Category: The Library

A Review of Ethical and Methodological Practice for Research or Consultation with Children and Young People Who Experience Poverty

This review was commissioned by the Department for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DECDIY) to provide an up-to-date understanding of what children and young people who have experienced poverty have been asked about and consulted on, and to identify key methodological and ethical issues. The aim of the review is to provide practical guidance for researchers and practitioners who are contemplating involving children and young people living in poverty in a research project or a consultation. The involvement of children and young people in any research or consultation should be placed within the context of an international rights-based framework. The adoption of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child specifies the right of all children to express an opinion on matters and decisions that affect them directly and to have that opinion taken into account. In the Irish context, there is now increasing emphasis on eliciting the views and perspectives of children and young people in matters that relate to them, and this is reflected in policy and practice whereby government and agencies of the state are increasingly advocating and drawing on children young people’s voice in research and consultation processes. More recently, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has expressed serious concern about the large number of children in Ireland that are living in poverty, food insecurity and homelessness, and about the children of ethnic minority groups who do not have access to child benefit payments due to the habitual residence condition. In a recent report the Committee urged the Irish state to ensure that measures to combat poverty comply with a child rights-based approach and include a particular focus on children from disadvantaged families, especially children of single parents, refugee children and children of ethnic minority groups (UNCRC, 2023). This report contributes to supporting this task and includes a methodological and ethical review of how to capture the voices of vulnerable children, with a particular focus on experiences of children and young people living in poverty. The practical guidance offered in this report can inform future research initiatives and consultations that aim to better understand the lived experience and views of children and young people experiencing poverty.

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Young Audience Sector Research: Embedding the Voices and Rights of Babies, Children and Young People in the Young Audience Sector

This research was commissioned by the Young Audience Group and funded by Creative Scotland. The Young Audience Group is a collective of organisations and freelancers who have been meeting informally since 2018 to advocate for and raise awareness of the young audience sector. The collective is currently comprised of the following organisations and individuals: Action Boat, Barrowland Ballet, Catherine Wheels & Shona Reppe, Curious Seed, Frozen Charlotte, Imaginate, Independent Arts Projects, Lyra, Scottish Theatre Producers, Starcatchers and Visible Fictions. In 2021, research carried out by Cultural Radar identified key needs and priorities for the Young Audience Group’s ongoing work. Victoria Beesley led a second phase of research in 2023 exploring what a new network/ membership collective of freelancers and organisations working in the young audience sector might look like. This third phase of research is focused on two different elements: equity and access in a membership collective for the young audience sector – this research has been carried out by Kirstin Georgia Abraham; and the voices and rights of babies, children and young people within a membership collective for the young audience sector – this research has been carried out by Victoria Beesley and is the focus of this report.

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Making My Mark Resource: Digital Participation in the Early Years

At Starcatchers, we want to ensure that more babies and young children 0-5 can make their mark through art. Through arts and creative experiences like music, storytelling, theatre, movement, mark-making, painting, drawing and craft, little ones are: exploring, experimenting, concentrating and getting stuck in, persevering, making choices, expressing their feelings, thoughts and ideas. When a child creates something, whether this be a sound, a movement or a wonderful, colourful splodge on a page, they are learning that they have impact and can make a difference. They are learning that they have a voice. Through arts and creative experiences, babies and young children are learning about their rights!

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Voice of the Baby in Practice: Resources to Guide the Practical Application of The Voice of the Baby: A Reflective Guide for the Arts

Welcome to the Starcatchers Voice of the Baby In Practice Resource. This resource has been inspired by research that Starcatchers commissioned in response to increasing curiosity from across Arts, Health, Early Learning and Childcare and Voluntary sectors about how to consider the ‘voice’ of our youngest children in consultation and participation activities and our belief that the arts could be a wonderful tool to support this.

The research undertaken by Dr Rachel Drury from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Dr Cara Blaisdell from Queen Margaret University, and research assistant Claire Ruckert, resulted in the creation of the Starcatchers Voice of the Baby: A Reflective Guide for the Arts, which outlines five areas for consideration when using rights-based creative approaches with babies and very young children. The Voice of the Baby In Practice Resource sits alongside the Reflective Guide to help put this work into practice and we hope you will find these tools helpful in your work with babies, young children and their parents and carers.

Why is this needed? Babies and young children, those from birth – 3 years are a group who are consistently overlooked in terms of children’s rights. Their lack of verbal language, perceptions about their capabilities and their reliance on the adults makes it much harder for them to access their rights than older children and young people. What we do know, however, is that babies and young children use a myriad of ways to communicate with those around them, sharing their views and their experience of the world.

With the incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into domestic law in Scotland, it has never been more important for us to ensure that babies, those from birth– 3 years, are supported to have their rights realised. A key aspect is that this is not solely focused on the protection and provision rights within the UNCRC but also the participation rights that babies are entitled to. Being included and heard in decisions that are made about their lives is essential, but it is also complex. We know that professionals across sectors are seeking to engage with, and include the views of, babies and young children but that they need support and tools to do this effectively.

The Starcatchers Approach; Putting the needs and ‘voice’ of babies and young children has been at the heart of Starcatchers’ work since our pilot project in 2006. Since then, we have evolved our rights-based approach informed by the babies and young children we have connected with, and by our increased understanding of children’s rights. Where initially our focus was on Article 31 and realising the rights of babies and very young children to engage with and participate in the arts and cultural life, we know that the arts can be a vehicle for babies and very young children to experience the breadth and depth of the rights held within the UNCRC. This includes being able to express views and feelings about matters that affect them and that these views can be taken into account by decision-makers.

