« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
2. Design and Structure of the Events
Summary of the Research Design
2.1 The research team:
- Designed and organised the 3 events
- Provided information about the consultations and obtained consents
- Prepared and supported the young people facilitators
- Facilitated the groups and ensured the views of the young people were recorded accurately
- Analysed the findings and produced a report.
2.2 The young people facilitators contributed to:
- Considering and amending the draft programme
- Introducing the consultation events, assisting in facilitating sessions and supporting children and young people
- Ensuring the information was accessible and 'child-friendly'.
Participants
2.3 Consultation events were held in October 2007 in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness. Children and young people with experience of domestic abuse were invited to participate via Women's Aid Children's Support workers. It was agreed that the minimum age for participants would be 8 years, with an upper age of 16. A total of 33 young people took part in the events: a mix of boys and girls; young people from urban and rural areas; and from a range of ethnic origins.
Table 2: Gender of participants
| Girls | Boys | Don't know | Total |
|---|
Glasgow | 9 | 10 | 2 | 21 |
|---|
Edinburgh | 5 | 4 | | 9 |
|---|
Inverness | 3 | | | 3 |
|---|
Total | 17 | 14 | 2 | 33 |
|---|
Table 3: Numbers of participants by age
Ages of participants | 8 -10 | 11 & 12 | 13 & 14 | 15 &16 | Don't know | Total |
|---|
Glasgow | 5 | 10 | 5 | 1 | | 21 |
|---|
Edinburgh | | 4 | 3 | | 2 | 9 |
|---|
Inverness | 1 | 2 | | | | 3 |
|---|
Total | 6 | 16 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 33 |
|---|
Structure, Design and Methodology
2.4 The events involved a morning consulting young people on the proposals, lunch, followed by a fun activity in the afternoon, including a visit to the Glasgow Science Centre, Dynamic Earth or an outdoor activity in Inverness.
Consulting on Child Friendly Versions of Proposals
2.5 To ensure the consultation was meaningful, the activities 1 around the proposals were designed to be age appropriate. Proposals were rewritten to ensure they were accessible to young people. This was done in a number of ways including:
- Translating proposals into 'child-friendly' language
- Ensuring an emphasis on appropriate ways to engage with young people including the use of pictures, diagrams and graphics
- Small group activities
- Using other young people to facilitate groups.
2.6 The events comprised a series of facilitated exercises. Each exercise addressed one or more proposal around the following themes:
Table 4: Programme
Session 1 | Welcome, introduction to the day and ground rules Theme 1 - Why adults should listen to us |
Session 2 | Ice breaker |
Session 3 | Theme 2 - Support I need |
Session 4 | Theme 3 - Help from others |
Session 5 | Theme 4 - Keeping children safe |
Session 6 | Theme 5 - Getting the message out |
Session 7 | Theme 6 - Why adults should listen to us |
Research Methods
2.7 Welcome and introduction sessions were led by both an adult and a young facilitator. Sessions were facilitated in small groups. Where possible groups were with young people of similar ages; generally this worked well. Some young people expressed a preference for being in groups with others they already knew and these straddled ages. Sessions were built round a number of activities and exercises including:
- Statement trees:- participants were asked to prioritise statements (based on the NDADG proposals) written on 'leaves', and to place these on a large illustration of a 'tree'. This enabled the relative importance of each 'statement' to be discussed, considered and recorded.
- Visual prompts:- examples of this included using illustrations of professionals (such as teachers, social workers, police), and asking young people to consider their role and potential for providing support. Suggestions were written on illustrations of 'brains' for thoughts, and 'hands' for actions.
- Vignettes:- used to enable young people to discuss potentially difficult topics indirectly - in the third person, rather than about their own situation. For example, young people were asked to consider a scenario about 'Jo', a young person who had recently moved into a refuge. Issues of support, safety and access to parents were discussed in relation to 'Jo'.
- Voting:- young people were given the opportunity to vote on proposals and rank their relative importance.
Recording, Analysis and Reporting
2.8 In all sessions, the views of participants were recorded on notes or flipchart paper visible to the entire group. At each event there was a 'confidential box'. Young people were encouraged to put notes into the box of things they did not want to speak about in front of others. Information from the sessions and messages from the 'confidential box' form the basis of this report.
« Previous | Contents | Next »