‘classroom mode’ and enable them to
10
feel comfortable about speaking up or taking
comfort/toilet breaks, for example. This may only
be necessary for the first one or two meetings.
Case study –
Derby Chief Executive’s office
My role is the effective engagement of
young people in a city-wide youth forum
called Voices in Action that feeds into the
children’s trust partnership arrangement.
I support young people attending the
children’s trust partnership (City for
Children and Young People Executive)
meetings, where Voices in Action always
have an agenda item.
We normally meet for an hour before the
meeting to go through all the papers. I
explain the terminology used and what each
report is trying to say, and ask them what
they think about what is being suggested.
I get the young people to write their
comments, thoughts and questions on
the papers, and if they ask me why certain
things are being done, I encourage them to
ask those questions in the meeting.
I find an hour directly before the meeting
works best because if it’s a week before
they forget. I set the scene, saying that the
meeting will be full of people in suits and
it can be scary because they all look at you.
This makes them laugh, then I go on to
say that it’s OK to feel nervous. By the end
of the meeting they will say to me that it
wasn’t that bad at all.
I write the papers about young people’s
views and the young people then decide
who is going to speak in the meeting and
practise beforehand. They read their part
when it’s the Voices in Action agenda item.
Child protection and safeguarding plan/
risk assessment
You or your support/participation worker should
ensure that a child protection and safeguarding
plan/risk assessment is in place to deal with any
situations that may arise that could put children
and young people at risk. You need to check
that this has happened and inform the chair. If
you think that members of the meeting including
the chair are likely to be spending time alone
with the young members they must have been
vetted in line with current statutory vetting and
barring procedures, including CRB (Criminal
Records Bureau) disclosure. It is preferable to
avoid adults spending time alone with a young
member, even when appropriate checks have
been carried out.
Buddying or mentoring system
A buddying or mentoring system that supports
children and young people in preparing for and
attending meetings is extremely useful. Buddying
involves one person befriending someone in a
new situation and taking responsibility for
introducing them, showing them the ropes,
explaining things, answering questions and
providing support where necessary. Mentoring
has a more complex personal development
function in that the mentor supports and
encourages the mentee to manage their own
learning in order to maximise their potential.
The chair or other members of the group may be
able to identify potential buddies/mentors, or
members may volunteer themselves, although
this does not necessarily produce candidates who
are best suited to the role. However they are
selected, buddies/mentors should be provided
with a clear role description including the required
level of involvement inside and outside meetings
and the time they will need to set aside for the
role. Ensuring that you have sufficient numbers
of buddies/mentors at a given meeting can be
a challenge. You will need to encourage both
buddies/mentors and children and young
4. How to involve children and young people effectively in formal meetings
people to let you know in good time whether
they will be attending, so that you can ensure
you have the correct numbers.
If the mentor is an adult (i.e. over 18) different
considerations will need to be taken into
account with regards to unsupervised contact
and having access to their personal details.
Child protection procedures need to be
followed and the mentor will need to be CRB
checked. See section 7 for more details of how
to safeguard children and young people.
Case study –
NCB’s evaluation of young people on
the board of management
In order to support young board members, a
mentoring system was introduced, whereby
each young member was paired with an
adult board member who would sit with
them during meetings. Recent changes to
the timing of board meetings have made it
easier for young board members to meet
with their mentors in advance, and this has
provided greater opportunities for young
members to discuss the papers and to
develop relationships with their mentors.
It’s been really useful actually
because we sit down before the
meeting and talk through anything
in the papers that I wanted to raise
or I didn’t understand and they give
a basic summary of each one …
and then we’d talk at the break and
lunch as well to see if there was any
questions I thought needed raising.
(young NCB board member)
11