The Voice of the Baby Reflective Guide and the In Practice Resource is only a small step in the consideration of the ‘voice’ of babies and very young children in Scotland. It is, however, an exciting step towards enabling increased visibility of babies and their inclusion in discussions regarding their rights.

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Eurochild 2024 Flagship Sub-report on Child Participation

On 20 November – World Children’s Day – Eurochild released its flagship report on children in need titled “Children’s Realities in Europe: Progress & Gaps”, which compiles information from 57 Eurochild members in 31 countries across Europe. This sub-report sheds light on how child participation is funded and examines how children’s views are integrated into various initiatives. It also explores barriers to meaningful child participation and the right of the most marginalised children to participate. After laying out the information coming from the ground on the state of child participation in Europe, Eurochild offers its recommendations to European governments and European Institutions.

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Progressing Children’s Right to be Heard in Public Decision-making: Perspectives on Using Social and Digital Media to Facilitate Children’s Participation

Children’s right to be heard is expressed in Article 12 of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. Mechanisms and methods to facilitate the inclusion of young people’s views have been developed by youth workers, advocates and policy-makers and include diverse consultation approaches, including surveys, polls, consultation meetings and formal structures such as youth parliaments. Even though social and digital media are now pervasive in the lives of children, the potential to use these as tools to facilitate youth consultation is still surprisingly at an early stage of development. This paper presents findings from a national mixed-method study on how digital technologies might be further harnessed for this purpose. Over 300 children (6 to 17 years) and 30 professional stakeholders from government departments, public agencies, industry and civil society were consulted regarding their experiences and attitudes towards facilitating children’s participation through social and digital media. While children and young people generally expressed optimism about their potential, professional stakeholders held varying opinions regarding the pros and cons of utilizing digital tools. This paper highlights the contours of this sometimes contentious debate over the appropriate balance to be struck between protection and participation in using digital technologies and taking into consideration children’s best interests in realising their right to be heard. Drawing on the findings, we present a set of principles to guide the future deployment of social and digital media to facilitate children’s participation in public decision-making.

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A Literature Review on Best Practices and International Comparisons for Participation in Decision-making of Children Aged 6-12

This Literature Review on best practices and international comparisons for the participation of children aged 6- 12 (Action 5.1.1) is being undertaken as part of broader work including a report on a consultation process on the participation of children under 12 (Action 5.1.2) to deliver the aims of the Comhairle na nÓg Five-Year Development Plan to explore participation structures for children under 12.

The inclusion and active involvement of children in public and civic participation is a critical aspect of fostering a democratic and inclusive society. Children’s right to participate in decisions that impact their lives has received growing recognition since the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The literature suggests that children’s participation is a complex and multifaceted concept, involving various levels of involvement, contexts, and activities (Alanko, 2019). Despite an extensive growth in the literature on all aspects of children and young people’s participation it is notable that children between the ages of 6-12 remain relatively absent from this body of work.

This review focuses on children aged 6-12 years and how they can be included in collective decision-making processes and included in the processes of policy formation through formal and public decision-making participation structures. A previous review for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) and Hub na nÓg (Horgan, 2024) examined consultation with children from birth to five years. McCall-Smith (2023) stresses that the distinction between personal and collective decision-making is important in relation to “assessing when the views of a child, either individually or as part of a group, should be sought and how to facilitate this exchange of views” (McCall-Smith, 2023, p.1183).

Although definitions vary, middle childhood is most often understood as the period lasting from 6 – 12 years (Bhana, 2010). Middle childhood is a ‘key transitional childhood period’ (Campbell, 2011). Lancy and Grove (2011) provide ethnographic evidence across a variety of cultures in support of middle childhood as a universal developmental period in which children make a great effort to enter the public arena. Similarly, Jones and Cunningham (2005, p.41) refer to children’s expanding worlds in the period of middle childhood where ‘the child’s independent territorial range expands, accompanied by an increasing ability to interpret the physical and social world and to create new worlds in the imagination’. Peers become more important in children’s lives, and they take a more active role in shaping the nature of their play and activities. Middle childhood is also an important period for developing social and cognitive skills and for children’s emerging self-concept (McNamara et al., 2021). Childhood well-being and happiness studies indicate that the period of middle childhood is where children self-report as being at their happiest (Gavin et al., 2022).

In policy terms, middle childhood is dominated by education (Bessell et al., 2024). It is the institution where children spend most of their time when not at home. Schools, and adults in schools, are centrally important and can have a powerful impact on children during the middle childhood phase. In their work on the multiple contexts of middle childhood, Coll and Szalacha (2004), identify both school and community facilities as the most critical resources in middle childhood. However, the institutionalised nature of childhood means that there are few pathways for children to actively take part in social and civic activities outside of school, and so, ‘we need to reduce the reliance on schools as the dominant or sole institution responsible for supporting children’s participation or providing intergenerational relationships’ (Bessell et al., 2024). The report is organised in the following way: a brief summary of the methodological approach to the literature review, followed by a discussion of the conceptualisation and influences on child participation. The types of formal participatory activity for children under 12 are detailed as well as some innovative international structures and practices, and strategies supporting participation. The report concludes with some recommendations for developing effective and age- appropriate structures for children under 12.

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