Our Journey to creating a Participation Strategy for Children & Young People in Highland

Our vision is that all children and young people in Highland, from 0 to 25 years (26 years for care experienced young people) feel that they can meaningfully participate in decision making processes and influence change in their own lives and in wider society.

The children and young people's participation strategy was commissioned by the Highland Integrated Children’s Services Board (ICSB) in January 2023.

 A steering group was created with representatives – both professionals and young people - from a range of statutory and third sector services and organisations and from across a wide spectrum of operational and strategic roles. There was resounding agreement from steering group members that our children and young people’s participation strategy could not be developed without the participation of children and young people.

The participation strategy will be supported by the Children’s Rights and Participation Improvement Group, which is one of six strategic improvement groups that support the Integrated Children’s Services Planning Board and the Integrated Highland Children’s Service Plan.

Participation Strategy Engagement Opportunities

The steering group created an engagement plan for gaining the input of children and young people from across Highland. This included:

•  Two young facilitators, employed by Youth Highland and Inspiring Young Voices to facilitate direct engagement (online and face to face) with diverse groups of C&YP based on seven core questions, which were co-created with a group of young people from the Inspire Highland project.

• A specialist in the participation of children and young people with additional support needs employed as a consultant to facilitate engagement sessions with that target audience.

• Opportunities for other young facilitators; employed on a sessional basis, to facilitate engagement as above within their groups and networks.

• Opportunities for adults employed within partner organisations across Highland to facilitate engagement as above within their groups and networks.

• A survey built around the same seven core questions.

This engagement phase took place between October 2023 and April 2024. The full thematic analysis of the data gathered can be found within the strategy booklet. In total, over 800 children and young people between the ages of 4 and 26, from all nine of the Community Partnership areas in Highland responded to the seven questions. Six key themes were identified through the thematic analysis of the data collected from the survey and engagement sessions. An infographic (below) was created to share the key themes from the engagement sessions and to give all children and young people (not just those who had taken part), an opportunity to comment on the findings.