Participation Event December 2022
Reflecting back on the good practice, successes and impact of 2022
In December 2022, we were delighted to host an in-person Participation Network event at the Townhead Village Hall, Glasgow.
It was a great chance to catch up with each other and also consider our achievements over the last year.
We shared learning from participation work taking place across Scotland; taking stock of the successes (big and small!), the good practice and the impact of high-quality participation work in ensuring that children and young people's voices are heard and support can be informed by their experiences and perspectives. We shared learning from participation work taking place across Scotland; taking stock of the successes (big and small!), the good practice and the impact of high-quality participation work in ensuring that children and young people's voices are heard and support can be informed by their experiences and perspectives.
Participation encourages and supports children and young people so that they can be actively engaged in the making of decisions that will influence their lives. Improving our participation practice enables us to help realise the Promise, which asks that ‘participation and listening must form part of everything within Scotland’s system of care.’
Participation Network events are a space for people to collaborate and learn from each other, and acts as a community of practice, encouraging positive changes and collaboration through supportive networks. The Participation Network aims to ensure that participation is carried out in ways that are safe, ethical and meaningful.
Participation should also be useful, engaging and fun, and we try to make sure that there is something at each event for everyone.
After spending some time catching up with each other, everyone took part in a web of positivity. Each person took a turn holding a ball of string, introducing themselves, and giving an example of one good thing that had happened to them this year and also their favourite place to be, before handing on the string.
Throughout the day, we spent time in groups doing some deep-dive thinking and reflection on members' participation successes and highlights of 2022. We shared learning from the examples, held all across Scotland and across different sectors. Each example was written up on a ‘bauble of good practice’, to allow people to read through them and discuss any areas of interest, allowing people to network and learn from others in the room. In the afternoon we grouped each bauble into themes, to allow us to see what the main themes of meaningful participation were in 2022. As you can see from the photos of the trees, the 6 six themes were relationships, partnership working and collaboration, inclusion, strategic influencing, day-to-day influencing and language attitudes and culture.
During the event, John Morrison invited people to take part in some light photos, and ended the day with a group shot of everyone trying to make light hearts:
