Participation Best Practice Guidance

Paper C

Listening to Younger Children:

East Midlands Regional Participation Leads Group Report (Jan 2016)

Championing young children’s right to be heard and involved in decisions that are important to them

Introduction

This report is prepared for the Corporate Directors of Children’s Services in the East Midlands, to inform recommendations for hearing the voice of very young children (up to their 5th birthday) in decisions which affect/are important to them. This report is the 4th in a suite of papers aimed at raising the standards of participation of children in decision making processes and influencing service shaping.

For the purpose of the report we will use the National Children’s Bureau Younger Children’s Voices definition which states listening to very young children as:

An active process of receiving (hearing and observing), interpreting and responding to communication – it includes all the senses and emotions and is not limited to the spoken word
A necessary stage in ensuring the participation of young children as well as parents and staff, in matters that affect them
An ongoing part of tuning in to all children as individuals in their everyday lives
Sometimes part of a specific consultation about a particular entitlement, choice, event or opportunity

Overview of the report

This report aims to:

Identify best practice from across the region, including case study examples
Support the development of a stronger culture of listening to very young children
Ensure that everyone who works with young children recognises their need to be heard and uses their views to influence practice, policy and service design

Values and Drivers

There is a range of legislation, guidance and research which relates to listening to very young children. This includes:

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 12 (respect for the views of the child)

This states that:

Every child and young person has the right to express his or her views freely – about everything that affects him or her.
The child’s or young person’s views must be given due weight depending on his or her age and maturity.

Childcare Act (2006)

There is a legal requirement to listen to young children stating that local authorities must have regard to any information about the views of young children

Children’s Trusts: Statutory Guidance on co-operation arrangements (2010)

Listening to children and young people and taking account of their views is central to the success of policies to improve their well-being and life chances

Current Picture

Participation has developed significantly over the last ten years and there are great examples of children and young people being actively involved in decision making and service development, including co-production, across the region. The Regional Participation Leads Group recognises that this pace of change has been less so for our youngest service users. This reflects national shortcomings in this regard. Therefore, in order to meet the above duties, Local Authorities need to examine how they will enable younger children to have a voice across all of our services, in an ethical and meaningful way. It is vital we understand at what age we can expect children to make decisions and that this is reflected consistently across all of our work (see Appendix 1)

Children within this age range constitute a significant proportion of our “customers”. A sample taken from just four EastMidlands local authorities showed that 517 children who were looked after were within this age range (Data sample taken Aug 14).

The Regional Group believes that addressing participation and engagementfrom an early age brings huge benefits and should be regarded as a positive investment in children's futures. Benefits includes children gaining the skills and confidence to engage in all matters that are important to them, particularly pertinent if we are to keep them safe and help them achieves their ambitions, and contributes to individual resilience. For example, improving how we work with younger children using signs of safety and other direct work tools should help keep children safer.

Across the region there are a number of examples of good practice which demonstrate our commitment in this area to date (Appendix 2) However,we believe that this remains an area which needs particular focus for improvement.

Conclusion and Recommendations

If we are to truly listen and engage all children in decision makingwe need to create a culture withinwhich younger children feel confident to speak,show how they feel and what they need, are truly heard andvalued, and where their views are properly and routinely considered on issues which are important to them. By doing so we will build an environment in which even those that are young are able to tell and show us how theyfeel, how our services can improve and how we can keep them safe

The Regional Participation Leads Grouprecommends that Regional DCS Group adopts the following indicators of best practice checklist. We recommend that this is used to benchmark and improve existing services where needed, against best regional practice indicators.

Checklist of Best Practice

In order to ensure the voice of younger children is enabled and heard: / Evidence / Improvements
Required / By Whom and When / RAG rating
1 / Commitment to younger children’s views is reflected in key policies and strategies i.e. Children and Young People's Participation Strategy, Children and Young People's Plan, Birth to Five/Early Help Service plans.
2 / The workforce receives appropriate training and tools in order to enable capture the voice of younger children, including in Child Protection work
3 / Foster carers receive appropriate training, tools and support to enable and capture the voice of younger children
4 / Key managers and leaders are effective champions for the participation of very young children
5 / The organisation adopts the use of an established framework i.e. “Let’s Listen” as a way to measure effectiveness
6 / The organisation actively promotes and celebrates listening to younger children and positive outcomes

Appendix 1

The following table is taken from “Never Too Young” Judy Millar 2009

At What Age Can We Expect Children To?