Top tip
The Children’s Society suggest the
following:
4. How to involve children and young people effectively in formal meetings
• The role of the chair is important in
terms of drawing young people into the
discussions without putting them on the
spot.
• Create informal space for young people
and adults to come together. At the
Children’s Society, for example, the
trustees and the senior management
team have an open invitation to the
young people’s evening meal or lunch.
Also, once a year, all the adults and
young people have a meal together after
the AGM.
• Use visual aids. We put the commentary
from the prep meeting on a flipchart at
the board meeting. The commentary
could be a question, an opinion or
reflection – anything the young people
think is of significance to share. Then
once the item is introduced and has
been presented, young people share
their commentary before the bigger
discussion starts, so it starts with the
young people. One young person said of
the commentary on the flipchart that it is
a ‘good idea, so it is there to remind us
what we talked about in the prep’.
• The culture you create in terms of a
space of mutual respect and value is
important.
As one young person said, ‘[it’s] good to
see what the adults talk about and what
they think about what we have said. We
want to see what the impact is.’
12
4.3 During the meeting/the day of
the meeting
What are the ingredients of the ideal meeting?
A few simple ideas will not only make the meeting
more enjoyable for the children and young
people to participate in but adults will find it more
engaging too. The suggestions below include
children and young people’s ideas, based on their
own experiences of attending formal meetings.
Welcome
There needs to be an emphasis on a warm, friendly
welcome which values all people. Children and
young people could be shown the room before
the meeting without adults in it and choose where
they (and their buddy/mentor, if appropriate)
would like to sit. It is important to make sure
everyone is introduced and not to assume all the
children and young people will know each other.
If a system has been set up, children and young
people can be met before the meeting by their
mentor or buddy. The young person and mentor/
buddy could sit for ten minutes together and
talk through the meeting, focusing on what to
expect, the content to be discussed, anything
they don’t understand and any anxieties they
might have. The child or young person should
ideally sit next to their buddy/mentor during
the meeting but should not be forced to do so.
It may also be useful to seat the chair opposite
the younger members, and to seat the young
members near to one another.
Comfort
Comfortable seating, air conditioning or fresh air
and having a room at a comfortable temperature
are all important. Thought should be given to
the length of meetings too. All contributors are
likely to lose concentration and enthusiasm if a
meeting is too long or without breaks. You
should make it clear to young participants that,
like adult attendees, they are entitled to get up
and leave the room (for example, to go to the
toilet) without seeking permission.
Young people we spoke to liked a mix of
venues that are adult-and-young-person
appropriate rather than just using young-
person focused venues.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere at a meeting should be relaxed
and friendly. Children and young people recognise
the need for seriousness when appropriate but
also respond well to active meetings. At the
initial meetings there may be a value in using
brief ice-breakers and creating opportunities to
influence the terms of reference, parameters and
agenda for the meeting wherever appropriate.
These can promote a friendly, welcoming
atmosphere, which in turn encourages
participation and interaction between all
attendees. While children and young people do
not expect adult participants to dress more
causally than usual when children and young
people are present, you might consider this if it
is likely to put them at ease. Children and
young people don’t want adults to pretend to
be cool, however, just because they are there.
I remember one young person wrote
me a note asking me what one of the
professionals did, so I encouraged
them to ask that question and suddenly
the tables were turned and the
professional suddenly felt slightly shy
as other professionals were saying, ‘Yes.
What do you do?’ This generated a bit
of laughter … laughter is always good.
(adult who supports young people
engagement in informal meetings,
Derby Council)
From the briefing session the children
and young people I worked with did
not want councillors to dress differently
but wanted children and young people
4. How to involve children and young people effectively in formal meetings
and councillors to feel they could dress
as they usually would. My youth council
are also happy with this arrangement
and have never suggested that
members wear alternative clothing.
(adult who supports young people
engagement in informal meetings, East
Hants Council)
Layout and equipment
The layout of the room at formal meetings
is important. Children and young people we
spoke to tended to feel most comfortable
seated in a circle or other layout where they
can see and hear everyone. This promotes an
atmosphere of equality and openness. Tables
can sometimes act as a barrier but are practical
when people are making notes and referring
to paperwork. Microphones may be necessary
in formal meetings so that everyone can hear
and be heard. Use of other technology, such
as hearing loops, should also be considered
to ensure accessibility. Giving members red
cards or flags to wave when they are confused
by the content of the meeting or the use of
jargon, can lift what might otherwise be a
barrier to full involvement for some children
and young people – and some adults.
Contributing
Children and young people need to know how
the meeting usually proceeds and how verbal
contributions are usually made – whether they
are expected to engage in open discussion
or make contributions through the chair or
whether they have a timed contribution slot.
13
 Children and young people should be given
choice about whether they wish to remain in
the meeting after their slot (if they have one),
or to leave if they need to do so. Children
4. How to involve children and young people effectively in formal meetings
and young people should be encouraged to
participate in the entire meeting, as adults
would be, so plans for the meaningful
engagement of children should run throughout
the whole meeting. It is important to ensure
that when children and young people have
made a contribution this is acknowledged and
valued. However, it also important to avoid
behaving like ‘proud parents’ as one young
person put it. Children and young people are in
the meeting as equals and their ideas must be
treated with the same scrutiny as any adult’s.
Written information and tools
A clear, accessible agenda which is followed
during the meeting is important to maintain
children and young people’s engagement and
participation. Agendas and supporting papers,
perhaps produced in different colours to help
everyone move from one item to the next with
ease, should be sent to children and young
people well in advance of the meeting,
especially when they are expected to consult
with peers as elected representatives prior to
the meeting. Bear in mind that some young
people’s email accounts cannot receive large
packages and not all will have access to a
printer. So always send a set of papers in the
mail. Have a spare set for them when they
arrive as well in case the papers are left at
home. Each paper should have a short
summary box at the top and indicate clearly
what decisions are expected by members of
the group. The format and language used in
the papers needs to be accessible and inclusive.
14
Accessibility
A venue that children and young people can
feel ownership of, or are familiar with, can be
helpful but if this is not possible, thought should
