Promoting children’s participation

Participation is the active involvement of children and young people in the decision-making process. Schools are increasingly developing pupils’ skills of active participation. A school culture that values pupil views will be one that is enriched by creative ideas and solutions. Adults will be better able to understand children’s needs if time is made to listen to them and opportunities created for their insights to inform practice.

The 2002 Education Act requires local authorities, governing bodies and schools to have regard to Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) guidance, Working Together: Giving Children and Young People a Say on considering the views of children and young people and involving them in decisions that affect them. The National Healthy School Standard (NHSS) and the citizenship curriculum also promote this.

‘Making a positive contribution’ is also a key outcome of Every Child Matters: Change for Children .

New Arrivals Excellence Programme: Primary and Secondary National Strategies (NAEP)

NAEP website
The website offers guidance, provides answers to frequently asked questions and provides links to other useful websites. The guidance can be downloaded from the website. 

NAEP Guidance
This document for primary and secondary schools aims to support schools in developing their provision for newly arrived pupils; whole school planning, welcoming, initial assessments, teaching and learning strategies and promoting children’s participation.

The promoting children’s participation includes:

• Having a voice and being listened to
• Being active participants in their own learning
• Collaborating with and supporting peers

NAEP resources
New Arrivals Excellence Programme: DVD and case studies - a resource to support the development of induction procedures for new arrivals. The DVD is available on request.

Good practice

By promoting children’s participation and their active involvement, schools will benefit from pupils’ skills and talents.

Include all groups of children

Children from all backgrounds, including refugee children, should have opportunities to be involved in decision-making. Schools should monitor children’s participation in activities to ensure that refugee children are represented.

The duty to promote race equality: A guide for Schools (.PDF)

This guide supports the Code of Practice on the Duty to Promote Race Equality and has been written mainly for the governing bodies of maintained schools and other educational institutions maintained by local authorities (LAs), which are also bound by the duty.

Involve children in planning and decision-making

Children of all ages appreciate being consulted and having their views considered as part of how services and activities are planned. Opportunities to be consulted and involved can be fun and can provide the foundation for children to make decisions and develop independence. Save the Children publishes a range of publications that can help practitioners consult children and involve them in planning:

Children as Partners in Planning: A training resource to support consultation with children

Children are Service Users Too: A guide for consulting children and young people

The benefits of involving refugee children

It is important that refugee children are seen as creative and resourceful. Refugee children should be made aware that their opinions and contributions are valued.

Brighter Futures is a network of self-advocacy groups working to give young refugees a voice. It is run by Save the Children England Programme. Young people in the Brighter Futures groups have designed a website for other young refugees.

Learn about rights and responsibilities

Learning about having a voice, democracy, rights and responsibilities, prepares all children for life in a diverse society.

Partners in Rights, a Save the Children initiative supported by the Community Fund, aims to increase children's understanding of the UNICEF: Convention on the Rights of the Child through the creative arts and cultural exchanges between young people. The Education Pack grew out of this creative exchange. It contains practical ideas for the classroom with full-colour photocards, a poster and a book of activities. It is available in Spanish, Portuguese and Welsh on the Partners in Rights website. The activities are designed for 7-14 year olds to fit with Citizenship and Personal, Social and Health Education. They can also be used across a number of curriculum subjects.

A Time for Rights, published by Save the Children and UNICEF is a teaching pack which explores citizenship and rights in relation to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Through role play, cartoons, stories, poems and a wide variety of activities, it looks at what rights mean to an individual child, in the family and in the community.

Innovative and creative approaches

Participation-Spice it up! a save the Children publication has lots of practical tools and ideas for creative approaches for engaging children and young people in planning and consultations.

Involvement in class and school councils

Primary School Councils Toolkit, produced by School Councils UK includes guidance and useful classroom activities to involve all children. Refugee children may need extra encouragement especially if they are newly arrived.

Reward children’s involvement

Taking part in consultation activities and helping to plan projects contributes to citizenship education. Involvement can be recorded in a child’s record of achievement. Certificates and thank-you letters can also reward and recognise participation.

Assess and monitor what has been achieved

Assess and monitor what has been achieved so that children’s participation in the shaping and delivery of services is established and developed further.

Hear by Right is a standards framework for organisations across the statutory and voluntary sectors to assess and improve practice and policy on the active involvement of children and young people.

Case study

The Young Refugee/Asylum Seeker Endeavour Award (.PDF)

Young refugees in the London Borough of Hillingdon received special awards to recognise their achievement, motivation and determination to overcome hardship. The case study describes how the LA and social services worked in partnership with a charity to recognise the positive contribution that refugee children and young people made to their schools.