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Case Study: Building a culture of participation

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Name of project: My Say Matters

Led By: Family Services, Barnet Council

Summary: Over several years, Barnet Family Services have built a culture of participation which provides children and young people with the time, space and resources to shape decisions and services in Barnet.

The situation: Children and young people under the age of 19 make up a quarter of the total number of people living in Barnet. That’s equivalent to almost 100,000 children and young people using local services and attending local schools and colleges. Because of this, there is an ambition for the borough to be ‘Family Friendly’ by making sure Barnet is a great place to live and go to school.

The approach: In May 2022 Barnet Council launched a bold new strategy to enable children and young people to influence decisions in the council and to design and shape the services they use. Using an initial survey with 500 young people and then a series of focus groups, the strategy set out their views, priorities and a framework for the future. Continuous engagement has taken place with young people who wanted to play a key role in the delivery and evaluation of the strategy.

The implementation of the strategy is being guided by the ‘Lundy Model’ of participation which centres around:

  • Space: Giving inclusive opportunities to form and express their views
  • Voice: Providing information and support to express their views
  • Influence: Making sure their views are taken seriously and acted on where possible
  • Audience: Ensuring their views are communicated to the right people

In practice, this has translated into a calendar of participation events and a new approach to collecting feedback. This includes activities such as:

  • The Young People’s Assembly on Climate Change which recruited 20 young people between the ages of 11-17 years old to explore Barnet’s response to the climate crisis;
  • A consultation workshop with 11 young people on the future of the experimental A1000 Cycle lane scheme;
  • The Family Services’ Young Commissioners programme which supports young people aged 11 to 18 to work alongside council commissioners for a period of nine months. By helping to draft contracts, finding out what children and young people in the borough need and taking part in interview panels to judge organisations, participants develop new skills and gain AQA unit awards.

The details:

1. Warming the context – Culture change

The individual participation activities above have only been possible because of a wider culture of participation. It has been incredibly important to My Say Matters’ approach to build relationships with young people over time. There are regularly young people around the building, and this makes a real difference to the team’s awareness of young people’s priorities and concerns. Staff benefit from and become enthused by being part of a wider community of practice around participation. Over time, the whole becomes more than the sum of the parts: each activity influences not just the project itself, but the wider system.

2. Participation work is a spectrum.

Sometimes young people have led and designed a participation activity from scratch, but sometimes it has been important to set parameters before a project started. The important thing has been enabling young people to be clear what they are being asked to do. For example for the My Say Matters Launch event young people were given the date, venue and a simple format but then designed everything else themselves. For the My Say Matters design project the parameters were more constrained as the branding had to comply with corporate guidelines .

3. Participants need as much information up front as professionals have

My Say Matters projects are time-limited, with meetings planned up front so that young people knew the steps involved and time commitment required. The more notice is given, the more likely it is that participants can take part. Where possible, the team provide a clear agenda, and times and dates of meetings. It has also been helpful to share any resources that will be looked at in advance. For example when choosing food providers, the team learnt that it helped young people to get the menus before the meeting where they made the choices.

4. Online meetings can work well if mixed with face-to-face activity

There is no substitute for meeting face-to-face, and this has been important to building relationships. However online meetings have sometimes been good way to start a project e.g. to tell young people what is involved, given them a chance to ask questions, and to shape the start of the work. Online meetings have also been useful check-in points between in-person meetings.

Online events have often gone best when an agenda has been sent in advance, where young people chaired the meeting, and where there were plenty of tools for engagement eg polls, word clouds etc. It is important to set some ground rules about cameras being on/off. Generally the team have encouraged cameras to be on as this helps the meeting run well, however they acknowledge that not everyone is comfortable with this and also participants to decide.

In general sessions for young people work well if:

  • They are very interactive, avoiding lots of power point (although using Slido for online polling and word clouds can work well for those who are new or nervous)
  • Adults do less of the talking. However sometimes adults need to lead to help young people break the ice and find out more about what is going to happen.
  • Sessions are kept simple – don’t try and do too much
  • Something can be achieved in the session itself e.g. co-creating some text or developing an idea. However it can also work to give young people short tasks to take away with a deadline.

Challenges: Not everything has run smoothly, and the team has needed to learn by doing. Early meetings involved “cringe-worthy moments” where conversations felt awkward. It’s in recovering from those moments that the team has built positive relationships for the future.

Top lessons:

  1. Focus on building relationships: There is no shortcut to identifying people who could be involved in participation activities – it’s important to invest in building relationships over time.
  2. Consider the right activity at the right time: Participation work is a spectrum. It is possible to undertake participation activity where young people (or any residents) lead and design everything from scratch, but also valid to set parameters before people are involved. This helps participants be clear on what they are being asked to do and what outcomes are needed.
  3. Learning from practice: It is almost inevitable that some things tried won’t work out, but see that as part of the journey to developing great participation skills. If you are not experienced in running participation activities (or working with young people specifically) reach out to those colleagues who are for tips or advice. If something doesn’t land with participants, reflect on what didn’t go well will help plan the next session. Ask participants and colleagues for feedback. Some projects will start very small with only a few people involved, but this can still provide a rich experience for everybody and help drive learning for a bigger activity next time.