be given as to what can be done to make the
venue more welcoming and accessible.
Accessibility includes wheelchair access, translation
facilities for children and young people with
hearing or sight difficulties or for whom English
is not the first language and provision of
equipment such as hearing loops. There may
be other factors that make a building less
accessible to children and young people because
of what they might associate it with or the other
people using it. If possible, consult the children
and young people about this. The administrative
support given to adults in the group should also
be extended to children and young people.
Depending on the venue chosen there may be
security provision to get through. Explain this
to children and young people and remind them
about any identification they may need to
bring. See section 7 for further information on
learning more about accessibility.
Personal development and support
Personal development sessions can take place
before formal meetings start and can continue
throughout a meeting calendar, if needed. For
example, if young members want to present
their perspective on particular issues in a formal
manner they may need to develop presentation
skills. Some adults have lost their confidence in
talking to children and young people and this may
need to be addressed through their personal
development. Children and young people could
lead on a development session in this area. If a
buddying or mentoring arrangement has been set
up, regular slots could be arranged for buddies/
mentors to work in pairs with the children and
young people during meetings or for mentors
and mentees to communicate together, perhaps
identifying and addressing ongoing training needs.
Style and language
Children and young people do not want adults
to dumb down their language but they will
appreciate adults speaking clearly, in simple
language avoiding jargon. This has positive
benefits for adults too. Where technical
language is unavoidable a glossary or jargon
buster could be provided, which explains some
of the more complicated terms, and red cards
or flags could be used as referred to earlier. See
www.participationworks.org.uk or the extended
guide for a basic jargon buster. There are also
ways to make discussions, voting and problem
solving more visual and interactive. For example,
breaking into smaller groups often allows more
people to contribute to decision-making – use
sticky notes and spider diagrams for feeding back.
You could be brave and take away your tables
and get people to swoop seats in the meeting
or at least consider some of the wide range of
published tools that can help you to change
the style of your meetings. See section 7 for
sources of information to help you with this.
Top tip
Here is a tip from the youth participation
worker in Derby Council that can be
adopted by the buddy/mentor:
I often take a note pad with me into meetings
so when professionals use words that may
lose the young people, I interpret what
they are saying. For example, with the term
‘financial implications’ I will jot down ‘the
cost of something – so if there isn’t enough
money they can’t pay for certain services’.
Case study –
Harrow Youth Parliament attends
cabinet meeting
In order to be listened to and be able to
4. How to involve children and young people effectively in formal meetings
influence decisions taken by local politicians
that affect children and young people, the
Youth Parliament meets Harrow Council
Cabinet three times a year, the leader of
the council three times a year and the
Director of Children Services monthly.
The process
The officer from the Children and Young
People’s Empowerment Team, which is
responsible for the management of the
Youth Parliament, meets up with the
children and young people to decide items
for the cabinet meeting.
A presentation slide is then prepared
which is discussed with the Director of
Children’s Services, for guidance on cabinet
presentation methods.
The children and young people then
negotiate a suitable time on the cabinet’s
agenda, usually after public questions
between 7.30pm and 8.30pm. This is to
avoid a protracted and lengthy cabinet
business discussion.
Children and young people delivering their
presentation are seated around the same
table as cabinet members and are allowed
enough time to deliver their presentation
and to discuss action plans and next steps.
Actions from the meeting are recorded in
the cabinet’s minutes for circulation to the
general public.
Follow-up meetings are held immediately
and include meetings with the leader of the
council, portfolio holders and directors to
ensure that the Youth Parliament is able to
accomplish its priorities and campaigns.
15
 4.4 After the meeting
Minutes
4. How to involve children and young people effectively in formal meetings
Minutes are crucial evidence from meetings,
with summaries and action points helping to
make clear what has been agreed. For some
meetings, children and young people feel that
the use of video recording or conferencing
equipment can offer an alternative to written
minutes. Whatever method is used for
recording the meeting, this should serve to
feedback and follow up on the action taken
after each meeting in a clear and proactive
way. Some organisations produce child-friendly
minutes or abridged minutes for children and
young people whereas others produce minutes
that are the same for everyone and can be read
and understood by everyone.
Following up on issues
Once an issue is brought forward there should
be a transparent process for responding.
Timescales should be agreed at the meeting,
resource implications identified, feedback on
progress given and children and young people
should be able to track that process and see
tangible outcomes or understand why change
or support was not forthcoming.
Communication; follow ups and receiving
feedback
As part of the first meeting’s communication
plan, children and young people should
be given a follow-up call the day after the
meeting. This can be repeated after each
meeting, if thought appropriate and helpful.
The purpose of the call is to capture anything
that may have occurred to the child or young
person since the meeting, and to check that
16
the child or young person is clear about what
will happen next. Personal thanks from the
chair or administrator can be affirming and
motivating for children and young people.
Make sure children and young people can see
the results of their participation or how they
have influenced what happens next even if this
is a slow process. Outcomes from the meeting
that can be made public should also be shared.
Adopt a ‘you said – we did’ format in which
children and young people can see clearly
the impact and reach of their participation.
Again this is good practice to share with adult
members too so they can see the benefits of
their engagement. The limits of children and
young people’s influence and impact should be
made clear at the outset.
The involvement of children and young people
should be publicised as widely as possible
to raise the profile and encourage further
participation. This will increase the confidence
that children and young people have in the
process and lead to increased buy-in.
You may wish to consider letting the school,
or parents/carers know how things went if the
children or young people agree this would be
useful for them. This increases support and
appreciation from a range of sources and helps
to raise the self esteem of the participants.
Keep the communication channel (between
administrator and children and young people
or the supporting participation worker) open
between meetings. This will make children and
young people feel more valued, rather than
being called upon just when it suits adults.
From time to time call for feedback from all
meeting participants as this will help you
to evaluate the engagement and impact of
having children and young people take part in
the meeting. Take on board areas of concern
or development to make the meetings more