0-18 months

Children of this age range will be dependent on adults to ask the “right” questions, to interpret their responses, and to take these into account in any decisions that affect the child
Developmental Capacity / Can Participate in Decisions About / Methods of Participation

Have limited mobility and control over their bodies
Experience the world through their senses
Are wholly dependent on others for provision of their basic needs
Use facial expressions, body language and gesture and pre-linguistic verbalisation to express feelings and needs and to indicate preferences
Have limited memory span
Are largely egocentric – concerned with own needs and operate on an individual basis
Can respond only to things in the immediate present that they can see, touch, hear, taste and smell
Have limited experience and understanding of danger

Food
Clothing
Who they want to be with and how they are handled
What they play with

Accepting or refusing things offered
Indicating what interests them through gazing intently, turning towards or reaching out for objects or people
Indicating how they are feeling through facial expressions, body movements and responses such as tears and laughter
Indicating preferences between given options (the child chooses from options selected by the adult, which take into account the safety, health and welfare of the child)
– reaching out, grasping or pointing
– nodding or shaking their heads as options are shown to them
– nodding or shaking their heads in response to questions with yes/no answers such as “Do you want milk?”

At What Age Can We Expect Children To?

1½ - 3½ yrs

Developmental Capacity / Can Participate in Decisions About / Methods of Participation

Have increased mobility and control over their bodies
Still express many feelings and indicate preferences physically, but are also beginning to use language for these purposes
Increased memory span and ways of expressing themselves enable them to consider options beyond the immediate present e.g. child indicates he wants to go on an outing by walking to the front door and saying “coat on”
Are able to wait and defer wishes for short periods of time
Older children within the age range will play/work in pairs or small groups
Beginning to use language to co-operate and negotiate with others – some sharing and turn-taking possible
Will take part in small group work provided they can participate actively; e.g. singing, movement

Food that they eat and how much
What they wear
Activities they engage in
Who they play/spend time with
Which, if any, early years groups they attend and when

Two children started playgroup at two and a half and were happy as long as their mother stayed – which she did. They told her they would stay on their own when they were three – and they did happily
Another child started at two and a half, was fine for the first few weeks, and then didn’t want to go, so stopped. Six months late he told his mum he wanted to go back to playgroup. He settled well.
A child attended playgroups in a rural area. He was happy at two, but hid on the floor of the car as he approached the other one. His mum asked if he would like to stop going to that one and was able to arrange extra days at the other two.
Not all parents can be so flexible about their children’s attendance at a nursery. But if a child is attending solely for his benefit, he should be able to make choices. /

Choosing between given options as before, plus verbal communication, pointing to pictures, using movement
Suggesting additional options, using language, mime, movement
Express feelings, as before plus using language, mime, movement, painting, music

At What Age Can We Expect Children To?

3½ - 5 yrs

Developmental Capacity / Can Participate in Decisions About / Methods of Participation

Can empathise with the feelings of others and consider their needs
Use language to express feelings and ideas, to influence the behaviour of others and to explore more abstract ideas
Use their imagination to explore situations and roles beyond their immediate experience – can explore “What if …?”
Can co-operate with others, share, take turns and follow rules – especially those mutually agreed in the course of imaginative play
Spend more time in group activities - interaction with others becoming more important than interaction with objects
Talk about past experience and can look to the future
Have a growing understanding of cause and effect and can begin to consider the effects of their actions on themselves, on others and on their surroundings
Use logic and reason to explain and make sense of the world
Are physically adept at most self-help skills such as dressing, pouring drinks, toileting

Food, clothes, activities, people, group they attend – as before
Their immediate environment
Buying new equipment
Menus
Routines of the day
Solving problems and conflict resolution
Caring for themselves and others
Rules and boundaries

