Impact case study database

Scrutiny of Disabled Children’s Rights in UK, Europe, Japan by United Nations Committee

Evidence from The Centre’s research [3] was cited in the UK Children’s Commissioners’ report to the UN and in the Review of Evidence for the 2016 Council of Europe Strategy on the Rights of the Child [A1]. Our evidence about the impact of poverty on the rights of disabled children and the need to include disabled children in policy making were subsequently highlighted by a UN Committee as rights violations, leading them to call on the UK Government to review and mitigate the impact of welfare reform on disabled children [A2]. This demand was echoed in the Council of Europe Strategy for Children’s Rights 2016-2021 [A3]. Subsequently, disabled children were involved in participatory activities to review this policy and to inform new recommendations [F2].

The theoretical framework and methodology developed from this research was presented to the Japanese Citizen and NGO Committee, who also report to the UN. They supported young researchers to implement the methodology in Japan. The theoretical insights informed the alternative committee’s 2018 report to the UN which challenged dominant Japanese perspectives on childhood and highlighted children’s agency [B]. The empirical finding, developed by the University of Central Lancashire-led young researchers and Oberlin University in Japan [5], were sent to a UN Committee scrutinising the Japanese government. Subsequently, the Committee picked up on concerns about special education within Japan and recommended changes in line with our report [F4].

Children’s Participation in Europe**

Larkins’ insights into impactful and inclusive participatory processes drawn from analysis of practice in the UK, Finland and France [1,2,3,4,5,6] have informed the 2019 EU presidency’s declaration on new participatory mechanisms for children in EU decision making. This was achieved through advising on mechanisms for strengthening EU participation structures; through citation of her work in EU and Eurochild papers on strengthening participation structures; and her role as the only academic expert advisor to the 2019 EU presidency for the Bucharest Declaration on child participation [C1]. Paragraph 47 of the EU Parliament Resolution 2876 subsequently called on the Commission and the Member States for full implementation of this Declaration. Her approach has also been used to guide the 2017-18 EU programme of youth structured dialogue (facilitated by one of her doctoral students) and a unique event in the European parliament in which children aged 13-15 lobbied the EU Brexit negotiating team. She is now advising the Council of Europe on strategies for children’s participation in their parliamentary processes. [F2]

In the context of Covid-19 the European NGO network for children (Eurochild) has used evidence from The Centre’s research [6] in contributions to the Council of Europe steering committee on children’s rights (CDENF) and to the EU post Covid-19 policy and budget decision-making [F2].  Larkins also spoke at a Council of Europe Committee on the impact of Covid-19 on educational exclusion. The CDNEF subsequently references The Centre’s Research in its call for greater commitment to digital inclusion and children’s participation in Covid-19 related policy making [C3].

Scrutinising and shaping policy affecting marginalised children in the UK and beyond** Following recommendations from young researchers in PEER, for the first time, Roma are included in advocacy services for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Communities in Wales. The service was allocated funding by the Welsh Government and continues to implement some of the learning developed from PEER [F3]. In Wales, empirical evidence of violations of care leavers rights, and guidance on developing participatory responses to Covid-19 was fed into a Welsh Government Committee and helped shape a service providing digital access to care leavers in Wales. In the UK, children will receive increased opportunities to become involved in the work of DEFRA and Natural England. For example: leading to the establishment of a youth element in the Government’s 25-year Environment Plan and establishing youth perspectives as evidence and input into decision-making about policy areas, such as nature recovery [F5]. Advising the Home Office on methodologies for including children in information design, Larkins, with colleagues at Liverpool University, has helped shape the information supplied to children about how to apply for the Brexit EU Settlement Scheme. Through an EU ambassador mission to Mongolia, Larkins presented her participatory approach [4] to child protection to Ministers and made recommendations for increasing the budget for child protection alongside stressing the importance of child participation. A year later the Mongolian President stated that, as a result of the meetings of the previous 12 months, a year of Children’s Development and Protection was declared, involving stressing the value of child participation and allocating further budget [D1, D2]. Evidence from The Centre’s rapid study on children’s participation in the context of Covid-19 (April 2019) contributed to NGO challenging government practice in EU member states.