4. How to involve children and young people effectively in formal meetings

effective in the future. Experience suggests that
over time adjustments may need to be made
to the timing, the breaks, the chairing style and
the structure of the meetings. If the dialogue is
open this will not be difficult to achieve.

Ongoing personal development

Ask children and young people who leave

or retire from the meeting to assist with
developing or mentoring new children and
young people who join. Provide written
references for children and young people
who have contributed to formal meetings.
Help them craft a section for their CVs.
Encourage the chair to write a thank you
letter and to formally record the thanks of
the entire meeting membership when they
attend their last meeting. Find out about any
formal development opportunities, awards
or qualifications that children and young
people could gain credits for through their
involvement in meetings.

17
 5. What gets in the way of involving children and
young people?
Planning During After
Children and young people at a workshop
held to generate ideas for this guide told us
about some common barriers to engaging
children and young people, based on their own
5. What gets in the way of involving children and young people?
experiences of being involved in meetings.
Alongside these, some examples of overcoming
these barriers have been added.
5.1 Not being heard
Some children and young people feel that
once at a formal meeting, ‘people don’t
listen’. Making sure that children and young
people’s views and perspectives are respected
and listened to, and acted upon as equal to
those of any other member of the meeting
is a key responsibility of all those involved,
but particularly the mentor/buddy and the
chair – both during meetings and afterwards.
Failing to feedback to children and young
people about what has happened to their
contribution, compounds the sense of not
being heard.
I do think that the suggestions I
make are listened to as despite only
being a trustee for a short period
of time I feel like I have made a
contribution to the board. One
example of this is the meeting with
our young people’s panel where
we decided that a forum should
be used as a basis for increased
communication between the young
people’s panel and the trustee board.
(Young Trustee, Envision)
00
18
5.2 The language barrier
‘Adults using language we don’t
understand’ ‘So many abbreviations’
The use of management-speak, jargon and
acronyms remains an obstacle. Anyone
attending a formal meeting in a social or
professional context that they do not normally
operate within is likely to encounter a
language barrier, which without a means of
translation makes it almost impossible to play a
meaningful role in decision-making. The chair
and all those present at the meeting should
work to overcome the natural tendency to use
language which cuts corners for those who
understand it, but excludes and risks alienating
everyone else. See www.participationworks.
org.uk or the extended guide for a basic jargon
busting list and don’t forget to consider using
red flags/cards.
Top tips
Harrow engagement team suggests the
following for overcoming the language
barrier:
• Briefing notes for meetings are sent
to children and young people prior
to meetings with explanations of the
jargon.
• S omeone attends a pre-meeting briefing
to acquaint him or herself with possible
jargon, and shares this with children and
young people prior to the meeting.

