Working with children and young people

The Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Youth Development have guides for involving children and young people in decision-making, service delivery and projects:

Involving Children: A Guide to Engaging Children in Decision-Making is a practical guide for organisations, government agencies, community groups and individuals who want to involve children up to the age of 18 in effective decision-making.

The companion guide, “Keepin’ It Real”, deals with how to increase youth participation in policy development, programmes, services and organisations.

The Ministry of Social Development has also developed an online toolkit for care and protection workers about how to involve children, young people and their families in decision-making about care and protection services.

This toolkit builds on information in related guides about how to engage children, young people, and the community in decision-making, and draws out information that is particularly relevant for care and protection providers.

It emphasises the need to build trust, deal carefully with sensitive topics, and help participants who have learning or behaviour difficulties.

This resource is currently unavailable - please check back soon.

Involving children and young people in decision-making:

• gives them new skills and knowledge
• builds their confidence
• gives them some influence over matters that affect them
• increases adults' understanding of their issues
• helps us to create appropriate policies.

A few basic tips about involving children and young people:

• involve them as early as possible
• topics need to be real and relevant
• ask children and young people what issues are important to them
• use facilitators experienced with children and young people
• get consent to participate from the children themselves, as well as their parents or guardians
• explain whether individual contributions will be confidential or whether they will be published and shown to others.

Set the scene for success:

• prepare the children and young people well, and build rapport
• keep meetings to a suitable length
• take responsibility for safety and ethics
• arrange the timing of meetings to fit around school and activities
• meet in child- and youth-friendly places, eg, schools and sports clubs
• use an appropriate group size and structure
• think about whether transport is needed
• take regular breaks and provide food and drink
• provide children and young people with certificates or letters of acknowledgement to show them that their contribution is valued
• seek their input when evaluating the participation exercise.

Communicate clearly:

• present printed information in appropriate language and format
• always provide feedback.

This case study describes how an endangered bird restoration programme on Matakana Island was enhanced by involving the local community, particularly its school children.