Introduction

This chapter seeks to ground the reader in some of the key concepts and thinking relevant to the research that populates the following chapters. It starts by considering what participation means, and for whom, exploring theoretical concepts such as Arnstein's ladder of participation (1969) and Hart's (1992) later adaption for the context of children's participation, as well as other frameworks particularly useful for exploring participation in public services.

This is followed by an exploration of some of the key issues and considerations specific to participation in the context of children's social care. How participation is defined tends to differ depending on who is ‘participating’, in what context and for what end. In this chapter, we are particularly interested in participation within children's social care, meaning the two groups that we will be exploring when discussing participation will be children and young people and parents within children's social care.

The rest of the chapter is then given to exploring some of the research relevant to the involvement of parents and children in social care decision making – namely through meetings held with professionals. In particular, this section focuses on the roles of professionals in enabling meaningful participation in decision making, and some of the challenges involved.

What is participation?

Participation is an important concept in many sectors, from international development to information services to product design. Consequently, reaching a definition of participation is complicated by the terminology differing across disciplines, with a vast array of language to describe ‘best practice’. This can mean that the literature can be daunting to begin with. Participation is often used interchangeably with words such as ‘consultation’, ‘partnership’ or ‘involvement’ (Croft and Beresford, 1992; Roberts, 2002).

Types of participation can be divided into two categories: individual participation and collective participation (Kennan et al, 2016). Some disciplines are concerned with both types, but many western interpretations focus more on individual participation than on collective participation. With regard to service delivery, this is arguably driven by the consumerist notion of a citizen, whereby a service (be it public or profit driven) is delivered to meet the needs and requirements of a rational individual, who presumably could take their business elsewhere if the service was deficit in any way.