Obviously as I have no business
experience I have struggled in some
ways with the language. Nick always
explains any acronyms to the board
as a whole and I think the fact that I
went to an induction last year really
helped me get an understanding of
the language which Envision uses
and this gave me a good grounding
to understand the trustee meetings.
(Young Trustee, Envision)
In Derby Council the youth engagement
officer gave the following example of how
they explained the term ‘commissioning’ to
a young person using an example that they
were familiar with – a fast food restaurant.
Your favourite fast food restaurant needs to
buy in a cleaning company.
There are three companies that could clean
for this restaurant. The prices for cleaning
vary from cheap to expensive. You are
the manager who needs to decide which
company gets the job.
Expensive doesn’t mean that it is the best
and the cheapest doesn’t mean it’s the worst.
You have to ask each company a set
of questions to see if they are the right
cleaning company for the restaurant. Do
they have the right cleaning products and
health and safety certificates? Are they
based in Derby? Can they work all hours?
The answers that you get to these questions
will enable you to decide who to commission.
g n i r u D gninnalP
r etfA
5.3 Tokenism – the T word
Tokenism means any part of the meeting
process that serves to undermine the
5. What gets in the way of involving children and young people?
involvement of children and young people’s
participation, such as inviting children and
young people too late in the planning cycle of
the meeting, or in a way that keeps up
appearances without empowering them to
contribute effectively or involving them on a
level playing field with adults. This damages
relationships and confidence among children
and young people and adults alike, and is likely
to lead to disengagement and disillusionment.
By encouraged two-way communication
between the adults and the children in the
meeting can be an important tool in avoiding
tokenistic behaviour.
An example of tokenism –
‘a waste of time and money’
A youth representative attending a regional
council meeting encountered a ‘vague
agenda’ and turned up to find that it
was ‘a tick box exercise’ with six elected
representatives. The youth representatives
felt ‘patronised’ and that there was no real
opportunity to contribute their views on
relevant issues. Overall, nothing happened
and no one seemed to benefit, apart from
those who would be able to confirm that
a meeting with children and young people
had taken place.
The willingness of the trustee board
to involve young people and listen
to their opinions on decisions being
made really shows that they value
the contribution of young people.
Moreover, the fact that they rely on
19
 Planning During After
me to be the connection between
the two bodies really demonstrates
that they feel that the graduate
trustee position is valuable to the
5. What gets in the way of involving children and young people?
Within Harrow Council, meetings are
held where possible at the children and
young people’s choice of venue. Seating
arrangements are then organised by

trustee board as a whole. children and young people to avoid

(Young Trustee, Envision)
5.4 Need and relevance
Children and young people we spoke to fed
back that meetings could and should be fun
while being relevant. Many children and young
people can recall experiences of being invited
to ‘meetings for meetings’ sake’, where the
wrong people have been brought together to
discuss the wrong issues at the wrong time, or
at the wrong level. Children and young people
tend to pick up on this issue immediately.
intimidation. Children and young people
suggest agenda items – in this way they
have in-depth knowledge of what they
want to discuss and what they expect from
the meeting.
They have overcome some practical barriers
in the following ways:
• Meetings are mostly after school hours
(after 5pm).
• Children and young people are dropped
off near their homes after meetings.

‘Envision always offer a variety

5.5 Practical barriers of dates in good time before the
meeting so that if I need to rearrange
There can be some practical challenges to anything in order to attend the
involving children and young people in formal meetings I have plenty of time to
meetings, such as lack of transport, problems do so.’
over payment of expenses, or meetings
being held at times and in venues that make
attendance difficult. Issues around payment
and rewards or lack of recognition for children
and young people attending formal meetings
can create tensions.

Practical barriers vary greatly depending on

individual children and young people. For
example, disabled young people, refugee
children, traveller children, young parents
and children looked after have very different
support needs. These can vary on a one-to-one
basis within these ‘groups’.

