Children and Public Policy in Malta: Achieving meaningful and purposeful participation

1. Children and Public Policy in Malta: Achieving meaningful and purposeful participation National Institute for Childhood President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society

2. The mission of the National Institute for Childhood (NIC) • To promote children’s wellbeing: • Research and its dissemination; • Consultation with relevant stake holders; • Active participation in debates in matters concerning children and their relationships with significant others. • To create spaces in which children’s voices may be represented ensuring diverse voices are acknowledged: • Children can contribute to the setting of the agenda of the Institute for Childhood; • Collaboration with any institution or person/s working with children or with any matter concerning children.

3. The objectives of NIC • Identify factors which are conducive to children’s wellbeing; • Conduct original research regarding children and their relationships with significant others; • Identify, develop and use research methodologies that are ethically sound and which promote children’s agency; • Develop and create a repository of research on children and childhood that could be publicly accessible; and • Identify good practice in working with children which maximises their opportunities to safely and freely participate in decisions about their lives.

4. Children and Public Policy in Malta: Achieving meaningful and purposeful participation • Objectives of paper: • present and problematise some of the issues which arise in achieving meaningful and purposeful child participation in public policy development; • propose how such participation can be strengthened and improved.

5. Key concepts and practice • What muffles children’s voices such that they are quieted down and not heard in policy development? • What are the key principles which will ensure that children’s voices are not stifled? • Which are the good practices which support children’s participation in policy development?

6. How are children viewed? Do they really matter? • Are children viewed as full members of society with capabilities and agency? • Who is consulted? • How are children consulted? • How is what children tell adults included in policies? • What is communicated to children about the impact their ideas and experiences have had on policy making?

7. Who is consulted? • Are children who fit into adult views of children’s realities consulted? • Do we consult children depending on our professional perspective of children? • Are children who are difficult to reach or who do not fit into our adult definitions even considered?

8. What do children think about who is consulted? • Focus group data • Young person 1: • “If it’s in our school, it’s always the same people that get pickedfor everything”. • Young person 2: • “I’ve never been picked” (general agreement). • Young person 3: • “This is the first time I’ve been picked for anything." • Hill, M. (2006). Children’s Voices on Ways of Having a Voice: Children’s and young people’s perspectives on methods used in research and consultation. Childhood, 13(1), 69–89. Implications regarding access

9. How are children consulted? • Are children consulted on one instance and expected to somehow respond ‘appropriately’ or does the consultation process respect their processes and pace? • Are the adults who initiate the consultation aware of how their own positioning vis-à-vis the children mediates their voices? • Are the policy makers sufficiently critical of the designs of the child consultative processes?

10. How are children consulted? They are consulted through formal mechanisms: • Kunsill Nazzjonali taż-Żgħażagħ (1992); • Student Councils in schools (1999-2000); • Nature Trust’s EkoSkola (2003); • the Commissioner for Children’s Council for Children (2003); • Aġenzija Żgħażagħ (2011); and • the President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society Children’s Hub (2014).

11. What do children think about how they are consulted? • "Maybe children don’t feel free to speak what they think in groups, and theycould just write it down." • "Probably surveys [are best], because, like, some people might be, like, nervousabout, like talking out in front of lots of people and stuff, and people they don’tknow, so they might like it better if they were just writing stuff down." • "I preferred the group discussion [to the individual interview], because it waseasier to talk with friends there". (Punch, 2002) • Hill, M. (2006). Children’s Voices on Ways of Having a Voice: Children’s and young people’s perspectives on methods used in research and consultation. Childhood, 13(1), 69–89. Implications regarding methods and choice.

12. What are the key principles which ensure that children’s voices are not stifled? • Believe in children and value their contribution; • Reach out to children from socially excluded groups; • Promote a socio-legal context which enhances children’s participation; • Ask the children what helps them participate; • Employ a variety of mechanisms for consultation; • Consult in child-friendly environments; • Give children clear information about the consultation process, including how their views have been used and their impact on policy;

13. What are the key principles which ensure that children’s voices are not stifled? • Use unorthodox ways to encourage participation (e.g. rap cd); • Do not place a priori limitations on children’s contribution; • Ensure that adults and children involved in the process have received the relevant training for participation; • Ensure that adults’ roles in the participation process are clear; • Children’s participation in policy development needs to be well resourced; and • Evaluate children’s participation in terms of the impact which their contribution has made on the policy.

14. Some implications for (adult) researchers FairnessEnsure diverse children and viewpoints are included EffectivenessEnsure that the consultation will benefit children AgencyBenefit from children’s ideas concerning ways to exploretheir worlds ChoiceMaximise the opportunities for participants to choose forms of communication and levels of involvement they prefer OpennessBe clear with children about limitations to their participation and the effectsit will have DiversityUse a range of methods and include all major perspectives SatisfactionMake the experience a comfortable one and, when appropriate, good fun RespectRecognise children’s rights and opinions; minimise use of power

15. Youth Commission on Alcohol (Scotland) (Tisdall, 2013) 16 young people were recruited to form part of the commission through an open call. The Youth Commission was supported by an advisory group which was made up of members from the Scottish Government, media, business, education, health, police and voluntary organisations. It was the Youth Commission itself which undertook various consultations, surveys and investigations; and many of the recommendations they made in their report became part of the Government’s policy agenda. Good practice: supporting children’s participation in policy development

16. Children’s participation in the local context: an example from EkoSkola “Children in one of our local schools became aware of the harm caused by balloon releases and decided to raise it on the agenda of EkoSkola and in parliament. Although the children’s concerns were not given much heed, they did not give up and raised the issue with Puttinu Cares Cancer Support Group ahead of a marathon. The Support Group willingly accepted proposals made by the school children. As alternatives to the balloon release, children proposed the release of pigeons and soap bubbles. This initiative served to raise awareness about the issue and since then, other organisations have chosen alternatives to balloon releases”. (P. Pace, personal communication October 5, 2018). Good practice: supporting children’s participation in policy development

17. Children’s participation in the consultation process leading up to the local National Children’s Policy (2017) • Children of all ages were consulted and a representative sample of each age group was included; • Tools were adapted according to the children’s age group; • Tools were designed to obtain responses through close-ended questions, open-ended questions and through drawing, stories, poetry and song. Good practice: supporting children’s participation in policy development

18. Thank-you pfws.opr@gov.mt National Institute for Childhood, President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society 6th Febraury 2019

19. References Hill, M. (2006). Children’s Voices on Ways of Having a Voice: Children’s and young people’s perspectives on methods used in research and consultation. Childhood, 13(1), 69–89. Ministry for the Family, Children’s Rights and Social Solidarity. (2017). National Children’s Policy. Retrieved from https://family.gov.mt/en/Documents/National%20Children%27s%20Policy%202017.pdf Tisdall, E.K.M. (2013). The Transformation of Participation? Exploring the Potential of ‘Transformative Participation’ for Theory and Practice around Children and Young People’s Participation, Global Studies of Childhood, 3(2), 183-193. doi:10.2304/gsch.2013.3.2.183