/ As before

Choosing between given options
Suggesting additional options
Expressing feelings and preferences

Plus

Compiling scrapbooks/books about themselves
Making representational drawings and models
Discussing issues raised in books
Making up and acting out stories personally or using puppets
Taking part in group activities and discussions in a forum such as Circle Time

Appendix 2 - Case studies

Title of case study
Providing a secure foundation for learning and development that is planned around the needs and interests of an individual child.
Name and job role, organisation, contact details
Sally Hickman
Early Years Foundation Stage Advisor
Rutland County Council

Date
2014/15
Introduction – what’s the case study about?
The case study is based on an observation carried out during an Annual EYFS visit to an ‘Outstanding’ Nursery. The Teacher had listening to a child’s voice and helped him to plan activities to support his learning and development following a dream that he had shared with her. The child’s interest and experience led to so many learning opportunities and eventually engaged the whole class.
Background
The nursery has always tried to provide personalised learning for the children and to cover topics that inspire them. The nursery places great importance on home links and encourage the children to share stories, photos, artefacts and pictures from the experiences they have had outside of the nursery environment. The individual child has an amazing memory for special places, being able to give directions and read brochures word for word.
What happened?
Every session the children had the opportunity to explore to book shelves and pick out a story that they would like to read. On this particular day a child chose a story called ‘The Magic Bed’ we read the story and talked about where we would go if we had a magic bed. One little boy said that he dreams when he is in bed and continued to describe the dream that he had. He talked about places that he wanted to go to go, especially the one in his dream. He suggested we changed our role play area to a bed so he could lie in it and have special dreams about places he could visit. With that it sparked all of the other children to discuss the dreams they have had in the past.
Outcomes
The ‘snug times’ that followed enabled us to discuss with the children about the things they dreamed about such as monsters, magic carpets, sweet lands, fast cars and much more. The discussion then lead to the children’s dreams in the context of the things they wished for in the future.
With the children in the nursery we made a role play area that re-created a typical bedroom setting with a bed, bedside table, lamp and views out of the window. The children drew pictures of their dreams and wishes which hung from the ceiling above them. The staff team sources an actual child’s bed, which was dressed with a duvet, pillows, dressing up role play of PJ’s, slippers, dressing gown and complete with a bedside table and story books. The children negotiated and took turns to lie in the bed and have their own dreams. Rich adult/child conversations were often had as part of dream sharing as well as story sharing.
Learning/sustainability
We talked about lots of different cultures and countries that the children had visited and places they would like to go, we shared lots of new learning opportunities in both themes from all around the world. The most fantastic area of learning that I noticed was the communication and language that the topic created. Children who were shy and retiring started to tell whole groups about their dreams. Adults were given the opportunity to model exciting and imaginative language and the topic allowed the children’s imaginations to flow and their creative ideas really shone through.
The children created magical passwords to make the ‘magic bed’ take them to their dream destination
Other places where case study has been distributed
From this learning experience it became clear the power of child initiated and child led topics. This was then used throughout the foundation stage in the school and the importance of listening to the child’s voice in order to facilitate rich learning experiences was realised.
Title of case study
Supporting early year’s providers to actively involve the children by including their voice and opinions in developing their planning and practice,
Name and job role, organisation, contact details
Jo Fisher
Childcare Sufficiency and Business Support Team Manager
Early Learning and Childcare (0-5 Learning)
Leicestershire County Council
0116 3056566
Date
2014/15
Introduction – what’s the case study about?
The training programme aimed to develop the understanding of early year’s practitioners and to provide strategies to support them in listening to children and young people as an integral part of providing high quality early education and childcare.
The study was designed to embed the ethos of listening, reflecting and acting on the views of children and young people in a meaningful way, ensuring it was evident in their planning and evaluation.
Background
Leicestershire delivers most of the 2, 3 and 4 year old Free Early Education Entitlement (FEEE) through the Private Voluntary and Independent sector (PVI).
These providers work with the youngest children in Leicestershire and a mechanism was needed to ensure that their voices and choices were heard and reflected within their setting.
A self-evaluation tool kit was developed for early years practitioners.