There is a lot of talk about young people being able to have their say in the design and development of services - but all to often, the mechanism for those who finally take decisions, commission services or run the services to be held to account are not there.
Two challenges:
1) We need to make sure young people know about the level of service and support they are entitled to (have a right to...)
2) We need to make sure organisations have the processes in place for young people to make complaints, provide day-to-day feedback, and raise concerns in a safe way that will lead to real action...
Ok - maybe three challenges:
3) We need to make sure that when the complaint system doesn't work - young people are empowered to make some noise about it until things get sorted out...*
--- *Four things: plus we need to do this in a way that helps celebrates good youth services and supports their good work as much as weeding out the bad ones...
mas
· 2 years ago
Dead right and I think your suggestions raise some important points:
1. How many Youth Services are actually accountable to young people? and if so how? - I mean really accountable - not just reporting to them. 2. How many Youth Services would have asked the young people to report on their experiences and the effectiveness of the adult workers following this kind of thing? (I bet nearly all expect a report from adults about the young people though?!)
The key here is accountability - and the people and organisations/departments that supposedly work towards the best interests of young people should be held accountable to them. I'm not talking about 'empowering' young people either - I mean a relationship where the adults in positions of power have effective dialogue with their users - it should be as normal for a head of youth service to talk with young people as it is for their staff to report to them.
mas
· 2 years ago
lol only just noticed your fourth comment Tim and agree with that too - something to try and build into the Youth Awards site in the future maybe - perhaps a way of recgonising adults that have supported young people towards their projects?
All Comments
When we recently ran a series of dialogue events on The Local Offer to young people (http://www.timdavies.org.uk/2007/07/03/consulti...) we got thinking a lot about accountability.
There is a lot of talk about young people being able to have their say in the design and development of services - but all to often, the mechanism for those who finally take decisions, commission services or run the services to be held to account are not there.
Two challenges:
1) We need to make sure young people know about the level of service and support they are entitled to (have a right to...)
2) We need to make sure organisations have the processes in place for young people to make complaints, provide day-to-day feedback, and raise concerns in a safe way that will lead to real action...
Ok - maybe three challenges:
3) We need to make sure that when the complaint system doesn't work - young people are empowered to make some noise about it until things get sorted out...*
---
*Four things: plus we need to do this in a way that helps celebrates good youth services and supports their good work as much as weeding out the bad ones...
1. How many Youth Services are actually accountable to young people? and if so how? - I mean really accountable - not just reporting to them.
2. How many Youth Services would have asked the young people to report on their experiences and the effectiveness of the adult workers following this kind of thing? (I bet nearly all expect a report from adults about the young people though?!)
The key here is accountability - and the people and organisations/departments that supposedly work towards the best interests of young people should be held accountable to them. I'm not talking about 'empowering' young people either - I mean a relationship where the adults in positions of power have effective dialogue with their users - it should be as normal for a head of youth service to talk with young people as it is for their staff to report to them.