Research Report of Phase One of the Generation 2020

Research Report of Phase One of the
Generation 2020 Project
Vikki Butler, Research and Policy Officer,
Barnardo's Cymru
August 2005
Acknowledgements
This research was a partnership between the Children’s Partnership and Barnardo’s Cymru. We would
like to thank the City and County of Swansea’s Children Partnership for making funding available to
undertake this research.
The research reports the children’s views anonymously so we cannot mention the schools or children’s
areas by name. However, we would like to thank all of the children who took part in the research
sessions for being so honest, joining in activities and answering all our questions. They also made the
dissemination event come to life with pictures, coloured over heads and sentences of what was
important to them.
We would like to thank the two primary schools, the head teachers, class teachers and class room
assistants who helped to make this research a successful project. They accommodated two
researchers within their premises upon a weekly basis for half a term and supported the children with
their preparation for the dissemination event. Without their help and flexibility this project could not have
been completed.
The researchers were: Fiona Price, Children’s Partnership Development Worker
Vikki Butler, Research and Policy Officer, Barnardos Cymru
Contents
Section 1:
The Generation 2020 Project
1
Section 2:
Research Design, Methods and Methodology
3
Section 3:
Children’s relationships in Neighbourhoods
8
Section 4:
The Importance of Home and Family
11
Section 5:
Play and Leisure Provision
19
Section 6:
Tackling Environmental Poverty
24
Section 7:
Tackling Participation Poverty
30
Section 8:
Conclusion and Recommendations
32
Appendix 1:
Children’s Research Dissemination Event
36
Appendix 2:
Example Consent Form and Parent Information Leaflet
40
Charts and Colour Plates
Section 2:
Section 4:
Section 5:
Section 6:
Child’s map of their Local Area, Hill Park
5
Child’s map of their Local Area, St. Catherine’s
6
Chart 1, Children’s family aspirations
12
Chart 2, Career aspirations
15
Pictures of Children’s Aspirations for the Future
16-18
Chart 3: Children’s Favourite Toys
21
Photos of Play Facilities
22
Photos, Appearances of Houses and Buildings
26
Photos, Rubbish and Litter
27
Section 1:
The Generation 2020 Project
The Aims and Background to Generation 2020
Generation 2020 is a long term project aimed at improving children’s access to services and
developing ways for children to participate in Local Authority decision making.
Swansea Local Authority currently consults with 11-25 year olds through the Youth Forum, but there is
little work to date that has engaged children under the age of 11.
There are three phases to the Generation 2020 project:
Phase 1: Research Project
Undertake a research project to explore children’s access to services, their aspirations and
priorities within their city and how they want to participate in decision making.
Phase 2: Pilot Research Report
A report to contain research findings, a model for working with 6 - 11 year olds, recommendations
regarding service development and recommendations for the development of children’s
participation.
Phase 3: The Longer Term Implementation of Generation 2020
Rollout of the research model and recommendations as detailed in the report of phase 2.
This report represents phase 2 of the Generation 2020 project and details the findings of research
undertaken in phase one, including an outline of the model of working. The methods used in the
project are being included in a participation training course that is being delivered through the
Children’s Partnership. Appendix One details the children’s dissemination event that was held in City
and County of Swansea council chambers. The research was undertaken as a partnership project
between Barnardo’s Cymru policy and research staff and the Children’s Partnership of the City and
County of Swansea.
Phase One of Generation 2020: The Research Project
Aims
The research project piloted methods of working with younger children with a view to these methods
being used in other areas of the local authority. There were 4 main aims:
1. Through undertaking research using creative methods, develop a model of research that can be
used in schools in the Swansea area. This is detailed in the report and will be expanded upon
within a training course.
1
2. To find out how children’s opinions can inform strategic planning within Swansea on an on-going
basis and how children and young people can participate within the Children’s Partnership. This is
detailed in Section 7, ‘Tackling Participation Poverty’.
3. To find out what the priorities are for children living in Swansea in terms of service access and
provision. This information is contained in sections 4, 5 and 6.
4. To work in partnership with the Children’s Partnership in the City and County of Swansea and build
staff capacity in undertaking participatory work with children under 10. This has been an outcome of
working with the 0 - 10’s Co-ordination Unit.
Research Questions
There were 3 research questions to be answered:
1. What are children's priorities for service provision in the City and County of Swansea?
2. How do children want to be involved in the Children’s Partnership?
3. How can children's opinions inform planning and strategic developments within the City and County
of Swansea’s local council on an on-going basis?
This report details findings that relate to these three questions. In exploring these questions with
children under the age of 11 we found that their priority areas were their relations within their
neighbourhood, home and family, play and leisure provision, and the physical environment. Children
also spoke about what they understood about participation and offered suggestions for the way in
which they could be listened to. Rather than detail specific recommendations this report details the
children’s experiences and opinions and outlines where resources and further
dialogue needs to occur.
It is possible that professionals feel that they are already improving
some of the issues that the children raise. If this is the case it
should be considered that if children do not know about
existing services then more or different information is
needed regarding that service. If an initiative or service is
being planned then more needs to be done regarding the
participation of children because the children within this
research study are unaware of some developments.
2
Section 2:
Research Design, Methods and Methodology
Profile of Participants
We worked in two schools in Swansea that were representative of ethnic diversity within the city and
different facets of poverty. The catchment areas of the schools include sub division ward areas that are
within the top 10 deprived areas of the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation 2005.
Both schools are in electoral wards that qualify for Communities First funding. The schools names have
been anonymised. St. Catherine’s school is in a traditional housing estate. We worked with years two
and three (6, 7 and 8 year olds), 26 pupils in total. All the children were white, the majority were Welsh.
Given the children’s ages, some of the children found reading and writing difficult.
Hill Park School is in the city centre supporting a diverse population in terms of minority ethnic groups
and income differences. We worked with years 5 and 6 (9, 10 and 11 year olds), 34 pupils in total.
This group included children from working traveller families and children living in temporary
accommodation with their families. Some of the children found English hard because it was not their
first language.
In total we worked with 60 children aged between 6 and 11. Both school groups included children with
disabilities and special educational needs.
Research Design and Methods
Research format
To undertake this research we devised a model of working using ethical frameworks from qualitative
research and participation work. Key elements of our model were:
Establishment of informed consent, confidentiality, child protection procedures and data protection.
These issues were explained in more than just one session. An example consent form is in Appendix 2.
Two introductory taster sessions of different methods to be used so children knew what they were
consenting to be involved in.
A series of 6 sessions to enable flexibility. We had set research questions to answer, but also explored
unanticipated issues that the children said were important.
