Participation and involvement

Participation is the process by which people who use social work services have a say in the decisions that are made about what their care needs are, and how these needs are to be met. A focus on children’s participation has grown over the past thirty years against an international backdrop of calls for children to be seen as citizens with rights, rather than as objects of concern. One of the main barriers to effective participation is the adult tendency to view childhood as a time of passivity and vulnerability. Professionals’ concerns about risk can lead them to make decisions for children rather than with them. Social workers can support children’s participation when the relationship between them is one that enables the child to fully express their views about aspects that matter in their lives, and to trust that their wishes will be taken seriously and acted upon wherever possible.