Many organisations, government departments and the voluntary and community sector have signed up to the principle of involving children and young people in decision-making. However it remains important to provide evidence that participation leads to change that benefits children and young people-and the wider community.
Why measure change?
Measuring whats changed as a result of participation enables an organisation to track the impact of their participation work and to what extent it has influenced decisions making. It is an important part of both evaluating and improving practice and celebrating young people’s involvement in creating positive change.
The Measuring the Magic report identifies six questions to ask of participation work:
Do young people influence public decisions?
How are decisions improved by involving young people?
How do organisations benefit from involving young people?
How does the wider community benefit from involving young people?
How do the participating young people benefit?
How do other young people benefit?
The ‘What’s Changed’ tool is designed to record the results of young peoples participation by asking adults, young people, and members of the wider community to identify change.
Tools
Recording Positive Activities
The National Youth Agency has developed two guides for Connexions staff to support the recording of young people’s participation in positive activities (National Indicator 110). The DCSF has sought support from local authorities for using the CCIS (client caseload information system) as an additional measure of young people’s participation in positive activities.
What's Changed Tool
The What's Changed tool from the National Youth Agency is a downloadable template you can use for capturing stories of change in the lives of young people. The Research team at the National Youth Agency support groups completing the tool, and feature completed stories of change on the What's Changed web-pages and in Children and Young People Now magazine.
Measuring the Magic
This report examines the different ways in which involving young people in decision-making could be measured and evaluated.