Facilitating small group work. Adults within a school are often perceived to be teachers by children,
which sometimes affects their confidence to give opinions and research activities with whole class
groups can seem like a lesson to children. By facilitating small group work outside of the classroom,
children were able to distinguish between the research and class activities and could choose whether
they wanted to be included in research or not.
To start with exploring non- contentious issues that would be easy for children to talk about, for
example where they play and what they think about their community.
To provide information for parents about the project, and if appropriate gain parental consent. An
example parental information leaflet is in Appendix 2.
Ensuring that the research happened over time so that children could gain trust in the researchers, and
express their own opinions rather than what they thought the researchers wanted to hear. By session 3
children told us that they understood more about what we were doing, and in session 5 children told us
‘we trust you’.
3
To ensure that sessions had an element of capacity building so that children gained the confidence
and information needed for them to be able to participate and give their opinions.
Use different activities to enable cross referencing of data, accommodate different learning styles
and produce quality, reliable findings.
That children receive analysis feedback and were involved in the planning and delivery of the
dissemination.
Research Model Outline
Session 1- Introductions
Design: Whole group activities for three hours, with a break in the middle.
Purpose: To introduce researchers and the project to the children, establish ways of working,
give a taster of the methods to be used and gain informed consent. To discover children’s
priorities regarding access to services.
Methods: Physical games, poster presentations, group discussions and written work. Participatory
appraisal, maps of children’s neighbourhoods. Researcher observations.
Session 2- Children’s rights and experiences of participation
Design: Whole group activities for three hours with break in the middle.
Purpose: To revisit consent using children’s rights as a framework. To find out how much children know
about children’s rights, their experience of participatory work and if they felt listened to by
adults.
Methods: Group written and art activities regarding UNCRC and individual brainstorms regarding
differences in behaviour between children and adults. Researcher observations.
Session 3- Children’s access to services and ideas for service development
Design: Half hour focus group interviews of between 5 and 7 people.
Purpose: To gain in depth opinions and information about what children like to do and their day to day
experiences.
Method: Semi structured focus group script using puppets to engage children in dialogue. Researcher
observations.
Session 4- Aspirations and expectations for the future
Design: Participatory focus groups, peer interviews.
Purpose: To offer the children a chance to be interviewers, to find out children's aspirations and ideas
for new services.
Methods: Small group artwork with unstructured interviews. Children chose prepared questions to ask
each other. Researcher observations.
Session 5- Exploring community space and the environment
Design: Photography groups- guided walk lasting half an hour in groups of 7 with 3 disposable
cameras per group.
Purpose: To see where children play, hear them talk about their community and have photographic
evidence of their local physical environment.
Method: Photographs for documentary evidence with accompanying unstructured interviews.
Researcher observations.
4
5
Example of creative method: mapping
A Child's map of their local area in Hill Park
6
area.
change about their
they would like to
bubbles states what
and the yellow speech
what they don't like
green arrow shows
about the area, the
what the child loves
sticker represents
The heart shaped
Example of creative method: mapping.
A Child's map of their local area in St. Catherines
Session 6- Cross referencing data re: service access, discussing participation mechanisms
Design: Participatory focus groups, groups of 7 lasting half an hour.
Purpose: To have a summary of children’s opinions about their access to services, and gain children’s
ideas and opinions about participatory mechanisms.
Methods: Participatory appraisal maps, structured discussion groups. Researcher observations.
Session 7- Feedback and dissemination plans
Design: Whole group cartoon style poster presentation, small group written work and art work.
Purpose: To give feedback to children about the analysis of the research, check that the analysis and
key points are correct and plan dissemination.
Methods: Presentations, group discussions, group artwork for OHP designs.
Recording and Analysing
We used creative research methods so that the research was accessible to younger children with
varying literacy levels, of different ages and mixed abilities. However, we ensured that we recorded
these different methods accurately to enable compilation and analysis.
Both researchers wrote observation notes after each session to ensure that interactions were recorded
as well as the data from specific activities. The observation notes followed the practice of social
anthropology research and were written according to the pre-set data headings of description of
physical environment, description of session methods, social processes between researchers and
children, between children and emerging themes. The ‘emerging themes’ section included consensus
issues among the children that were pertinent to the research questions but they also included
descriptions of the context within which these issues were expressed.
Participatory appraisal data from each child was compiled together and grouped into themes after each
session. Children’s comments were recorded during activities upon post it notes that enabled written
data to accompany pictures and recorded conversations.
We tape recorded focus groups and interviews and analysed the data from
transcripts manually.
During physical games, participatory focus group activities and
unstructured interviews one researcher facilitated the activity whilst the
other wrote notes regarding children’s comments and responses. These
notes were written up and analysed manually like transcripts.
All transcript data was analysed manually according to common themes
and then cross referenced these themes with the data from the
participatory appraisal and art based activities (that also had
accompanying written notes).
We firstly analysed the data from each area separately to enable
comparison between geographical community and age and then
compiled the data together to give overall detail of children’s opinions
within the themes that had emerged.
7
Section 3:
Children’s Relationships in Neighbourhoods
Children’s communities are really important to them and the
research produced findings about children’s peer relations in
their neighbourhoods, adults behaviour to children in the
community and children’s experiences of school. Peer and
social dynamics are important within children’s lives because
children learn negotiating and social skills from interacting
between each other and from the adults around them, whether
at home or in the community.
Children’s Perceptions of their Communities
Children identified two broad perceptions of their communities- friendly and unfriendly.
1. Community as a friendly environment
Many children said ‘my neighbours are nice’, and the closeness and familiarity of neighbours, friends
and family creates a safe, welcoming neighbourhood. Children are generally very familiar with their area,
and know who lives in which street, each others cousins and extended families. Children like the fact
that most of their friends from school live close by, which means there is a close community. This
familiarity gives children an identity with the area and made their neighbourhood ‘home’.
2. Community as an unfriendly environment
The community was also seen as ‘scary’ because of neighbourhood disputes and aggression. Children
talked about ‘gangs hanging about’ which referred to groups of young people who swore and were
noisy, drunk people shouting and neighbourhood harassment. Children were aware that their parents
often wouldn’t let them out alone because of danger and harassment from strangers or people known to
cause trouble within the community. Whether the concern of harm from strangers is a fear with reality
behind it or an adult created imagined threat is unknown.
