Participation Works

A new partnership between NCB, Council for Disabled Children, the Alliance for Inclusive Education (Allfie), and The Children’s Society will work to research participation of disabled children and young people in services and matters which affect them.

Current policy encouraging the involvement of children and young people has increased their participation in the services they use, however there is still greater progress to be made to increase the participation of disabled children and young people.

The research hopes to build a better understanding of the most effective ways of enabling disabled children and young people to participate in developing services, or the ways they would prefer to be involved. The BIG Lottery Fund is supporting this three year project which will involve disabled children and young people in the research process.

The research will involve consultations with organisations working with disabled children and young people to analyse which practices work most effectively and how these can be shared and implemented. The partnership will produce a research report and series of practical toolkits which can be used by organisations and disabled young people based on their findings.

Helen Wheatley, Assistant Director, Council For Disabled Children commented;
"Disabled children and young people are often denied the right to participate in important decisions which affect their lives. The project will realise good practices which support disabled children and young people to participate in strategic developments in their local areas and consider how examples of effective practice can be embedded within common practice."

Wed, 09/12/2009 - 11:59