The Children and Decision Making toolbox and training pack was produced following innovative research into children’s participation in decisions about their care

The Children and Decision Making toolbox and training pack was produced following innovative research into children’s participation in decisions about their care, with funding from the Welsh Office and the Scottish Office. Every local authority in Wales and Scotland was provided with a set of the materials, and several authorities
have since obtained additional copies so that each children and families team can have one.This attractive and robust package includes imaginative audiovisual materials for use in direct work with children, which have proved very successful in practice. Enabling children to participate fully in complex decisions can be a challenge for any social worker, and these resources really help.

The package is one of the recommended resources on the Integrated Children’s System website and a recommended resource in the National Standards for the Provision of Children’s Advocacy Services in Wales. It has also attracted attention much more widely, and has now been adapted by the Office of the Children’s Guardian in New South Wales for use in Australia.

The complete package normally retails at £150.00 plus delivery costs. However, in order
to promote its wider use, we are now offering it as a special promotion on the following terms:

Please note that individual items can be bought separately.

Please could you draw this offer to the attention of your staff who are responsible for training and development in child care.

Comments on the Children and Decision Making toolbox

As LAC Review Chair, I have found the research in Children and Decision Making invaluable in informing my work. Both the easily readable research and the tapes of children’s comments are a strong reminder of the importance of involving children as young as 8 years of age as fully and as sensitively as possible in their reviews.

In producing the training video ‘Listen and Communicate’ on LAC Reviews we (the production team) used the cards from the Children and Decision Making Box to demonstrate how to prepare the child for a LAC Review. The picture cards are a good stimulus for discussion with a child about things that may be important to him/her.
Carys Davies (LAC Review Chair, Carmarthenshire)

The Children and Decision Making material ‘has been used across South Wales by advocates in working with looked after children. It has been a very useful tool in preparing children for their reviews.
Huw Binding (NSPCC Cymru)

The Children and Decision Making toolbox is the most creative resource that I have seen for children and young people, carers and workers in out-of-home care. It proved invaluable in the development of the kit which will be used in New South Wales in government and non-government agencies for increasing the participation of children and young people in decisions that affect their lives. The carers, workers and children and young people that were part of the NSW project ‘road tested’ the resources to determine their applicability to local conditions and found that they were extremely useful. That is why they were adapted for NSW.
Linda Mallett (Children's Guardian, Office of the Children's Guardian, New South Wales)