Safety and Violence in Neighbourhoods
A significant number of children witness, experience or feel very strongly about aggressive behaviour
by adults. We explored what rules adults create for children and then asked children to create some
rules that they feel adults should have to live by. Approximately one fifth to one quarter of the children
(12- 15 children out of a total of 60) put at the top of their rules that they should not be hit or kicked,
they should not be shouted at or sworn at and that they should not be bullied or called names. Other
children talked about adult aggression but did not include reference to this in their rules. Our data does
not evidence whether children experienced or witnessed aggression by parents or even within the
home, but there is evidence to suggest that some level of violence is witnessed or experienced either
between siblings, in the neighbourhood, between neighbours, in the home or between some family
members. In both communities the children talked about neighbourhood aggression from adults and
talked of ‘a safe place to play’ in terms of emotional as well as physical safety. In one area the children
said that houses got paint bombed and stones were thrown at windows. In the other area children
spoke of verbal abuse in the street, which was often racist. In both communities they described being
scared by the noise of drunk people, people swearing and screaming or shouting during the night.
8
Given these experiences, it is not surprising that in both schools violence was seen as a method of
protection, particularly by the boys. Some boys talked about how they wanted to be good fighters and
others wanted to be policeman so they ‘could beat people up’.
Children’s Understanding of Power Differences between Adults and Children
We explored power differences between children and adults, as detailed in the table below. There was
evidence of anger towards adults with a small minority of children talking of killing adults, some children
wanting to be authority figures so they could beat people up or ‘be a policeman because they have
guns’ and a few children said comments like ‘it’s not fair I can’t hit mummy/ beat up daddy’.
Question: What do adults do that you can't do?
Type of behaviour
Can’t boss/ shout at adults/ mum and dad
Can’t smash house in
Can’t fight
Can’t swear
Can’t get drunk
Can’t go clubbing/ pub
Can’t stay up late
Can’t drive
Can’t smoke
Can’t go to bingo
Can’t hit/ kick your mum and dad
No. of children who mentioned it
6
1
1
16
10
5
23
20
12
3
6
Older Young People in the Community
Children talked about older young people’s negative behaviour. For example they talked about fast
drivers and ‘joy riders’ about robbers and reported that teenagers burned the parks and dumped
rubbish. Groups of young people were referred to as ‘gangs’ and ‘gangsters’. Whilst some of the
language children used to talk about older young people maybe stereo typed, children are at danger of
experiencing bullying from children older than themselves and fast cars are a threat to their safety. The
children felt that some young people had bad behaviour because ‘there’s no where else for them to go’
or ‘there’s nothing else for them to do.’
Bullying
In both schools the children talked about the bullying that they experienced and it is
important that adults use children’s definition of bullying. Children described bullying
as ‘being sworn at, called names, taking toys off you, being chased, being drawn
on, being ignored’. The children supported each other when they were
talking about bullying by boosting each other’s confidence with
statements such as ‘you’re a good friend’ and ‘no one should be
bullied’. Whilst there was this level of support within class groups, it was apparent
that children live with bullying on a regular basis in their neighbourhood and
sometimes the perpetrators are older children at the same school. Children from
minority ethnic communities experience racism openly in the street which they talk
about in terms of bullying. This racism comes from other children, young people and
adults. Bullying affects children’s quality of life, self esteem, emotional well being,
quality of life and access to some community areas.
9
School
Some children (approximately 9) felt it was not fair that they had to go to school, but when facilitators
pointed out the benefits of school these children explained that they had no choices at school or that
they did not enjoy school. All the other children (51) said they liked their schools and teachers, and many
children said school was one of the things they liked in their area and about their lives. Lessons that were
most enjoyed included maths and science, PE, athletics and football.
There were different peer cultures within the two schools. Hill Park School greatly benefited from its’ intercultural pupil base, with all of the children supporting each other with language and work. This supportive,
co-operative dynamic enabled the children to easily share, respect and learn from each other’s
experiences. For example, when talking about aspirations the children listened to each other and helped
each other during peer interviews. Children in St. Catherines School found it harder to co-operate, and
sometimes tended to work in competition with each other. Having a homogeneous pupil base seemed to
make it harder for children to accept differences and differences sometimes became objects of derision.
Generally, the children were more reserved in sharing experiences, more defensive of themselves and did
not work so well together in a group.
Gender Differences
In both schools, boys and girls had different aspirations, undertaking different activities outside of school,
playing with different toys, and behaving in different ways. The boys and girls tended to sit separately,
and some girls were very shy. This was more noticeable amongst the older children at Hill Park school
than at St. Catherine’s. Even though the curriculum does not segregate by gender, gender divisions do
not tend to be challenged and gender stereotypes impact upon the aspirations and expectations that
children have for themselves and of each other.
10
Section 4:
The Importance of Home and Family
All the children spoke about the importance of their families,
homes and friends, and regardless of exact opinions about
parents roles there was unanimous agreement that home, family
and friends were really important. The older children had
aspirations to support their families. For example,
Understandably adult family members were seen as gate keepers
to activities and lifestyle choices. Adult monitoring of play is
discussed in section 4, but comments were made regarding the
monitoring of lifestyles, particularly by the older children:
Lifestyle choice
Can't Lie in
Want different hair
Can't cook for myself
Not allowed ice cream or sweets
Have to tidy my room
Not allowed out alone
No. of children who mentioned it
4
5
12
3
9
7
Gender Role Models and Perceptions of Family
Approximately one quarter of girls from St. Catherine’s school perceived men as ‘useless’ making
comments like ‘they’re a waste of space and take all your money’ and could not see themselves having
male partners, although they did want children. From this school, one third (10 out of 27) said how
important their family was. However, 9 of these children were referring to female relatives, mainly Mum
and Nan, with only one child talking about Mum and Dad.
Some of the boys said that they did not want children because ‘children are a nuisance and get in the
way.’ At Hill Park school there were not any noticeable comments made regarding gender and parenting.
Chart 1 shows children’s aspirations for their future family set up, where any preference was expressed.
Benefits of Extended Family Relations
Extended family, mainly grandparents, aunts and cousins, play an important role in many children’s lives.
Children spend time with their extended family if they live in the same neighbourhood- grandmothers and
aunts play a vital role in looking after children and cousins were talked about as close play mates.
Children who regularly saw their relations spoke very positively about their families. Where extended
family relations lived in other cities and towns, the children spoke about visiting them on weekends and
holidays. Areas visited in Britain include Manchester, Birmingham, Cardigan, and London. Staying with
relations was seen as a holiday and exciting and the children who had the opportunity to see other
places had a wider understanding of social events and issues. This was particularly pronounced for the
children from inter cultural backgrounds, some of whomstayed with relations in other countries during the
long holidays or travelled with their families around Britain. In Hill Park school the children shared their
experiences of going to other cities and countries with each other. This meant that groups of children
benefited from each other’s experiences.
