Good Practice Principles

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth (DCEDIY) and Hub na nÓg have developed a set of good practice principles on how to engage with children and young people and ensure that their voices can make a difference or have an impact on decision-making, which are outlined below:

Good Practice Principles – Engaging With Children:

  • Involve children in decision-making from the start.
  • Seek children’s blue sky thinking.
  • Avoid giving children information that can limit their thinking.
  • Use a strengths-based approach, starting with children’s own experience and understanding.
  • Use open consultation questions or easily understood survey questions developed by children.
  • Use creative and age-appropriate methods.
  • Avoid interpreting children’s views during the process.
  • Ensure that children evaluate the process and that feedback is given to them on decisions made.

Good Practice Principles – Ensuring Impact:

  • Ensure that human and financial resources are in place.
  • Identify and name how children views will be used.
  • Identify and name how decisions that are taken will be fed back to children.
  • Report on the views of children and avoid adult interpretations of their views.
  • Ensure that children play a prominent role in presenting their own views at relevant events.

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