ABSTRACT
Children’s participation in personal decision-making requires knowledge, understanding, choice and control in their use of services to do with health, educational, welfare, leisure and legal issues. Such participation is key to the relationship between children and inclusive education. These services play important roles in different ways in a young person’s inclusion or exclusion from education. Statutory agencies often try to facilitate inclusion and other services assist in more indirect ways in the general relationship between a young person and society, in whether the young person is socially included or excluded from the main institutions of society. It is difficult to see how there can be any participation in inclusive education without participation in personal decision-making, without child involvement in the services they interact with as users. The review in Chapter 2 of the current
situation of child participation found that an increase in the consultation of children and young people in some areas of more public decision-making does not seem to have been matched by more participation in schools and in the services children use. There are certainly developments in this area – but also major gaps and problems. Just what is the situation and what further changes are possible? What actions are open to professionals who want to engage in more collaborative relationships with children and young people? After looking at the policy context, this chapter considers the following questions:
• To what extent do professionals involve children and young people?