20
6. Case studies
6.1 Local Youth Partnerships –
London Borough of Tower
Hamlets
As young global citizens and members of local
and international communities, Tower Hamlets
children have a voice. The issues are how they
express that voice, who listens and what happens.
The Local Youth Partnerships have been
developed following consultation with young
people. Instead of hosting forums or meetings,
we have developed locally based campaign
projects to ensure that children and young
people can affect local services. As part of
these projects, two young people from the
group attend and report their work to the
Local Area Partnership (LAP) steering group
– a meeting with the police, National Health
Service, head teachers and others.
Young people are given training in
communication skills, meeting skills and
confidence skills. We then provide training
to the LAP steering group members to create
awareness of the importance of involving
children and young people in formal meetings.
Before the youth representatives start their year-
long role, they meet with the chair, co-chair
and neighbourhood manager, to make sure
they feel welcome in their first meeting. They
are assigned a mentor in each meeting, so that
they can discuss the agenda and minutes from
the previous meeting and ask questions about
any jargon that might pop up. These mentors
are also offered training specific to their role.
If a young person is not very confident in
speaking, they can speak to the other youth
representative, or to their mentor to ensure
that their voice is heard.
Over the years, youth representatives and other
During Afthave come up with a jargon
Planningpeople
young er
buster (some of which has been incorporated
into a basic jargon buster which can be
6. Case studies
downloaded at www.participationworks.org.uk.),
which helps young people and adults
understand some of the language used.
All costs are covered for the youth
representatives, including transport, food and
training. They are seen as volunteers and are
given as much support as possible to complete
their role, including a role description and
regular meetings with a youth worker.
Meetings are held from 6.30pm to 8.30pm, so
that young people can attend after school.
I have helped adults see that young
people can have a say too. This
role has given me so much more
confidence, and I can understand my
local area a lot better.
(Faiza Mukith, Deputy Young Mayor, 2008)
6.2 Involvement and engagement
of young people in Overview
and Scrutiny Committee
meetings – Brent
Currently at Brent we try to involve young
people in the Overview and Scrutiny
Committee (OSC) meetings. Although it is not
the most child-friendly forum, we have some
elements of success:
• The chair of the committee is a keen
advocate of listening to children and
young people and has a proactive
approach to involving children and young
people’s views and concerns.
21
 • The chair asks the youth parliament
gniruD g
retfA of theninnalP
to bring issues to the attention
committee (so that the committee can
respond to concerns raised directly by the
6. Case studies
children and young people).
• The issues that are highlighted by
the youth parliament are taken into
consideration and on one occasion became
a piece of work that was taken on by a
task group of the committee.
• The OSC meetings take place in the
evenings and the chair always makes sure
that the agenda items where children and
young people are present are dealt with
first so they can leave after that, if needed.
• Transport costs to and from the meetings
are reimbursed to children and young
people. Also, refreshments are provided to
all attendees.
• Our chair is quite keen to have children
and young people involved so he makes
sure any jargon is explained and also
gives them a platform to speak during the
meetings.
• Copies of the agenda and supporting
documents are sent to the children
and young people attending and the
participation worker beforehand.
• As the participation lead, I brief the
children and young people in advance of
the meeting so they are not going in cold.
• The children and young people and I
usually attend the pre-brief for the OSC
meeting so we get a feel of what to expect
at the meeting.
22
• The chair meets with members of the Brent
Youth Parliament (BYP) on a quarterly
basis inbetween meetings (in a less formal
setting) in order to get a better idea of
the issues that affect local residents and
especially the children and young people
themselves so he can then plan the work
of the committee based on resident need.
• The minutes of the meetings always
acknowledge the children and young
people present and any contributions
made by them.
• It has been recommended that where
applicable, reports submitted to the OSC
that may have a direct impact on children
and young people should have a section
entitled ‘young people’s views’. This should
demonstrate how children and young
people are involved in discussion and that
their views are given due weight. We are
working towards implementing this in the
future.
• Before the meeting, I receive all the
relevant papers from the Policy and
Regeneration Officer.
• We have some standing members of BYP
who attend all the OSC meetings, but
any BYP member particularly interested in
the agenda item can also attend (so I pick
the right young person to attend each
meeting).
• I meet with the young people before each
meeting to explain what the paperwork is
all about.
• The young people sit in on the pre-
meeting where all the presenters and the
 chair have a brief discussion on how the
meeting will be conducted. This is a good
opportunity for the young people to relax
and get to know each person and familiarise
themselves with the agenda as well as
with the chair. Then immediately after the
meeting I talk to the young people about
anything they feel needs to be further
investigated and we have an informal chat
about how the meeting went.
• Every quarter, the chair of OSC meets with
selected BYP members to talk about issues
coming to meetings.
6.3 Engaging young people on
NCB’s Board of Management –
the Company’s Secretary
When NCB first decided in 2001 that it was
high time to have young people on our Board
of Trustees, I had very little experience of
working with children or young people, despite
working in a children’s charity. Some of our
trustees and staff were in a similar position and
so the first thing we did was to have a
presentation from another charity who were
further down the line in engaging young people
in the decision-making process. The next thing
was to invite nine young people from NCB’s
young membership, Young NCB, to come to a
board of trustees meeting. This gave them the
opportunity to outline the work and priorities
of Young NCB and also to see how trustee