11
12
Number of
Children
10
8
6
4
2
0
No Child
& No
Partner
Children
No
Partner
Foster
Children
No
Partner
Family Setup
Children
& Partner
Partner
No
Children
Female
Male
(42 Children expressed aspirations out of a total of 60.
More children wanted pets than children when grown up)
Chart 1:
Children's Family Aspirations
Family Income
Many children talked about needing more money, although the extent to which children talked about lack
of money varied between areas and friendship groups. Some of the children said that their parents did
not have money to pay for holidays or days out. A few children talked to the researchers about lack of
money within their household. For example, one child said they were living at their Nan’s because there
was no bed at their parents house and they couldn’t afford to buy one.
Children also talked more generally about money with some children wanting to be able to give their
parents money or earn money so they could go and buy toys. When exploring children’s rights, older
children felt it was unfair that they couldn’t work because it gave them money, but they said that work
could also be boring (10 children out of 33 from Hill Park school). Children commented that they didn’t
have enough money of their own, that they wanted to earn lots of money, they ‘wished that money grew
on trees’, that ‘everything is free’ and that ‘money was never stolen’.
Children who seemed to have a higher household income talked about having technological equipment
in their rooms and counted these as their toys. For example, DVD players, computers, X boxes, PS2’s
and T.V’s. Other children did not have access to this kind of technology and talked of inexpensive toys,
like teddy bears, building models and books.
Undertaking Household Chores
Children reported doing a lot of chores within their house. Whilst the volume of housework undertaken
by children in this study cannot be substantiated, examples of chores undertaken included feeding
siblings, taking brother to school, washing and drying up, doing the beds, putting things away, sweeping
and mopping floors, minding siblings, tidying bedrooms and cleaning up after younger siblings. Older
children generally reported undertaking more chores than younger children although some children of all
ages said that adults mess up the house. For a few of the children undertaking household chores
impacted upon their available time, affecting their play and leisure activities and their concentration to do
homework.
Privacy and Personal Space within the Home
Many children talked of the need for private space at home and said that sharing bedrooms and having
siblings in a small house results in:
Having few toys that can really be ‘your own’
Little quiet space to undertake activities that require concentration e.g. homework
Not having enough space to play
Children said they loved brothers and sisters but they also found siblings annoying, particularly if they
had to share bedrooms. Four children talked about everyone in the house sharing a bedroom, and one
child told us that there were 3 people to a room in his house. Children in private rented and hostel
accommodation said that they had moved many times and hostel accommodation was described as
‘noisy at night’ which made going to sleep hard. One child said ‘we’re being forced to move’ and asked
why they had to keep moving houses.
13
Transport for Families
Younger children rarely go out alone, but, if parents think their child is old enough and the area is safe, they
are allowed ‘out the front’ with friends to play in the street, or go to nearby facilities such as the beach or park.
This varied between the two areas partly because of parental attitudes but also because one area was very
built up and had lots of congestion and the other has open space and traffic calming measures in some
streets. If parks are not within easy walking distance for children, parents with cars tended to drive, particularly
if there were younger siblings. Children whose parents did not have a car said that getting to parks was hard.
Public transport was described as ‘expensive’ and not easy to use. The lack of good public transport meant
that a small minority of the children seemed ‘stuck’ within their areas and rarely travelled outside their
immediate neighbourhood or Swansea city centre. These children said they were often bored with ‘not
enough to do’ and had limited social experiences.
Children’s Aspirations
Children seemed influenced in their aspirations for their future by the attitudes and occupations of family and
neighbours, media culture and, for older children, school subjects enjoyed. One quarter of the research
group (approximately 15 children) found it very hard to think about any aspirations and said they would not be
doing anything when they left school. In most of these instances parents or grandparents were not in paid or
unpaid work. This was made most apparent in the following comment from a 7 year old girl:
'There's no point in dreaming because
things don't come true anyway'
Chart two (see page 15) shows the career aspirations that the children had and is divided by gender to
enable a comparison between girls and boys. Some of the children had aspirations for careers but had not
had the opportunity to try out the skills for those aspirations. For example, one girl wanted to be a champion
horse rider but had never been horse riding, one wanted to be a lifeguard but rarely went swimming and
some girls wanted to be pop stars but rarely had the chance to perform on a stage.
Some of the older children had aspirations about addressing social inequalities saying that they wanted jobs
that gave other people jobs, that stopped people being poor and they wanted to be able to give some of
their money away to charity. For example:
‘If I had a job and I was a doctor, then I could
help my family, friends and neighbours.’
Other aspirations that the older children had included travelling
to other countries, having money and wanting a rich lifestyle.
The younger children did not have aspirations for rich lifestyles.
For example, in answer to the question what would you do if
you had a million pounds replies included ‘I’d have dogs, cats
and a McDonalds’ and ‘I’d buy CD’s and more CD’s’. Such replies
show the limited aspirations that the children had, possibly
because of their young age (6- 8 years old) or because of limited
social opportunities and the experience of low family incomes.
14
15
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Number of Children
M1
Sports
Lifeguard
M0 : F2
Footballer
M2 : F1
Horse rider F1
Wrestler
Rally Driver M1
M = Male
Performance
F4
Pop Musician
Ballet dancer F1
F = Female
Caring
Vet
Animals
Zoo Keeper
F1
F1
Career Areas
Arts
Artist
F3
F1 Fashion designer
F1
Nursery Nurse F1
Foster carer
F2
Care worker
Teacher
M1 : F1
M2
Nurse
Doctor
F2
Psychiatrist F1
Shop / Office
Own a shop
M2 : F1
Secretary F1
Police
M2 : F2
Police Officer
Other
Astronaut
Demolition
M1
M1
Lorry driver M1
Researcher F1
(42 Children had ideas about their future work)
Chart 2:
Career Aspirations
16
Pictures show Children's Aspirations for the Future.
Pictures show Children's Aspirations for the Future.
I want to be a Careworker
I want to be a Nursery Nurse
17
18
Children's Postcards from the Future showing their Aspirations
Section 5:
Play and Leisure Provision
Access to Play and Adult Monitoring of Leisure Activities
Play opportunities were the children’s first priority and they talked about the lack of play facilities in
every session. Access to play and leisure is dependent upon:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Parents attitude to the safety of the community and how much independence children should have
The child’s age
Family income and cost of activities
Local availability of services
Parental and child access to information about local play and leisure facilities
Family car ownership
Adults, mainly parents, monitor children’s play. Examples cited were:
‘Only get to cycle in the summer’
‘Not allowed on my bike’
‘Can’t use our motorbikes alone’
‘Not allowed to play outside’
‘Not allowed friends over or to go to friends houses’
‘Can’t watch TV/ use internet/ play computer games when I want’
‘Can’t have a swing’
‘Can’t go to the park or beach alone’
The types of play activities that children undertake are weather and season dependent. Children
pointed out that they tended to stay at home when it was wet because there are very few indoor play
facilities. Many local attractions for family days out are only available in the summer, so children found
they did not have much to do during the winter months. Children whose parents did not have a car or
had a low family income tended to do local free activities like going to the park rather than to family
attractions.
