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PWNE National Kitemarks Event, December 2007

The Participation Works Network for England held an event to explore issues around Participation Kitemarks on Wednesday 5th December this week. 45 delegates attended an afternoon of presentations and workshops at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London. 

Daniel Rose, Participation Officer at the National Trust and a member of the PWNE Steering Group chaired the afternoon’s event. Daniel began by giving an overview of kitemarking across the sector and stressed that Participation Works had not organised the event to endorse one kitemark over another but was interested to see what trends were emerging. 

Bill Badham from the National Youth Agency then gave a presentation about the National Youth Agency’s Youth Service Quality Mark (please download the YSQM presentation at the end of this article). Bill highlighted how this quality mark is gaining momentum across the sector and is being used as a management tool to improve quality, to support funding and commissioning, and to enable better outcomes for young people. 


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A number of delegates asked further questions about YSQM, such as how it fits with the Hear By Right Mapping and Planning Tool. Bill explained that the Hear By Right Framework is recommended to be used in conjunction with the YSQM framework, to ensure meaningful participation of children and young people takes place, but that other tools or methods could also be used. More information about how to access the YSQM and the associated resources are available on the NYA website. 

The next speaker was Lily Makurah from the Department of Health, who gave a presentation about the pilot kitemarking scheme being used to assess health services by young people; ‘You’re Welcome’. Whilst this project is still in the pilot stage Lily outlined how young people will be involved in developing the assessment tool, and how adhering to ‘You’re Welcome’ would allow health services to achieve other quality criteria. 

The areas which will be focused on are Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, Sexual Health, GPs, Abortion Providers and Health and Youth Services. In February the quality mark will be launched, and in March the toolkit will be developed alongside young people’s involvement. In April 08 a number of nationwide activities will take place and services will be expected to have the standards in place by April 2009. 

Delegates were invited to attend 2 workshops during the course of the afternoon. 

Investing in Children outlined how they had been working with the National Youth Agency to bring together the strengths of the Hear By Right Mapping and Planning Tool with the Investing in Children Membership scheme. They received positive feedback to their proposals and promised to keep delegates and the PWNE informed about future developments. 

Children’s Fund Plymouth, led by the organisation Routeways, told delegates the story of their mystery shopping scheme and how they would like to develop it into a participation kitemark of some sort. They also received some positive feedback and useful advice on their plans from delegates. 

The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services presented ‘The Young Partners Award’ which held a recent event to celebrate young people’s participation in organisational structures and activities, specifically in voluntary sector organisations. The award is assessed by a young people’s group and 2 members were there to discuss their involvement and what criteria they felt were important. 

In summing up the event Daniel Rose emphasised the importance of continuing to work together, sharing learning and being transparent about each others kitemarks and ideas. Other delegates raised concerns about the need to put resources into supporting existing groups to secure their involvement, e.g. youth forums inputting to the development of ‘You’re Welcome’. 

Another issue is not ‘owning’ the debate for ourselves (i.e. Participation Workers) but making sure other groups begin to engage in this agenda. Many delegates emphasised the need to recognise ‘baby steps’ and that any new Participation Kitemark needs to have different levels and steps, to allow all organisations and departments to move along in their journey. 

Finally there was a warning about not ‘badging’ something for the sake of it, but recognising the value of the process. There was also a final plea to Participation Works to explore this subject further, and if necessary recommend or support a national kitemark which could also be used by funders in the commissioning process. 

All the workshop presentations will be put on the PWNE events pages in due course. 

Youth Service Quality Mark Website 
http://www.nya.org.uk/Templates/internal.asp?NodeID=93415