meetings worked. Four of the young people
then became our first young board members.
The impact of this important change has been
considerable. Over time, the input from the
young board members and the steps we have
put in place to facilitate their engagement,
have improved the quality of meetings for
Planning DuringNowadays,
everyone. After board meeting agendas
are clearer and more focussed, every paper
presented at a meeting has a summary and
6. Case studies
a list of required actions clearly identified at
the beginning, and we additionally prepare
summaries of the papers for use by young
board members and their mentors when
preparing for a meeting. We have red cards
which all participants, adult and young alike,
can raise when the jargon is getting out of
hand, and I think quite carefully about the
seating when preparing a meeting. I usually
offer the young representatives and their
mentors the ‘top slot’ opposite me and the
chair so it is easy for them to catch our eye
when they need to. I would say that these
changes have benefited us all, not just the
young participants, and that the impact on the
tone and content of meetings has been quite
marked. We have not really looked back.
6.4 Young people’s involvement
in formal decision-making
meetings of grant-making
organisations – YouthBank UK
YouthBank UK has been supporting young
people’s involvement in the formal decision-
making meetings of grant-making
organisations such as The Big Lottery Fund,
Mediabox and The Co-operative Foundation
for the last six years. Our experiences have
shown that good preparation is the key to this
involvement being full, exciting and not tokenistic.
We have seen the benefits of exploring with
organisations the processes around their
meetings and how these may need to change
to create an environment where children and
young people and adults are equals in decision-
23
 making. For YouthBank this has been far more
gniruD g
retfA venues.ninnalP
than the practicalities of times and
• Structuring meetings to include time to
6. Case studies
set out ways that groups want to work
together, to think about what success will
look like for them and to reflect and learn
together at the beginning and end of each
meeting.
• Taking the time to train all who will
be involved, together as a team, to
understand the criteria and the tools that
they will be using to make decisions.
• Spending time building relationships and
the confidence of all involved and allowing
everyone to set out and talk about their
hopes and fears of working across the
generations. Supporting both children and
young people and adults to respect each
other’s experiences and to acknowledge
that this will be gained in different ways
but be equally as valuable.
• Introducing methods of decision-making
that are dynamic, visual and, very
importantly, make use of limited time.
Neither adults nor young people want or
should be expected to sit through hours of
unstructured debate that could potentially
lead to people making quick decisions just
to end the boredom!
• Acknowledging that sometimes formal
meetings don’t need to change drastically
to include children and young people. The
focus needs to be on looking at process
and structure to meet the function of the
meetings while including all.
24
• It has proved helpful to have one person
who can be a step away from the meeting
content but can make sure the process
runs smoothly and supports children and
young people to have their say. We have
worked with children and young people as
chairs to enable them to take on part of
this role as time goes on.
6.5 Youth councillors’ involvement
in formal meetings – East
Hampshire District Council
A group of youth councillors from the same
school have been involved in a number of
formal meetings with two councillors, one of
their school governors and their head teacher
regarding their Youth Debt project. The school
governor and head teacher have been involved
due to their school being our pilot and have
been useful in advising the young people on
how their peer drop-in focusing on money
could run. The head teacher helped the young
people to be realistic and to consider what
could be put in place in order to make the
drop-in a success.
My role as a participation worker was key to this
process as I kept communication going with the
young people after each meeting so they knew
what further dates had been planned for meetings
or project work, what they needed to do and
what I needed to do and by what date. We also
met to complete the project work together and
made use of our Youth Council sub-group time to
complete the work required. The formal meetings
took place on a monthly basis and these meetings
generated the work which was required for the
following month so the young people and I met
at least twice a month to work on the areas
that needed completing. We timetabled these
sessions in as soon as the formal meeting had
ended to ensure we had enough time to
complete the tasks. The types of practical work
I supported them in included: creating a
confidentiality agreement, creating a money
quiz for their virtual learning environment at
school, designing posters for the drop-in session,
deciding on questions that could be asked on
their money DVD, reviewing the DVD, arranging
mock phone calls with Connexions, advertising
for other young money advisors and creating
an advert for their drop-in to show in assemblies.
These considerations and further pieces of
work have taken a long time (nearly a year)
but the interest in this piece of work and
motivation has remained high due to the
support the young people have received and
the ownership they have over the project due
to their ideas being the driving force behind it.
6.6 Young people on the board –
The Children’s Society
We have made a commitment to support
five young people who use Children’s Society
services to attend and take part in discussions
at the organisation’s trustee board. This
commitment has been in place for nearly a
decade. As an organisation, we are continually
reflecting on and trying to improve the
methods we use to ensure that young people
are taken seriously, feel able to contribute to
the discussions in the meetings and have an
influence on the decisions.
Our starting point is to ensure that we recruit
and appoint the right people to sit on the board
so young people are part of the recruitment of
new Trustees and new appointments to the
Society Management Team.
The other part of the process is the preparation
Planning Du
session ring Aft the board meeting. The Director
before er
of the Children and Young People’s Division
prepares a young person’s summary of the
6. Case studies
board papers and spends the morning before
the afternoon meeting going through the
agenda items, drawing upon the key items that
