My Say Matters: Barnet’s Child Participation and Family Involvement Strategy (2022 – 2025)

We asked

We asked for your views on our draft Draft My Say Matters Child Participation and Family Involvement Strategy (2022 – 2025), which sets how we plan to involve children, young people and families so that they can have their say on what they think on any of our future decisions and help us design and shape our services.

You said

We received 10 responses to the online questionnaire. You told us:

10 respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the strategy overall and 9 out of 10 respondents agreed or strongly agreed that it is a good idea to implement this strategy in Barnet
8 out of 10 respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the strategy is clear and easy to understand and that it is informative
6 out of 8 respondents disagreed with the extent to which we plan to monitor the effectiveness of the strategy.

Two consultation focus groups were held with Barnet children, young people and families to ask about their views on the draft strategy. A total of 20 residents attended the qualitative workshop, 12 adults and 8 young people.

all participants agreed that it is a good vision and when exploring the vision themes of safety, belonging, culture, and identity were identified
a few participants explored how more diverse representation in leadership can help to make important decisions and changes
participants ranked ‘Safe and Secure’ was ranked most important priority
a theme from qualitative discussions in both workshops was that education and community cannot be strengthened unless safety needs are met
when thinking about ‘Audience’ in participation spaces, participants commented on the importance of knowing who will be there and how can be there to feel safe
in both workshops participants highlighted the importance of accountability and that monitoring should not be focussed on satisfying leaders or counsellors but be focussed on young people
in both workshops participants asked for the strategy to specify what age of child and young person this strategy is for.

You can read the full consultation findings in the consultation report.

We did

In response to the feedback, we set out recommendations for amendments to the strategy and action plan. The recommendations were:

Strategic Purpose and Aims: Review the strategy to specify the age range and enhance the purpose and aims with simple language
Inclusion: Review the strategy and consider how equity, diversity and inclusion is made more explicit, explored and highlight how the commitment to areas will be achieved.
Priorities: Review the strategy and consider how the three priorities mutually influence each other, paying particular attention to the importance and details of feedback loops
Monitoring the effectiveness: Review the strategy to show a clear governance and accountability process so children and young people can easily understand how they can hold leaders to account.

The My Say Matters Child Participation and Family Involvement Strategy (2022 – 2025) has been finalised to incorporate the recommendations and was launched at an event by young people on 31 May 2022. View the final strategy.