Sources:

Name of project: My Say Matters

Led By: Family Services, Barnet Council

Summary: Over several years, Barnet Family Services have built a culture of participation which provides children and young people with the time, space and resources to shape decisions and services in Barnet.

The situation: Children and young people under the age of 19 make up a quarter of the total number of people living in Barnet. That’s equivalent to almost 100,000 children and young people using local services and attending local schools and colleges. Because of this, there is an ambition for the borough to be ‘Family Friendly’ by making sure Barnet is a great place to live and go to school.

The approach: In May 2022 Barnet Council launched a bold new strategy to enable children and young people to influence decisions in the council and to design and shape the services they use. Using an initial survey with 500 young people and then a series of focus groups, the strategy set out their views, priorities and a framework for the future. Continuous engagement has taken place with young people who wanted to play a key role in the delivery and evaluation of the strategy.

The implementation of the strategy is being guided by the ‘Lundy Model’ of participation which centres around:

  • Space: Giving inclusive opportunities to form and express their views
  • Voice: Providing information and support to express their views
  • Influence: Making sure their views are taken seriously and acted on where possible
  • Audience: Ensuring their views are communicated to the right people

In practice, this has translated into a calendar of participation events and a new approach to collecting feedback. This includes activities such as:

  • The Young People’s Assembly on Climate Change which recruited 20 young people between the ages of 11-17 years old to explore Barnet’s response to the climate crisis;
  • A consultation workshop with 11 young people on the future of the experimental A1000 Cycle lane scheme;
  • The Family Services’ Young Commissioners programme which supports young people aged 11 to 18 to work alongside council commissioners for a period of nine months. By helping to draft contracts, finding out what children and young people in the borough need and taking part in interview panels to judge organisations, participants develop new skills and gain AQA unit awards.

The details:

1. Warming the context – Culture change

The individual participation activities above have only been possible because of a wider culture of participation. It has been incredibly important to My Say Matters’ approach to build relationships with young people over time. There are regularly young people around the building, and this makes a real difference to the team’s awareness of young people’s priorities and concerns. Staff benefit from and become enthused by being part of a wider community of practice around participation. Over time, the whole becomes more than the sum of the parts: each activity influences not just the project itself, but the wider system.

2. Participation work is a spectrum.

Sometimes young people have led and designed a participation activity from scratch, but sometimes it has been important to set parameters before a project started. The important thing has been enabling young people to be clear what they are being asked to do. For example for the My Say Matters Launch event young people were given the date, venue and a simple format but then designed everything else themselves. For the My Say Matters design project the parameters were more constrained as the branding had to comply with corporate guidelines .

3. Participants need as much information up front as professionals have

My Say Matters projects are time-limited, with meetings planned up front so that young people knew the steps involved and time commitment required. The more notice is given, the more likely it is that participants can take part. Where possible, the team provide a clear agenda, and times and dates of meetings. It has also been helpful to share any resources that will be looked at in advance. For example when choosing food providers, the team learnt that it helped young people to get the menus before the meeting where they made the choices.

4. Online meetings can work well if mixed with face-to-face activity

There is no substitute for meeting face-to-face, and this has been important to building relationships. However online meetings have sometimes been good way to start a project e.g. to tell young people what is involved, given them a chance to ask questions, and to shape the start of the work. Online meetings have also been useful check-in points between in-person meetings.

Online events have often gone best when an agenda has been sent in advance, where young people chaired the meeting, and where there were plenty of tools for engagement eg polls, word clouds etc. It is important to set some ground rules about cameras being on/off. Generally the team have encouraged cameras to be on as this helps the meeting run well, however they acknowledge that not everyone is comfortable with this and also participants to decide.

In general sessions for young people work well if:

  • They are very interactive, avoiding lots of power point (although using Slido for online polling and word clouds can work well for those who are new or nervous)
  • Adults do less of the talking. However sometimes adults need to lead to help young people break the ice and find out more about what is going to happen.
  • Sessions are kept simple – don’t try and do too much
  • Something can be achieved in the session itself e.g. co-creating some text or developing an idea. However it can also work to give young people short tasks to take away with a deadline.

Challenges: Not everything has run smoothly, and the team has needed to learn by doing. Early meetings involved “cringe-worthy moments” where conversations felt awkward. It’s in recovering from those moments that the team has built positive relationships for the future.

Top lessons:

  1. Focus on building relationships: There is no shortcut to identifying people who could be involved in participation activities – it’s important to invest in building relationships over time.
  2. Consider the right activity at the right time: Participation work is a spectrum. It is possible to undertake participation activity where young people (or any residents) lead and design everything from scratch, but also valid to set parameters before people are involved. This helps participants be clear on what they are being asked to do and what outcomes are needed.
  3. Learning from practice: It is almost inevitable that some things tried won’t work out, but see that as part of the journey to developing great participation skills. If you are not experienced in running participation activities (or working with young people specifically) reach out to those colleagues who are for tips or advice. If something doesn’t land with participants, reflect on what didn’t go well will help plan the next session. Ask participants and colleagues for feedback. Some projects will start very small with only a few people involved, but this can still provide a rich experience for everybody and help drive learning for a bigger activity next time.

Sources:

Page last updated: 22 Nov 2023, 12:12 PM