New short article: Why meaningful participation for children in out-of-home care is essential

Extensive evidence suggests that children in out-of-home care (OOHC) frequently feel they are not given sufficient information about their lives or care placement, and/or are not meaningfully included in decision-making about their lives.¹ Children and young people indicate that they commonly:

• lack access to information about themselves, their family, history, care arrangements or the care system^{1, 2,  3}
• feel that they aren’t able to express themselves or speak up⁴
• are not listened to or taken seriously by practitioners⁵
• get opportunities to have input into day-to-day decisions, but feel excluded from participating in the big decisions that effect their lives.^{1, 2, 4}

It is essential that practitioners are aware of their obligations to facilitate child participation. They play a critical role in helping children in OOHC to meaningfully participate in decision-making.

References

1. Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP). (2019). In our own words: Systemic inquiry into the lived experience of children and young people in the Victorian out-of-home care system. Victorian Government.

2. McTavish, J. R., McKee, C., & MacMillan, H. L. (2022). Foster children’s perspectives on participation in child welfare processes: A meta-synthesis of qualitative studies. PLoS One, 17(10), e0275784. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0275784. 

3. Robertson, C., Laing, K., Butler, M., & Soliman, R. (2017). The views of NSW children and young people in out-of-home care. NSW results from the National Out-of-Home Care and NSW Residential Care Surveys. Department of Communities and Justice (formerly Department of Family and Community Services), NSW Government.

4. Toros, K. (2021). A systematic review of children’s participation in child protection decision-making: Tokenistic presence or not? Children & Society, 35, 395–411.

5. McCafferty, P., & Mercado Garcia, E. (2023). Children’s participation in child welfare: A systematic review of systematic reviews. The British Journal of Social Work, 54(3), 1092–1108.