We have always recognised the importance of children and young people influencing the services they receive and new services that are being developed.  We want to see them contributing to and benefiting from their communities.  We want them to feel heard and valued and to be able to make a difference.  That’s why we involve them in many aspects of our work, including evaluation, planning and design and recruitment of our own staff.

As lead agency for the Children’s Strategic Partnership, we have provided a lead to participation in Lincolnshire and have supported and initiated developments, including briefing, training and supporting partners through the Hear by Right standards framework. We have helped organisations, councils and partnership groups to identify and build on existing good practice and identify practice gaps by listening to children and young people, and to plan and action improvements.  More recently we have trained, prepared and supported children and young people to confidently design and deliver successful interviews and co-appoint key Team Managers for the Local Authority Children’s Services, featured on BBC local radio and Look North TV news.

Participation and Community Development services- where we stand

We provide a range of services that can benefit your organisation or group by helping you make sure that you are well connected and actively participating with children and young people and community members.  We believe that good quality, relevant services can only come about by listening to the people who use them.  This makes sound business sense too.  We believe that children and young people have equal value and that their unique voices can make a real difference.  Taking a Children’s Rights approach, we do not work in tokenistic ways or by shoe-horning children and young people into adult structures, but rather by working creatively to include and really empower them and to help adults meet them at least half-way.  Children and young people do not want ‘all the say’, just a fair amount of it.  We know that you are probably already doing some of this work. We can help you to keep improving.

What can we provide?

Participation

‘Children’s Links have trained and supported young people to interview LCC team manager posts and other senior manager posts.  This has been additional to roles specified within the agreement.’

Head of Service- Participation and Inclusion – Lincolnshire County Council

• Practical, tested methods that work; including children and young people as interviewers, designers of services and settings, evaluators and in commissioning and governance in organisations.  The emphasis is always on working creatively to ensure children and young people have informed choices, can identify and articulate their own concerns, giving children and young people  ‘fair say’, leading to real and tangible change. Recognising and celebrating their contribution further strengthens their own sense of worth and demonstrates what they can achieve if we just believe in and support them.
• Training and support to schools councils to enable them to work more confidently and effectively in shaping and improving schools and their school experiences.
• Helping you develop your own participation policy and strategy, including developing key performance measures that mean something.
• Helping you develop web-based resources to capture children and young people’s views and consultation results, building an increasingly rich store of information that helps inform your plans.  We can also work with you to create your own best practice web resource, helping partners contribute to and learn from what is happening where you are.

We can provide consultancy, training and support to individuals and groups, including direct work with children and young people, and training to designated staff individually or in groups.  We are always happy to work with you to create a tailor made package that meets your needs.

Community Development

At Children's Links our starting point for community development is the community itself.

• Our research identifies the real issues a community faces, rather than only those perceived by agencies. This only happens when children, young people and their families are consulted.
• We then work with community groups and professionals to tackle the issues and bring about long-lasting, positive change.
• Through involving community groups and individual volunteers throughout the process, and providing appropriate training, significant capacity building takes place.

Examples of our work include:

• community gardening
• playscape facilities
• development of sustainable children’s holiday activities
• inter-generational projects
• road safety
• schools work
• evaluation by children and young people