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HAVING THEIR SAY
Steve Flood considers two new reports which analyse the views of children and young people asked to contribute ideas for a national strategy for children
Towards the end of last year, the Government's children and young people's unit launched its consultation document, Building a Strategy for Children and Young People, to gather views on a strategic approach to children's provision. Perhaps unusually for an official consultation, ministers were committed from the outset to the idea that children and young people should take an active and prominent role in the consultation process.
The unit produced two consultation booklets, one aimed at children under 12 and another at teenagers aged 13 to 19. In addition, thousands of postcards were distributed around the country inviting children and young people to submit suggestions in response to an intriguing question - what would they do if they were Prime Minister for the day?
Inevitably, responses to the consultation booklets tended towards the general, but they do throw up some interesting differences when broken down, particularly by gender and ethnicity. While hardly large, the sample base is not insignificant. More than 500 children filled in the Have your say booklet for children, although 22 were actually older than 12. The response from teenagers was less impressive, with 311 booklets aimed at 13-19 year-olds being returned.
Perhaps the most immediately striking statistic is that more than twice as many girls as boys completed questionnaires. But representation of ethnic minorities among the respondents was relatively high. Fifty-four of the young people who completed questionnaires identified themselves as non-white, compared to 110 of the children under 12.
If one thing emerges most strongly across all responses, from both children and young people, it is a persistent demand for more leisure facilities, plus a consistent emphasis on the importance of happiness and fulfilment. Safety is a major issue, too, particularly with younger children. And among under-12s, nearly twice as many children living in the most deprived areas identified personal safety as an important issue, compared to those in the least deprived areas. Non-white respondents were also more likely to see safety as important.
Young people did not appear wholly convinced that the quality of services necessarily relates to how much money is spent on them. Sixty-three per cent of those who responded to a question about what measures should be adopted to assess services, disagreed with the idea that measuring how much money the Government puts into them would be useful. However, there was strong support for the idea that children and young people should be canvassed through regular surveys. One 13-year-old called for a regular 'child census'.
More than 700 under-12s and more than 750 young people filled in postcards setting out what they would do if they were Prime Minister for the day. When young people's responses were analysed, the overwhelming majority - more than 500 - focused on achievement and enjoyment. More youth clubs, skate parks, sports clubs and accessible open spaces were common demands.
Among under-12s, the same trend was evident. Just under 500 responses came into the category of achievement and well-being, almost five times as many as fell into the next most popular category - protection. Bullying, child protection and road safety were major worries for the 104 children whose postcards fell into this category.
The children and young people's unit says it will be taking all the views into account when it launches its strategy later this year. But the words of one 8-year-old, asked what she would do if she were Prime Minister for a day, may find particular resonance with Mr Blair: 'Add police officers to the streets to make it safer for kids to get to and from school without being mugged'.
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