Eurochild Participation Strategy**

Since 2013, Larkins’ and Thomas’ publications and advisory work has steered the development and piloted an improvement of the Participation Strategy of Eurochild [C2, F2], a European NGO network representing 185 organisations working with children in 35 European countries. This has produced structures enabling marginalised children to represent their views to the European Union. The first Eurochild Children’s Council was established in 2017, with eleven 12–16-year-olds (from 10 countries) representing the views of marginalised children and meeting with MEPs. Pilot ‘feeder’ structures were also established in Estonia, Malta and Bulgaria using participatory action research to enable representation of more excluded children. The model is now embedded in the work of Eurochild and many of their member organisation. It has enabled children to create spaces in which to have direct dialogue with EU and national officials and to initiate consultations with other children [F1, F2].

Advocacy with and by Roma youth and marginalised children

The PEER study [4] provided unique guidance on engagement with one of the most marginalised communities in Europe (PI Larkins, with 13 universities and NGOs). We trained over 400 professionals and young Roma leaders across nine countries to develop capacity for participatory action inquiry. In total, 550 Roma youth used this methodology to inform changes in practice within schools, communities and relationships with local authority services. For example, the training in Cyprus, was attended by a representative from the Ministry for Education who committed to taking a participatory approach to policy making regarding school bullying. Furthermore, the subsequent National Strategy for the Prevention and Management of Violence in School 2018-2022 places a strong emphasis on children’s participation. In France, in 2016 Roma children were able to influence a municipality so that a cycle path was built. In Lithuania, in 2015, Roma children highlighted antiGypsyism and held the first ever child-led Roma Holocaust conference. In Ireland children set up a diversity and inclusion committee and campaign, educating schools about how to be inclusive. [F3]

This methodology is continuing to inform practice by professionals across Europe. For example, in Bulgaria, Larkins delivers training and consultancy on the PEER model. Also, with the European Federation Missing Children Europe (representing a network of 30 NGOs in 26 European countries), Larkins delivers training and consultancy on methodologies for participation. Further impact derives from Larkins’ methodologies and theoretical insights having been included in three European training materials [F1, F2].

Lives of c hildren and young people and their communities

Across Europe, marginalised children, as our fellow co-researchers, have reported the personal impacts of participation in these activities; helping them build confidence, gain skills in research and activism and enabling some of them to access mainstream education, university courses, work experience with politicians and employment in research and youth work.

Through leading and taking part in participatory research [3,4,5,6], the 80 young people who have worked most closely with The Centre in the current REF period have brought about enormous personal change, including for young Roma in other EU countries [E1] and disabled young researchers in the UK and Japan [F4, E3]. Young people have experienced travel to Switzerland, Ireland, Japan, Belgium, Croatia and Canada to present their findings to professionals and other young people [E2]. In the UK, children, who were attending special educational provision and who felt unable to speak in class, are now confident conducting research and addressing public meetings [E3]. One of the young people who have moved from educational disengagement to attending University summed up the benefits for him and other disabled group members:

“I've learnt how to talk to people and I've learnt how to talk in front of people … I'm proud of this [research], helping me from when I was in my dark days … I think I'm just a better person because of it … before, I had nothing to think positive about, nothing to aim for.”

The views of over 1,100 children and young people have been fed into local, national and international policy processes, meeting with local, national and European politicians, children’s ombudsmen and government officials, through policy papers distributed internationally and through travelling exhibitions [2,3,4,5,6 and other studies not listed in section 3]. This work has had a wide impact on the well-being of children and families [E3, F2]. For example, after presenting findings of the Covid-19 research [3] and direct email correspondence with an NGO network member who attended that presentation, the NGO’s advocacy work, attempting to reduce the confinement of children, was intensified. Within one week their government reduced the restrictions placed on children’s access to outdoor environments, replicating the exemplar practice that had been reported in the research.