Informal Play
Informal play encompasses all the activities that children freely choose to do in their spare time. Outside
of school, informal play is very important in children’s lives and all the children spoke of playing with
friends, going to friends houses, riding their bikes, watching TV and playing the computer. In one school
many of the children spoke of having ‘motorbikes’ although we were not sure whether these were
scrambling bikes, motorised push bikes or motorised scooters. There was a gender divide amongst the
older children with girls mainly playing inside and boys playing outside in the streets.
Having safe places to play was a unanimous concern to the children. Children cited 5 factors as to why
getting to parks was hard and the session taking photographs of the community substantiated these:
1. Well equipped parks are not on the children’s doorsteps and are often too far away for the children to
get to. This is compounded by busy roads and a lack of zebra crossings or pelican crossings.
2. Parks that are closer to the children’s homes have had their equipment removed so there is nothing
for children to play on. This was the case for the duration of the research (5 months).
3. Some of the parks and open space are not safe because there is broken glass and sharp objects on
the ground.
4. Many parks are age specific and described as ‘too old’ or ‘for babies’. This means that the type of
play equipment within a park determines the age of the children that will use it.
5. Children are not allowed to go far by themselves. A park that may seem close to an adult may be too
far away for a child to get to without being taken by an adult.
19
Children said our park is
‘a burnt junk one…it’s like a trash can.’
'We haven't got much parks... and there's not much in 'em'
and these sentiments were echoed among most of the children, particularly in the St. Catherine’s area.
The general lack of outdoor play facilities was spoken about widely by all of the children, and the lack
of transport to outlying parks and the beach meant many of the children played in car parks, on littered
waste grounds and in the streets. Victoria Park in Brynmill and the Phoenix Centre in Townhill were
mentioned as good examples of playgrounds and facilities, although most children could not get to
them without adults. They asked ‘can you bring
Brynmill park here?’ or made comments like ‘the
Phoenix Centre is good, but too far away.’
Chart 3 (see p.21) details children’s favourite play
pastimes and toys. Not all the children expressed a
play preference, but it is noticeable that no one
mentioned playing in parks.
Formal Play / Leisure Opportunities
Formal play is generally adult facilitated activities
and so includes leisure classes, swimming pools,
play schemes etc. The children undertake lots of
informal play but said that there was very little for them to do in terms of structured play. Whilst there are
some opportunities in their areas and in Swansea generally (e.g. the Swansea festival activities across
the city from May until September and play in the park activities during the Summer holidays) the
children do not know that these events are occurring. Additionally, without private transport it is
expensive and time consuming (no regular bus services to many places) for families to be able to travel
outside their community.
During the summer holidays there are council funded play schemes in both areas. However, only a few
children accessed these. There are also private play schemes, but at a cost of £10 per day these may
not be accessible to most families. Approximately three children had attended the play scheme at Hill
Park school and described it as babyish. Two children had attended the play scheme at the Quaker
meeting house and said that it was really good and two children had been to the play scheme in the St.
Catherine’s area. However, this means that 53 children out of the 60 had no knowledge of any local
play schemes existing.
All the children enjoyed swimming and there were unanimously strong feelings regarding the closure of
Swansea’s two city centre swimming pools, with most children mentioning it in most of the sessions.
Children felt that access to the National Pool was not good because there was a walk through a car
park and across a busy road to get to it from the nearest bus stop. For children outside of the centre of
Swansea getting to a swimming pool means two bus rides, which again, for families on low incomes is
time consuming and expensive. The children went swimming with their school but for the majority, this
was the only time that they could get to a swimming pool.
Five children at one school said that a better library would be helpful in Swansea because they could
not get to the current library and it was too small.
In the evenings children tended to play in their neighbourhoods or at home. Some of the children who
are Muslim went to the Mosque after school. Although primarily for religious instruction, most of the
children talked about it as a social event and enjoyed the time they got to spend together there. Only
four children said that they went to classes like karate or dance in an evening, a few children attend
events like junior blue light discos and one child went to the Groovy Café each week, but generally the
children said there was nothing to do in the evenings. In families where there was little money or very
young children, it seemed harder for individual children to attend evening activities.
20
21
Number of Children
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Bicycles
Cycle in street
Bike ramps
House@Home
Outdoor games
Doll/Figures
Playing with
Teddy bears
Action Man
Baby Annabel
Bratz
Activities
Play food
Bay blades
Bubble gum
making
Model
making
Type of best toy
Playing with
the dog
Jumping on
the bed
Fighting with
Brother/Sister
Skipping
Games
Basketball
Netball
Roller skating
On grass by
Guildhall
Games in
car park
Motorbikes
Motorbikes
Computer Games
Computer
games
(42 Children expressed having a favoutite toy)
Chart 3:
Childrens favourite toys
This is the local
park in St.
Catherine's area
There is very little
to do for the
younger children.
This is a good
example of a park
the children all
liked. It is in the
Hill Park area and
caters for all ages
of children.
Basketball area
and bike/skate
ramps in the Hill
Park area.
This is an all
weather pitch that
is not currently
used by the
children. It is
located in St.
Catherine's area.
22
Section 6:
Tackling Environmental Poverty
Environmental poverty refers to physical aspects of an area that
directly impact upon quality of life and emotional well being.
Appearance of Houses and Buildings
Children described many of the Victorian terrace houses in their area as ‘smelly old flats’ that were
scruffy, messy and in need of repair. In both areas children did not like empty or boarded up buildings,
regardless of whether they were back street industrial units or houses. Children commented upon how
drab gardens were because they were over grown or had dumped furniture in them. The general
appearance of buildings and houses caused children to not like where they lived and this was
particularly apparent for children living in certain areas of the housing estate.
Pollution
Children described noise pollution in both areas. Noise was described as coming from traffic,
screeching of tyres and brakes from fast drivers, constant police sirens, people shouting in the streets
(especially at night) and neighbourhood rows. The Hill Park area is very built up and the children said ‘its
smelly air here’ because of all the traffic fumes. Both areas, but St. Catherine’s in particular, exhibited
environmental pollution from litter, fly tipping and arson.
