Young peoples' involvement in welfare service development—Is voice enough?—A thematic synthesis of qualitative studies

Abstract

Background Young people need to be heard and take an active role in developing welfare services. When they are recognized as having skills and expertize, the advantages young people's involvement brings to both themselves and the organizations, are mobilization and empowering with impact on national decision‐making. Objective To synthesize existing literature on how young people's involvement in coproduction can contribute to better welfare services. Search Strategy We performed a systematic literature search in four databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO and Cinahl). Inclusion Criteria Publications whose abstracts contained themes as: Young people 12–25 years of age, receiving welfare, youth coproduction/involvement/participation and qualitative studies. Data Extraction and Synthesis Of the 5469 documents retrieved, the full text of 58 studies was read, of which seven studies met the inclusion criteria. A thematic synthesis following Thomas and Harden was used. Main Results Young people being involved in coproduction of developing welfare services experienced to be valued and supported by partnerships, but they also pointed out deficiencies in welfare services. Some of the adolescents expressed not being listened to, lack of trusted relations and not being involved in policy making or prospects. The staff members saw some challenges with partnering with youth; as the need for flexibility, to keep the youth engaged and to purposefully meet the adolescents where they need help, guidance or resources. Conclusions More involvement should be stressed. Coproduction is often symbolic more than resulting in real changes in the welfare services. Consequently, what is crucial when young people are involved is that they are encouraged by adults to be clear about the degree of involvement they want. Patient or Public Contribution Patient and public involvement was not explicit in this review.

Prioritising Children and Young People with Disability in Research About Domestic and Family Violence: Methodological, Ethical and Pragmatic Reflections

“…However, it is one thing to amplify voice and agency in methodology. Another is to respond – to really listen to children and young people with disability – in terms of harnessing priorities for policy and directing organisational change, so that they do not become ‘voices that fade away’ (Nortvedt et al, 2022 , p.1467).…”

“…Over time in this research field we have seen incremental improvements from funding bodies and ethics committees in terms of expectations around co-design – such as increasing expectations of high quality easy English consent forms and active encouragement of participation of the groups who are the subject of the research in advisory roles. We hope this trend continues with more meaningful change, such as employment of co-researchers embedded into grant requirements and widespread involvement of co-researchers involved in assessment and review panels for research grants (Nortvedt et al, 2022 ).…”

Involvement of children and young people in the conduct of health research: A rapid umbrella review

“…It is possible that this reflects barriers to planning and implementing projects involving younger children. These barriers may include, for example, restrictions on time, effort and funding, institutional and ethical requirements to suitably accommodate younger children, 9,13,95,96,99,[106][107][108]112,113 as well as perceptions that younger children are less competent or capable of contributing value to research. 46,96,98,102,103 Another confounding factor is how involvement of younger children is reported within the literature.…”

“…5,73,104,110 Encourage CYP to guide their own experiences. 5,9,96,107,109,113 Create safe spaces, frequent breaks and incorporate unrelated socialisation activities. 104,115 Give back to CYP by assisting with skill attainment and offering new experiences and opportunities.…”

“…104,115 Give back to CYP by assisting with skill attainment and offering new experiences and opportunities. 75,86,99,107,113 Provide regular feedback on the impact of their contributions and fair recognition of their input to the research. 75,86,99,107,113 Recruitment (12; 48%) + representation (10; 40%)…”