we want to hear a young person’s perspective
on. The preparation sessions are important
because the young people can discuss issues
related to the agenda of the board meeting or
any other issues of concern to them with a
senior manager within the organisation. This
informal but purposeful nature of the dialogue
makes this session valuable from all perspectives.
Preparation sessions are useful. We
have time to look at things and
discuss. We spend more energy on
this and it means when we get into
the big meeting we have done it.
(young person on the Children’s Society
board)
Penny explains it to us. We know
what it’s all about. She has mini debates
with us to draw our opinions out.
(young person on the Children’s Society
board)
As a young person referred to spending the
energy in the pre meeting, we had to think
of a way of capturing the comments and
reflecting them back in the big meeting.
We tried a number of things, a couple of
Trustees attending the pre meeting and being
aware of the dialogues and supporting young
people in the board meeting, or young people
making notes of their comments and raising
the point in the board meeting.
25
 7. Where to find further information
Burke, Tom (2010) Listen and Change –
A guide to children and young people’s
participation rights, 2nd edition. Children’s
Rights Alliance for England. This guide aims to
8. Where to find further information
increase understanding of children and young
people’s participation rights and how they can
be realised in local authority and third sector
settings. Order at:
http://www.participationworks.org.uk/
resources/listen-and-change-a-guide-to-
children-and-young-peoples-participation-
rights
Council for Disabled Children (2004) Come
on in: a practical guide for children’s services
– The Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
This publication provides examples of issues
around physical access and a number of audit
tools that may be used as a reference for your
meetings. Download at: http://www.ncb.org.
uk/dotpdf/open_access_2/come_on_in_2004.
pdf
Cummings, Andrew (2007) UK Youth’s
Curriculum Toolkit – young people’s
participation in decision making. UK Youth.
ISBN – 1-904479-18-9
Dalzell, Ruth with Hearn,Barbara and
Young, Janine (2010) Children and Young
People’s Involvement in Formal Meetings:
A practical guide. Download at: www.
participationworks.org.uk from the end of May
2010
Davey, Ciara (2010) Children’s Participation in
Decision-making. NCB. Download at:
http://www.participationworks.org.uk from the
end of May 2010
26
Griffiths, Adam, Moore, Suzanne and
Wales, Alecia (2001) Conferences and events
– children and young people’s participation.
NSW Commission for Children and Young
People. The NSW Commission for Children
and Young People (Australia) has created some
resources for organisations that want practical
advice about how to involve children and
young people in activities, events and
decision-making about issues that affect
their lives. Download at:
http://kids.nsw.gov.au/kids/resources/
participationkit/conferencesevents.cfm#involved
Kirby, P with NCB (2003) Building a Culture
of Participation; involving children and young
people in policy, service planning, delivery and
evaluation. Research report and handbook.
London: NCB. Download the research
report at; http://tinyurl.com/pqbwra and the
handbook at; http:// tinyurl.com/necrsr
Monaghan, Rachel (compiled by) (2007)
The Big Idea – Involving young people in
projects around the development of the built
environment. NCB. ISBN 978-1-905818-17-4
Save the Children (2010) Two sides to a
story – A toolkit for young asylum seekers,
advocating for change in service provision. The
toolkit contains all the activities you will need
to plan and carry out a workshop with a range
of service providers aimed at positive change.
The Brighter Futures project created the toolkit
and you can get a copy by emailing your
request to metdes@thetrinitycentre.org
Willmott, Natasha and Shaw, Catherine
(2006) Young people on NCB’s board of
Management – An evaluation of the first three
years. NCB. Download at:
http://www.ncb.org.uk/PDF/ypob_eval.pdf
How to guides
These guides published by NCB support
practitioners in improving the involvement of
children and young people in decision-making.
Order at: http://www.participationworks.org.
uk/resources?filter1=HowToGuide
Clark, David and Oliver, Clare (2008)
How to involve children and young people in
governance.
Cutler, Paul (2008) How to involve children
and young people in commissioning.
Martin, Kate with I CAN (2008) How to
involve children and young people with
communication impairments in decision-
making.
Pryse, Steven (2007) How to safeguard
children and young people.
Pryse, Steven (2008) How to work
successfully with children and young people
from different faiths and cultures.
Pryse, Steven (2009) How to involve ‘hard to
reach’ children and young people.
Young, Janine (2009) How to build a culture
of participation.
Participation Works also has a legislation
update where you can see the latest legislative
and policy framework relating to children and
young people’s participation.
http://www.participationworks.org.uk/topics/
policy/participation-legislation
Training and consultancy support
NCB has involved children and young people
in formal meetings and in its governance for
8. Where to find further information
many years. It has expertise in offering your
organisation consultancy on governance and
practical participation for adults who want to
effectively engage children and young people
in their work. Contact Janine Young at
jyoung@ncb.org.uk for further details.
The British Youth Council (BYC) offers
training workshops to empower young people
across the UK, developing their skills so they
can have a say and be heard and inspiring
them to get involved locally, nationally
and internationally. Training from the BYC
includes ‘Youth at the Table’, which supports
young trustees or committee members in
organisations and ‘Putting Your Point Across’ a
suite of training sessions designed to train and
skill up young people in representative roles.
BYC also provides a bespoke training and
consultancy service tailored to the needs of
your organisation. Full details can be found in
the training section of the BYC website
www.byc.org.uk/training
Participation Works offers bespoke training
and consultancy on Building a Culture of
Participation. For more information contact
enquiries@participationworks.org.uk or
0207 843 6803.
27
Participation Works
8 Wakley Street, London EC1V 7QE
www.participationworks.org.uk

Participation Works is based at the NCB

Registered charity number 258825

Participation Works enables organisations to effectively involve children and young

people in the development, delivery and evaluation of services that affect their lives.