Transcript

INSTRUCTOR

There are many challenges because, at one level, they have so many things that are vying for their attention, and there are so many people who want to communicate with them. Very importantly, the NCRC talks about the rights of the child and talks about how important it is that they have a say in what they do.

But engaging with children and young people, whilst we have to use all new technologies and whilst we have to understand what Snapchat is and what Twitter is and all of those other things, we have found that, actually, it is, getting back to what I previously just mentioned, talking to young people and engaging with them at a relational level. That's where we have made our impact.

We have also found that children and young people are not a homogeneous group. They all have very different views. And it's very important to get platforms to engage with children and young people where you can talk to the needs of that individual. Because they are very individualised.

Also, there are lots of children without a voice. And that's really important to think about those groups who come from ethnic minority communities, those groups who come from the wider Section 75 groups. One of the groups of young people that we work with in connection with the Police Service for Northern Ireland are young people who are under paramilitary threat or are subject to paramilitary violence. And those young people do not have a voice. They don't know how to articulate that voice.

So there's kind of three main challenges. One, how do you do it within the environment that we're in? Two, because children and young people don't often know how to explain themselves and express themselves very well, it's helping them, actually, to do the articulation. And then, thirdly, it's doing something very meaningful with that information so that they understand that you have heard them, they understand that you've listened to them, but, more importantly, that the services that we have provide will change and adapt to meet their needs.

There are many opportunities. We have found that they want to engage with us, but they want to do that in a nonjudgmental way. So going back to the IT and the many platforms that we have, in our survey this year of 18,000 young people, we used small group work, we used individual work, we used questionnaires, we contacted young people in schools, we contacted them on the street, we used Twitter, we used Facebook, we used all of those methodologies, and we found that it wasn't a one size fits all, that you have to have a broad spectrum of approach.

But there's two types of contact, as well, that you want to consider. One is the sheer volume, and then two is the depth. And to get the depth, that requires the relationship and the contact at an individual level. Through the Children and Young People's Strategy, we feel that the voice of children and young people has been greatly strengthed.

One of the key things that we also do with the Police Service for Northern Ireland is that we amplify the voice of children and young people in the context of the police. So making sure that there are structures in place, particularly for those most vulnerable and have barriers to learning, even barriers to communication, and ensuring that you go out of your way to engage with those young people and make sure that they can have their voice heard, that is the most important thing. And that's what we have been very ably doing.

I think the first thing is being nonjudgmental and actively listening. And I know that sounds trite, but, actually, they have very clearly articulated it to us. There are lots of opportunities for them to state their position, but they are not clear that, A, that they've been heard-- that they've been heard correctly-- and, very importantly, that anybody has done anything about it. So I think integrity is very clear in the process.

I think, structurally, you have to have the opportunities for that to happen. And that's not siloed. One of the biggest challenges in Northern Ireland, I think, to all government departments, as we seek to support our children and young people, and particularly under the Children and Young People's Strategy, is the connectivity. Because even the most vulnerable children and young people, they are fed up, quite frankly, and can get very angry and aggressive at another person asking them personal questions, wanting to know how they feel.

So there's something about us getting this right at an adult level in terms of connectivity, being creative about that, being authentic about that, and then, as I said, making sure that we actually do something with the information. And it's not only that, it's closing the loop and going back to say, we did hear you, this is what we're going to do.

Then, you need to come back further down the line-- six months, 12 months, 18 months-- and say, can you see the difference, do you experience the difference, has this impacted you in the way that you need it to be? and then continue that critical self-reflective practise. And that isn't about, as I mentioned earlier, doing it onto young people, but young people can be part of that process. And that is also, with Early Years, we have a number of organisations that help us engage with those young people.

So it is possible. It is time consuming, and it does need you to work directly with those young people to understand their needs. But it is very worthwhile. And we know only when we do that will we get the outcomes, they will get the outcomes, that they need.