Involving children and young people

We are proud we have created an empowering culture where everyone at FCA Scotland feels respected, valued and has a voice by being able to contribute. We have a culture where we actively encourage children and young people to get involved and have their say. Through involving everyone, we grow stronger and better together. We’re focused on helping everyone become the best they can be.

What is participation?

Participation is the involvement of children and young people, creating opportunities for consultation and expression, and then using this information to inform practice. This underpins everything we do at FCA Scotland. To achieve this we have a Participation Framework and Action Plan which sets out what we should be doing and ensure there is accountability for this at all levels.

We strive to work in accordance with the following core principles:

Engaging with children and young people to make a positive and lasting difference to their lives.

Working with children and young people to help them achieve.

Consulting, listening and hearing the voices of children and young by providing them opportunities to participate in decision-making and influence services.

Using evidence from participation as the basis for improving standards and improving outcomes for children and young people.

Delivering innovative and excellent opportunities to young people through a well-trained and skilled workforce that have access to sufficient resources.

How we achieve participation

We have Participation Ambassadors to be the voice and champion of participation. A good example of participation includes the involvement of young people in interviews of staff and in our preparatory fostering training programme.

Children and young people are also consulted about activities and asked to comment on and contribute to revisions on some of our key documents such as the Young Persons Guide and the Statement of Purpose. We encourage our young people to have advocates and independent visitors and explain what they do in the Young Person’s Guide.