Learning and Research

What is RSS?

Across the UK, there is a strong interest from academics and others in children and young people as public actors, and how they make their voices heard. There is a growing body of research around this theme, which is generating new ideas and thinking.

Tools

Child And Youth Participation Resource Guide
UNICEF annotated bibliography of resources around children and young peoples participation. Published as a pdf in 2006.

Children, Young People and Social Inclusion
Book which asks critically examines the concepts of participation and social inclusion and their links with children and childhoods. Published 2006.

Listening to Children: Environmental Perspectives and the School Curriculum
This study concerns how children perceive, and act within, their local environment. It draws on educational, geographical and environmental psychology perspectives.

Mapping Children and Young People's Participation in England
The National Youth Agency (NYA) and the British Youth Council (BYC) surveyed statutory and voluntary sector organisations in England between November 2003 and January 2004, in order to establish a picture of the levels and ways in which they involve children and young people up to 19 in public decision-making.

National Evaluation of Children's Fund
The Children’s Fund was set up in 2000, in part as a catalyst to move forward inter-agency cooperation and child and family-led preventative services in local authorities. It is, therefore, part of a long-term strategy aimed at strengthening communities and families as places where children and young people can develop as healthy, responsible and engaged citizens.

How to involve children and young people in research
This How To guide offers an introduction to the merits of involving children and young people in research.
It also has ideas on what you need to consider before carrying out this work.
Find out more

PALS Research - Users & Staff Perspectives
The NHS Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) was set up to help patients and the public obtain ‘on the spot’ information and advice, and deal with any issues or concerns about their health care. This study examines to what extent PALS were inclusive of children, young people and parents.

A guide to Actively Involving Young People in Research
This guide is about why and how to actively involve young people (aged 12 to 21 years) as researchers within health and social care research. It is primarily aimed at researchers and commissioners of research. It is also written for professionals working with young people.

Participation and Working with Boys and Young Men Briefing
The purpose of this briefing is to explore how the growing participation ‘agenda’ involves and impacts upon working with boys and young men.

The True Cost of Public Participation
There is a gap between the rhetoric underpinning public participation and the hard evidence of the financial costs of undertaking such working. This gap creates problems, both in terms of planning and also in terms of making the case for participation.

The Value Added By Community Involvement in Governance
This project deals with the experience of a range of participants in Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) in England, the value they place on the process of community involvement in partnership working, the costs of that engagement and the barriers encountered.

Your Place or Mine
A Research Study Exploring Young People’s Participation in Community Planning

Building a Culture of Participation
Research focused on how to change organisation to better listen to children and young people so that their views bring about change. (583kb PDF)

Involving young researchers. How to enable young people to design and conduct research. Explores the issues of whether to involve young people in social research, the ways in which they can best participate and how to support them in doing so.

So you Want To Involve Children in Research. A guide on involving children in a meaningful and ethical way in research.

Top tips for research and consultation with children and young people. Compiled and edited by Michael Gallagher as an online resource for the continuing professional development course “Listening to Children: Research and Consultation”.

YRN Online Research Toolkit - A guide for young researchers. This toolkit is intended as a guide to each stage of the research process, from finding and defining a research interest to sharing your findings and making change happen.