children's participation in decision-making

What is it about?

The research evaluates the operation, process and outcomes of a recent national reform in the Israeli child protection decision making framework of formal committees designed with the ambition of strengthening children’s participation in intervention decisions. A systems approach was undertaken as a conceptual framework in order to allow a whole-organisational understanding of what is happening in the field, and why. The research employs a qualitative method of inquiry and a case study design. The cases of 21 families, including 45 children, brought before the committees were investigated and their situation was followed up after six months. Data were collected through interviews with professionals and parents, field observations of the committee meetings and document review. This study found that overall, children and young people’s voices were neither heard nor taken seriously into account when making decisions, despite the new reform which makes children’s participation a mandatory requirement. The analysis identified key systemic forces that came together to interfere with the reform having the hoped for impact including: workforce lack of skill, time, professional support, and organisational messages about practice priorities.

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Why is it important?

Literature in the field of child protection highlights the contribution of children’s participation to the effectiveness of intervention decisions. Nevertheless, international literature repeatedly reports a disappointing gap between the positive tone of formal policies around children’s participation and their translation into practice; so that children are still not being sufficiently included in child protection work. The systems approach taken by this research proved to have advantages in allowing a thorough understanding of why this goal is so difficult to achieve. The strong message from this research is that policy makers need to stop simply telling workers what to do, and direct effort towards establishing work environments that enable them to do it.

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