Good practice guide on involving young people in the governance of Connexions as decision-makers[E/NI/S/W]
The guide aims to:
• help Partnerships to discuss and critically consider the best ways of ensuring that young people can be actively and meaningfully involved in the governance of Connexions
• help Partnerships to work with young people and prepare them for active involvement in decision making at whatever level is felt to be best for the Partnership and young people
• provide support and resource material to Partnerships to work with young people to involve them in the governance of the Connexions Partnership
This guide is for all those responsible for involving young people as decision-makers in the governance of Connexions. It builds upon the CSNU guidance “The active involvement of young people in the Connexions Service: Managers’ Guide & Practitioners’ Guide” including the key principles for involving young people in Connexions (Section 3). Like its predecessors, it is not meant to be a definitive ‘how-to’ guide, but instead sets out some basic principles and highlights good practice among Partnerships.
The guide also contains training and support materials for Partnerships to adapt into a young people friendly format and to use with young people who are either about to become involved in decision making within Connexions or are perhaps already involved but need a little extra help. The guide offers practical advice and suggestions on how to make the involvement of young people run as smoothly as possible.
It is important for Partnerships to recognise that many of the issues, concerns and practical support raised in this guidance will not only apply to young people but other partners as well – for example voluntary and community sector representatives.
The guidance has been established as a result of feedback from Connexions Partnerships about the issues they have encountered involving young people in the governance of Connexions. Section 4 covers this in detail and Section 6 goes on to provide practical methods and solutions. Section 5 focuses on the feedback from a diverse range of young people with experience of involvement in governance and offers practical support to Partnerships.
Section 7 is aimed at Partnerships and is designed to provide the necessary tools for increasing the knowledge and skills of young people in the governance of Connexions. The guidance also provides many examples and case studies of how Connexions Partnerships are currently engaging (see Section 8).