Appearance of the Physical Space in the Neighbourhood
Children’s environmental concerns are based upon the attributes of their own neighbourhoods and so
the data regarding children’s opinions about the physical space around them has been analysed
according to geographical area.
St. Catherine’s
'Rubbish on the ground'
This area has high levels of litter and environmental degradation as well as
having few safe places for children to play, even though there are large
amounts of open space. When asked to describe their area the
unanimous reply was ‘messy’. In focus groups they said:
‘Researcher: what’s messy about your area?
‘There are sweet wrappers on the floor’
‘and crushed up bottles, glass everywhere’ ‘…and lots of
beer cans…it’s not safe’
Children told us how the general neighbourhood environment used to be better making specific
comments about certain community places. For example, they said ‘look at that, there used to be
ducks in that pond’ when pointing at a rubbish filled, silted up pond. The area is very overgrown,
covered in invasive weeds and has burnt household items, such as sofa springs, rusting in old fire pits.
The children commented about the nettles, brambles and gorse ‘there used to be grass here but its all
prickles now’.
There are no parks with equipment for children of this age, which was of
unanimous concern, and we were told ‘they burnt this park’ and ‘there used
to be a swing here’. An all weather pitch next to a community centre
was referred to as ‘the waste ground’ and is used by joy riders and
motorcyclists. Additionally, ‘you can’t play on the pitch because
there is nails and sharp things’. The area has so much open space
that is not maintained and high levels of rubbish that there are
problems with a number of different kinds of animals.
24
The horses were described as unpredictable and therefore scary. There are bees and wasps nests and
the children reported that they regularly had seagulls swoop at them and saw rats when they were out
playing. There are many dogs that roam the streets and children knew that some of them were
aggressive saying ‘that dog’s nasty, it bites people’.
Children had concerns about the number of fast drivers in the area and so they liked having speed
cameras and road blocks in their area because they make cars slow down and streets quieter. However,
they pointed out that the road blocks were all in the wrong place and made some streets really busy and
others almost impossible to get to.
Question: What do you dislike about your area?
(group of 28, children could choose more than one thing they disliked)
Things children disliked about their area
Brambles and nettles -too overgrown
Fire pits
Rubbish, broken glass and beer cans
Animals (bees, rats, snakes, foxes, horses, seagulls, dogs
It's not nice to block the roads and the roads are still busy
Boring with nothing to do/ nowhere to play/ smashed parks
Quiet and dirty
Joy riders / fast drivers
Noisy
Squashed up
No's who mentioned it
4
5
12
3
9
3
4
14
12
1
Question: What do you like about your area?
(group of 28, children could choose more than one thing they liked)
Things children liked about their area
Quiet and clean/ quiet
Being outside- Riding my motorbike/ bicycle/ on grass
My school
My dog/ pets/ walking neighbours dog
Friends
The views
My house/ garden/ toys
Relations (mainly mum and nan)
No's who mentioned it
6
6
1
4
11
6
16
9
These two tables show how children in this area disliked the physical environment around them, but
appreciate their immediate family, home and friends. There is very little that the children mentioned they
did like in terms of the physical space around them. The information in these tables are what concerned
children most about the environment, so they talked about other issues, such as play and family in other
sessions. They give an insight into how children feel about their environment rather than statistical
evidence of how many children solely had those concerns.
25
Appearance of Houses and Buildings
Typical housing in
Hill Park.
Traffic calming
measures in St.
Catherine's has
made some areas
almost inaccesible
and other areas
very busy.
A busy main road
in Hill Park that
runs alongside the
houses and makes
access to the
beach difficult.
An rundown
building in St.
Catherine's
26
This littered area in
St. Catherine's
could be a wide
open space for
adventure play.
Littered streets in
Hill Park.
Burnt out street
cones in St.
Catherine's.
A fire pit in St.
Catherine's. This
was situated on
grassland next to
the school.
27
Hill Park
The physical environment is very built up with few open spaces, too many parked cars (often parked
illegally and on pavements) and no where to play. In focus groups children commented on the fact they
liked the areas that have trees (which are very few and outside of the Communities First boundary) and
that there was far too much dog mess on the pavements which stops them playing. There is a level of
litter and fly tipping with split rubbish bags strewn down streets, fly tipping in certain areas and around
the beach.
The main problem highlighted by the children was the traffic congestion and associated pollution.
Children said that cars and traffic stop them being able to get out and the roads are too busy. There are
hardly any zebra or pelican crossings and a lolly pop attendant is only present at school time making it
very difficult to cross the roads at all other times. Whilst the beach is near this area, it is hard for
children to get there because of extremely busy roads and quick changing lights at the pelican crossing
on a road with four lanes of traffic.
Question: What do you dislike about your area?
(group of 34, children could choose more than one thing)
Things Children disliked about their area
Busy roads
‘Gangs’ hanging about/ strangers lurking
Built up/ too busy/ noisy
Messy dirty and smelly/ dog poo on the streets
Lack of facilities/ nowhere to play
No’s who mentioned it
20
4
21
18
18
Question: What do you like about your area?
(group of 34, children could choose more than one thing)
Things Children liked about their area
No’s who mentioned it
Technological toys (watching TV, computers, PS2)
20
Playing with friends
10
Playing outside (football, beach, roller skates, games) 17
Local shops
6
My house and family
9
These two tables show what children like and
dislike with regards to their environment. The
children highlight the environmental problems in
things they do not like about their area and focus
upon family and friends when talking about
positive aspects of their environment.
Of particular concern is the number of children
who like to play outside and the number of
children who say they have nowhere to play. The
children who play outside mainly use streets and
car parks even though there are concerns
regarding the busy roads and built up nature of
the area.
28
Children's Suggestions for Environmental Improvements
Environmental poverty impacts upon play opportunities and
children’s safety within their communities. The children’s
recommendations are from children in both areas except where
otherwise stated.
Better traffic calming and make it easier to cross roads
Overgrowth clearance so empty spaces are safe.
Better and more parks that are safe (14 out of 28 in St. Catherine’s group)
More parks/ open spaces to play in (22 out of 32 in Hill Park group)
More shops
Smarten houses and gardens
Move the litter, scrap cars and clean the streets (especially of dog mess)
This picture shows a shelter for
young people. However there is no
age appropriate provision for the
younger children in this or nearby
parks.
29
Section 7:
Tackling Participation Poverty
Confidence and Participation
At the start of the research the researchers spent time to ascertain whether particular children wanted
support to join in, for example with reading or writing, or whether they were not interested in participating.
Older children (8+) said that they only felt listened to by friends (peers) and some family members.
