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From commonly agreed ‘core principles’ of participation, the Children and Young People’s Participation Consortium and the Participation Unit have developed National Standards for Children and Young People’s Participation i.e. quality standards that can provide a means for inspecting and assessing participatory practice. The National Standards for Children and Young People’s Participation are standards which young people can expect when they are asked to participate. There are 7 standards: Information; It’s Your Choice; No Discrimination; Respect; You get Something out of it; Feedback; Improving How We Work. The aim of the Standards is to make sure that children and young people have a good, positive and meaningful experience of participation. The journey began at the Funky Dragon AGM in 2005 when young people voted overwhelmingly in favour of the National Participation Standards. Young people then piloted the Standards across Wales to test that they were clear and meaningful to everyone. The final Standards document was endorsed by all members of the Welsh Assembly Government’s Children and Young People’s Cabinet Sub Committee and the National Standards were launched by the Minister for Education Lifelong Learning and Skills at a Seminar in January 2007. Current Work on Standards The Participation Unit has developed a self-assessment pack to accompany the National Standards, which emphasises the importance of good practice and organisations beginning to measure their own performance against the National Standards. The Participation Unit; the Welsh Assembly Government’s YALO division and Funky Dragon, the Children and Young People’s Assembly for Wales have used the self-assessment pack and have piloted being inspected against these Standards by a team of young people who have been trained to be young inspectors. The next step which we are currently working on is to run a two-year pilot, funded by the ‘Making the Connections Fund’ in partnership with children and young people, local participation projects and national inspectorates and other partners to explore how a National system for measuring against the National Standards would work. Organisers are looking for organisations and projects across Wales to work in partnership with them to develop this work. For more information contact the Participation Unit on 02920 396 838 e-mail- participationunit@savethechildren.org.uk  Or visit the following website for the Documents- www.participationworkerswales.org.uk/participation  Â
The ultimate aim is to work towards the implementation of the National Children and Young People’s Participation Standards across Wales by a process of external assessment against potentially a National Kite-mark (or similar quality assurance scheme), endorsed by the Welsh Assembly Government. Working towards a kite-mark or quality assurance scheme means developing a national framework for implementing and assessing against the Standards. It also means piloting how this might work across Wales. The first step is to raise awareness of the Standards and to encourage organisations to use them for self-assessment of their current practice.