Enhance Citizen Engagement in Policy Making: Youth (IE0037)

Commitment Text:
The Department of Children and Youth Affairs will establish a Children and Young
People’s Participation Hub, as a national centre for excellence on the participation of
children and young people. The Hub will support Government departments and other
organisations by providing training, developing good practice toolkits and supporting
organisations to effectively involve children and young people in decision-making,
including young children and those who are seldom heard.
Milestone:
4B. Establish a participation hub for children and youth
Responsible institution: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform
Supporting institution: Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA)
Start date: January 2017
End date: June 2018

4B. Enhance Citizen Engagement in Policy Making: Youth

Commitment Text:

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs will establish a Children and Young People’s Participation Hub, as a national centre for excellence on the participation of children and young people. The Hub will support Government departments and other organisations by providing training, developing good practice toolkits and supporting organisations to effectively involve children and young people in decision-making, including young children and those who are seldom heard.

Milestone:

4B. Establish a participation hub for children and youth

Responsible institution: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform

Supporting institution: Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA)

Start date: January 2017

End date: June 2018

Editorial Note: For the remainder of the commitment text, see Commitment 4A.

Context and Objectives

Whereas the previous milestones (4A) were targeted at increasing citizen engagement in general, this milestone seeks to increase participation of youth and children in decision-making processes specifically. Young people’s views are not always taken into consideration when policies are made, even though such policies will often have an impact on younger citizens’ lives for a longer period of time compared to the rest of the electorate. To accomplish this objective, this milestone calls for the establishment of a Children and Young People’s Participation Hub. The creation of this Hub is based on an initiative started in 2015 that stems from Action 2.5.1 from the first action plan[Note: For more information on this, see Minister Reilly’s press release, available at: https://www.dcya.gov.ie/viewdoc.asp?Docid=3471. ] and it is expected to serve as a national centre for excellence on the participation of children and young people, support government departments by providing training, and develop good practice toolkits to involve youth in decision making.

The goal of improving young people’s access to participation in decision-making processes is relevant to the OGP value of civic participation. The milestone has a clear objective of creating a hub of excellence, but it is unclear if youths themselves will have a say on what constitutes ‘best practise’ to involve youth in decision making and, if so, what exactly will be taken into consideration. Therefore, the specificity is medium. If fully implemented, the Hub help could increase the participation of youth, but it is not fully clear how the training that is provided will either (a) really educate youth beyond the status quo, and (b) how this training to youth will then be translated into meaningful participation in the policy making process. Therefore, the potential impact is moderate.

Completion

The level of completion of this commitment is substantial and on schedule. The government outlines in its progress report on the commitment that key achievements have included commissioning further education and continuing professional development programmes in Ireland, and developing a training programme to seek the views of children and young people.[Note: Also, on 24 January 2017: a three-year contract to provide children and young people’s participation support services to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs is announced. See this news on the Children’s Research Network website.] The Hub also has a dedicated webpage[Note: ‘Children and Young People’s Participation Hub,’ Department of Children and Youth Affairs, n.d., https://www.dcya.gov.ie/viewdoc.asp?fn=%2Fdocuments%2FPlayandRec%2F20170124ChildrenAndYoungPeopleParticipationHubMainPage.htm. ] which was substantially improved during the first year of the action plan by housing an online children’s participation database of publications on the theory and practise of young people’s participation in decision making. Remaining next steps—according to the government’s progress report—include developing a three-year work plan for the Hub and further developing a training plan and training materials. A civil society leader interviewed for this study was unaware of the levels of completion for this milestone, primarily because the outreach with stakeholders in this area has not been robust.[Note: Interview held October 2017.]

Next Steps

The development of the Hub has been an ongoing project since 2015 and the completion of the Hub is expected to take place over the second year of the action plan. Moving forward, it might be useful to determine how youth participation can actually influence the formation of public policy. In this regard, the IRM researcher recommends to:

Consider one or two policy proposals that are of salience to children and young people on which the government is presently preparing a bill (or on which a bill is being passed in parliament).

Garner the views of youth, using the Hub as a first point of collection of evidence of different policy position, and

Have a representative sample of youth sharing said positions appear before the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Education and Skills to give evidence.[Note: ‘Joint Committee on Education and Skills,’ Houses of the Oireachtas, n.d., http://www.oireachtas.ie/parliament/oireachtasbusiness/committees_list/es/. ]

A recent example of a policy presently being examined by the Committee is on the future funding on higher education,[Note: ‘Education Committee continue their examination of the future funding of higher education in Ireland,’ Houses of the Oireachtas, 6 April 2017, http://www.oireachtas.ie/parliament/mediazone/pressreleases/2017/name-41588-en.html. ] but there may be others to be developed in the next two years that the government may consider as well.

For commitment details, see https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2001/01/Ireland_End-Term_...