Engaging with children and young people

It is essential that the Croydon children and families partnership board encourages children and young people to give their views on the services and facilities that directly affect them.

We actively encourage children and young people to engage with the partnership board, and its support organisations, so we can design services and facilities that are responsive to their ambitions, aspirations and needs.

You should:

• regularly consult with young people on priorities, changes to services and significant issues
• regularly assess the impact of young people’s involvement to ensure that your policies and services are making a difference to young people’s lives
• draw on good practice in settings and organisations other than your own
• ensure communications includes: regular publication of priorities and achievements, web-site regularly updated with interactive consultation opportunities, creative and appropriate use of social media (Twitter, Facebook)
• set timescales including a date by which you wish to review progress
• ensure there is clear vision and purpose which is understood by all involved, including who will do what
• ensure that the involvement of children and young person is meaningful
• provide feedback to the participants on the outcomes of your engagement activity

Things to consider when engaging children and young people

You could:

• try and involve young people from the user group which the post will affect – for example, a looked after child would have experience of the care process which means that their questions would be particularly relevant to recruiting care leavers
• include the young person in the advertising process so they see the value Croydon places on the voice of young people
• train young people by having a trained adult facilitator to support them in the recruitment process 
• manage the young person’s expectations: ensure the young person is aware of the extent of their views will have on the appointment

Download further guidance

Further tips on how to engage with young people can be found in the Brilliant basics of how to successfully engage children and young people guide (PDF, 322KB).