Voice and Influence Strategy
Young People's Service.
Introduction
Lancashire Young People's service is committed to empowering young people
to have their say, be actively engaged in their communities, and to make a
positive contribution.
The purpose of the strategy is two fold: it sets out our commitment to
implementing a co-ordinated approach for the voice and influence of young
people in the design, delivery and evaluation of the Young People's service
and outlines our vision to empower young people to become active citizens
within the county and the country. This strategy underpins our goal to
improve outcomes for young people through their continued personal and
social development, improving young people's skills, knowledge and abilities
through informal learning.
A Service policy accompanies this strategy and offers practical guidance in
developing voice and influence practices across a range of delivery situations
for all Young People's Workers.
We want young people to participate in the Young People's Service at all
levels and influence service delivery and decisions from the 'bottom up' as
well as the 'top down'. Young people should not only be consulted, but they
should be supported to express their views, have their voices listened to and
be fully engaged in the development, design, delivery and evaluation of needs
focused services. Young people will be involved in the development of service
plans, including those developed at corporate, district and unit level. They
should be fully involved in discussions around future provision, priorities and
changes. When we work with young people their views about how we should
do this will be integral to our delivery and we will support them to be involved
in feeding back how well we met their needs and what improvements could be
made.
The Young People's Service also wants to support and enable young people
to be active citizens within their local communities, their districts, their county
and beyond. We aim to do this through both formal structures; most notably
the Lancashire Youth Council and UK youth parliament (UKYP) as well as
informal structures, for example; through consultations and events. By
supporting young people's active participation we will ensure their voices are
included in the strategic decision making framework of the Lancashire
Children's Trust Partnership. Young people will be enabled to influence
decision making structures both inside and outside the service via regular
meetings with Senior Managers, through discussions with the Cabinet
member for Young People, meetings with the County Council Cabinet and
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involvement in Children's Trust and district events. We will also support young
people to identify campaign issues through Lancashire Youth Council and
UKYP, which we will support, enabling young people to make changes.
Context
Children and young people have the right to be listened to and their opinions
taken into account. This right is formally recognised in Article 12 of the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of a child ratified by Great Britain in
December 1991. Government legislation such as Every Child Matters and
Youth Matters call for input from young people, as well as actively seeking
participation at local levels.
Other Lancashire and national documents should be read in conjunction with
this strategy including Lancashire Young People's Service Voice and
Influence policy, Lancashire's Active Participation strategy, the Children and
Young People's Plan and 'An equal place at the table for children and young
people', (Participation Works).
What is Voice and Influence?
In the Young People's Service Voice and Influence is the terminology used to
describe the process of young people 'Having a voice, having a choice'
(Participation Unit, NAW definition)
Traditionally referred to as 'participation' it is 'a process where someone
influences decisions about their lives and this leads to change. This change
might be within the young person themselves, within a service or in society'
(Participation works.)
It is about actively promoting and supporting young people to have the
opportunity to have their say, genuinely involving them in decision making and
incorporating their views.
Voice and Influence is about listening to young people's views and then
finding ways for those views to influence positive change through their active
involvement in the decision making process with the support of those around
them i.e. adults.
The Voice and Influence strategy is underpinned by Treseders (1997) model
of participation developed from Roger Harts Ladder of Participation (1992). In
Treseders model, rather than a 'stepped' approach, he focuses on five
different types of participation, each one appropriate to different situations;
 informing,
 leading,
 partnership,
 influence
 consultation.
Treseder's definition of participation is;
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the process of involving children and young people in decision making
at increasing levels of autonomy
With this model it is recognised that it is entirely appropriate to have different
types of participation, according to circumstances and needs. What makes the
activities more meaningful is to build a process of involvement, rather than
isolated disconnected activities and events or one offs.
Also relevant are Treseder's (1997) definitions for empowerment, involvement
and consultation;
 Empowerment; the outcome of this participation process in terms of
children and young people's power and influence
 Involvement; the overall term for children and young people being
included in the decision making process at all levels
 Consultation; a process which requires the commitment to take on
board young people's views and present detailed information back to
them
What standards will we use?
Hear by Right is a national standards framework used by organisations to
assess and improve policy and practice on the participation of children and
young people. Based on the 'seven S model' of organisational change it
operates at three levels, Emerging, Established and Advanced.
In 2009 the Young People's Service was involved in a pilot using the 'Charter
Express' framework which was a Lancashire adaptation of Hear by Right. This
was designed to help services carry out an initial self assessment of their
practice around participation. The findings from this were used to inform this
strategy and the Voice and Influence policy.
Key Findings From Charter Express
A number of areas were highlighted as good practice through the selfassessment including:
 'Value the voice of young people' through both the formal participation
structures we support and across all strands of delivery where young
people shape the services delivered to them and their decision making
and choices are central to the support given.
 'Systems and structures in place for hearing young people's' ideas;
including the annual user survey, local consultations and feedback
mechanisms and through curriculum planning with young people.
 'Young people involved in recruitment and selection'; there were some
excellent examples , including at senior level across the directorate, but
this was not always consistently applied across the service.
 'Support and enable young people via training and development';
particular examples cited included youth council training, senior
member training and young volunteers.
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Gaps and areas for development included;
 'A strategy which is understandable and clear for all', young people
were involved in the development of the Voice and influence policy and
a young people's version of this strategy and policy will need to be
developed in partnership with them.
 'Support and training so all staff have the right skills and knowledge in
participation practices and methods', very little evidence of this was
reported. The policy will support this alongside further staff training.
 'Our senior leaders actively promote participation, including meeting
young people and sharing decision making with them', some evidence
of this happening in localities. Development of an SLT shadow
management committee will support this. Localities should look to
adopt similar mechanisms. .
Strategic Aims and Actions
The aims of this strategy are to achieve;
 a co-ordinated, consistent approach to supporting voice and influence
of young people
 a cultural change, improving the level of voice and influence young
people have across the service
 a system of promoting and embedding best practice across our service
and beyond
 an increase and development of the opportunities for young people to
be actively involved in decision making for and about them
 a consistent approach for measuring the impact of young people’s
participation.
The policy sets out a series of actions and how to guides for ways in
which we will achieve these aims. In addition to these we will:
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Be clear what is expected of all workers through the roll out of the
Voice and Influence policy, introducing the main principles through
briefings and supporting understanding through training,
supervision, self-assessment and evaluation.
Support the principles of Voice and Influence Strategy and Policy at
Senior Leadership Level, including new mechanisms to include
shared decision making at senior leadership level.
Employ Participation and Inclusion Workers in each locality who
will champion the voice and influence of young people.
Utilise the Hear by Rights self assessment framework.
Continue to develop and expand our existing established
mechanisms for active participation.
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Increase the involvement of under-represented groups including:
children looked after, BME groups, and young people with learning
difficulties and disabilities.
Build capacity within the service to more effectively support young
people to actively participate through training and development.
Develop a quality assurance framework to monitor and assess the
extent, inclusion and quality of young people's voice and influence.
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