Noticeably children felt unanimously that teachers, decision-makers, siblings and sometimes parents
did not listen to them. If children feel this way then confidence building and demonstrated evidence of
listening needs to be built into the research process. Children commented on how much they have to
listen to adults and how often they get told what to do. Examples of these comments are:
‘We can’t go out alone’
‘Not allowed to boss teachers’
‘Can’t do what we want’
‘Not allowed to shout at Mum and
‘We do not get a say or get heard’
Dad’
‘We have to listen to parents’
‘Not allowed to be chopsy’
Since children felt they were not listened to, we
spent time during activities building confidence
and self esteem to encourage children to voice
their own thoughts. We also had to facilitate
respect between the children so that they felt
emotionally safe to share their opinions and listen
to each other.
Children’s Suggestions for their own Participation
All the children said they would happily give their opinions and felt that the council genuinely wants to
know what they think. However, they also want to know about the council, and what professionals are
doing for them so communication needs to be a two way process. When children give opinions, they
want to know what the adults have found out and what is going to change based upon their
involvement.
Through small group discussion over statements given by the researchers, the children identified three
ways for them to participate within decision making processes.
Children's outreach workers
Unanimously children felt ‘There should be special children’s workers to tell us
what the council is doing for us.’ The children specified what the role of these
workers should be:
To facilitate two way communication, so the workers would find out what
children wanted, but also inform them as to what was happening for them
within the city.
Outreach would be best if undertaken when children are playing in the streets
and parks. Children said there is no point in going into shops to talk to them
because they are too busy and with parents and there is no point in going into
community centres to talk to them because they don’t use community centres.
30
The children suggested that the outreach
workers could be introduced into areas through
the following mechanisms:
Children and parents receive information
about the workers through the school to
decrease any risk of talking to strangers. The
workers should then go to local areas and
undertake detached outreach work
specifically with under 11’s.
The children were very aware of the dangers
of talking to strangers and discussed safety
points at length. They suggested the
following precautions:
No outreach is undertaken with children until
children and parents have been informed
about the workers roles through letters
distributed through the school.
The workers meet children initially through
the schools and are based in schools.
They wear uniforms and have photo ID
badges.
Child protection and safety procedures are
explained to children.
Potential Activities within Schools
Some children spoke highly of the school council systems, but all 57 children felt that just talking to
school council representatives would not be the right way forward for the local authority or Children's
Partnership to consult with children generally. Children emphasised that a wide variety of children
should be involved in giving opinions and that this should mean that decision makers talk to class
groups not just representatives.
There were three suggestions regarding the role that schools could play in furthering children‘s
participation:
1. There should be a special club for children to meet with adults who make decisions.
Some of the children felt it may be a boring and they were reluctant to give up their
play time in a lunchtime, but 41 children thought it would be a good idea to be
able to meet decision makers during a lunch time or after school. All the children
stressed that it should be fun and activity based, like the methods used in the
Generation 2020 research.
2. The council could listen to us by doing more projects like Generation 2020.
45 children thought that the Generation 2020 project had helped them have their
views heard and felt that similar projects would be a good idea for them to give
their opinions. 12 children thought this would be a bad idea because it could get
repetitive and interfere with lessons or other curriculum activities.
3. Eat lunch with children in school and talk to them
This suggestion arose out of peer interviews. The suggestion was that it is not hard to find out what
children think and that having lunch with groups of children in schools on a regular basis would be a
quick and straightforward way to listen to children.
31
Section 8:
Conclusion and Recommendations
Recommendations and Evidence from Children
Impact of Limited Experiences
Our methodology had as its premise that children are the experts of their own lives and that as
researchers we need to listen and learn from them. This has led to a report which details exactly what
the children said, but their ideas should be a starting point rather than a finishing point. Professionals
need to be careful as to how to analyse what the children are asking for. There are very simple requests
from children within this report, such as ‘swings in the park’ ‘a safe place to play’ and ‘something to do
in the holidays’. Many of the children we have spoken to do not have a wide or varied social experience.
Some of the children said ‘how do you get to the beach? I’ve never been there.’ ‘I can’t describe the
best park ever, I’ve never been to a park.’ Whilst listening to children, we need to avoid offering more of
the same because children are asking for it. Limited experiences lead to low aspirations and a lack of
confidence. Professionals should listen and act on the children’s requests but also think creatively of
how children’s ideas can be built upon and how their confidence and opportunities can be increased so
that they have wider experiences and a higher quality of life.
Concept of Poverty
Children and communities do not talk about poverty, but refer to not being able to do things. The data
reflects what children have said and therefore does not mention poverty. However, the children’s
concerns correlate with some of the 7 domain areas that inform the Welsh Index of Deprivation 2005,
which are income, employment, education/ skills/ training, health, housing, proximity to services and
environmental deprivation and the report does detail the gaps that some families experience. Many of
the children who participated in this research live in environmentally degraded areas, do not have
access to basic services or information and have families that cannot afford holidays or family days out,
resulting in limited social experiences and low self expectations. A few of the participating children seem
to experience social exclusion to a great extent- particularly those who said they never go anywhere or
do anything and those who live in under maintained or over crowded houses. Whilst there were only a
few children out of the total of 60 who experienced this level of exclusion, most of the children describe
aspects of poverty and deprivation.
Key Priorities for Action
The recommendations below are based upon 6 key areas that have arisen from undertaking the
research. These are community, play, family, transport, gender and participation. Children raised the
importance of family, play and leisure provision and neighbourhood relations in relation to their access to
services. Additionally, they mentioned transport and the environment as two cross cutting issues that
affect their everyday life. In the recommendations the environment has an impact on each of the other
areas and so is discussed as a cross cutting issue. However, because there are specific points with
regards to traffic and transport this cross cutting issue has specific recommendations attached to it. The
research set out to look at sustainable participatory mechanisms and therefore participation was
discussed as a researcher priority rather than as a key issue raised by children. However, all the children
felt that being listened to and being involved in decision making was really important but generally not a
process they had been involved with before. Although not mentioned by the children, the data does
show that gender divisions feature highly in some children’s lives and within some communities. The
gender issues raised go beyond men and women doing different things to attitudes towards what men
and women are ‘like’ and should or should not do. For this reason the recommendations refer to raising
awareness of gender differences.
32
Recommendations of Key Priorities
Children and the Community
1. Children need to be involved within community development initiatives. They have a very strong sense
of their own community and a detailed knowledge about what happens in their area at a street to
street level, but do not seem to participate within it. Children inhabit micro communities within ward
areas, and so community initiatives for children need to occur on a street to street level. Not only
would this reflect the reality of children’s use of community space but it would also target the pockets
of extreme deprivation that exist within larger ward areas. For example, the ward area around Hill Park
school has lower layer super output areas (small areas of 1,500 houses) that range between number
6 and 119 in the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation.
2. Children need to be involved in mainstream community safety initiatives that focus upon
neighbourhood aggression, bullying, and violence towards children within the home. Emotional
literacy programmes would enable children to cope in the event of witnessing or experiencing
violence.
3. Community initiatives should involve children and young people in environmental improvements and
the development of outdoor facilities for their children and young people’s use. The different natural
resources in both areas could enable climbing, bouldering and abseiling ‘have a go’ sessions in the
quarries, water sports sessions, adventure playgrounds and assault courses, community riding
schools and environmental education projects. Such redevelopment would give children and young
people things to do in their immediate community as well as enhance current community spaces.
Play and Leisure
Most of the children’s free time is spent doing things that are not supported or funded by the council
and children have stressed the importance of their families and playing with friends and leisure activities
enable the development of friendships. Therefore although the council does and should provide leisure
opportunities it is equally important that families are supported to provide some leisure opportunities and
that communities have facilities for children to freely use.
1. Families and children need better communication with regards to family events across the city, play
schemes, summer clubs and evening clubs or activities. This communication should also include
details of public transport and bus frequency.
2. For children in families on low incomes to access leisure provision there needs to better public
subsidies. This should be for play schemes during the summer, out of school activities and most
importantly for transport to get to leisure and play events.
3. Communities need open play spaces for children that are maintained and are challenging for different
age groups. Children want to be able to play with siblings or friends who may be of a different age
and so parks need to be challenging for different age groups. Parks also need to engage girls better
and so there should be scoping work undertaken regarding the provision of play houses, equipment
to make dens etc. Children should be involved in the siting of parks and equipment.
4. Children want more regular evening activities where they can meet friends, like youth clubs for
younger children. These would need to be subsidised.
33
Children and their Families
Family support is wider than support for parenting. The data shows that families could be better
supported financially, with children’s clubs and a greater recognition of the role of extended family.
1. An income maximisation programme could ensure that families are accessing the benefits that they
are entitled to. A house maintenance scheme for families in rented accommodation and owner
occupier’s on low incomes would support families to maintain their house and garden.
2. All kinds of practical support could be provided. The exact nature of this should vary according to
existing services within an area and the nature of supported needed by families. However possible
examples include free homework clubs for children, community child minding clubs, subsidised
evening activities for children, play schemes, community friendship or volunteer schemes etc.
3. More initiatives that involve the extended family in children’s lives. This could include support and
child welfare information targeted at extended family members. Information could be given to
grandparents via community OAP clubs, the Mosque and other faith meeting places, community
venues and at community events.
Traffic and Transport
Traffic and transport issues have two effects upon children and families without cars. Firstly, high volume
of traffic stops children being able to play outside safely and secondly poor public transport stops
children being able to travel outside of their immediate community.
1. Effective cheap public transport is crucial in extending children’s social
opportunities and experiences. Free transport for children up to the
age of 16, cheaper reduced rate family tickets and frequent
round city bus routes would have an impact upon children and
families social experiences.
2. Children seem to think there are no buses that go to events or
certain venues (e.g. for summer events in the parks). Therefore
public transport information should accompany event and
venue information e.g. to get to the community pools.
3. Work is needed regarding existing traffic calming and safe
pedestrian areas that children feel able to use. There are many
different models that could be followed, but dialogue is needed
regarding how children can be involved in these processes.
34
Gender Issues
Gender issues rose in different aspects of the data but gender seems to be divisive between children
and there seemed to be a lack of positive male role models.
1. In both schools gender seemed more divisive between the children than ethnicity or disability. Gender
inequalities could be effectively addressed by teachers in schools if it was treated as an equality issue
in policies and procedures.
2. Many of the children did not have a positive image of men or just spoke about women, ignoring men’s
roles. Family centres and parent support services could develop their areas of expertise to work with
men on family issues and fathering.
3. Community development initiatives could also target men and their roles within families.
Participation
Only 5 children out of 60 knew what the council did and it is vital that children are supported to come up
with their own ideas and opinions rather than being presented with a narrow list of options created by
adults. Therefore the recommendations in section 7 and points made below are only a starting point to
facilitating participation of children under the age of 11.
1. Participation cannot be viewed in isolation. Children want to participate in the issues and services that
effect them. This means participation cannot be the job of one person or be an addition to service
practice but has to be mainstreamed through a variety of services. Children’s outreach workers could
function similarly to outreach youth workers. They would have the role of communicating between
different agencies and children, but be employed by the Children’s Partnership.
2. Children need to see that they have been listened to by changes occurring around them. The 8 year
olds in this study will feel they have been ignored if nothing changes before they get to 12 years old.
This only gives 4 years for practical work to be designed, funded and implemented. If they see no
action from their involvement they are unlikely to want to participate in future
initiatives. This suggests that fast action is needed when children are
consulted and asked to participate in planning initiatives.
They are unlikely to want to participate in long term
strategies if short term strategies seem to
take too long.
Conclusion
This report may paint a bleak vision of childhood. It must be
remembered that not all of the children experienced all of the
problems that are outlined. The large majority of the children are
content in their day to day lives but could point out where
improvements can and should be made. At the dissemination
event detailed in Appendix One many of the children expressed
the expectations that they have from participating in Generation
2020. If their ideas are acted upon and they are enabled to
participate in the developments they suggest they will not be
disappointed.
35
Appendix 1:
Children’s Research Dissemination Event
Introduction to Dissemination Event
As a part of the research dissemination the researchers
organised an event in the Council Chambers of County Hall of
the City and County of Swansea. All of the children who had
participated in the research and were available on the day
attended and the researchers supported them to give a
presentation. The audience included heads of services, key
council personnel, Health and Voluntary Sector partners.
The children from each school separated into 8 groups and each group drew one or two overheads that
was a picture to accompany what they wanted to say. Each child created a few sentences that reflected
what they had said in the research. Below are the sentences that they said at the event.
The Children's Presentation
What we thought about the Generation 2020
Project
I had fun doing posters.
I learnt a lot about our environment.
Vikki is writing a report about what we said.
Generation 2020 made me think about things like
the environment.
It was good fun.
It gave us a chance to talk and be listened to.
Generation 2020 made me think about the
environment, houses, parks and bullying.
This is about our School Environment
These are pictures of our school.
Our school council decides what to do.
This is how we want our play ground to be
changed.
We want a grass pitch, bigger playground, swings
and slides.
We think our buddy system and school council
helps and protects children.
I’m a buddy. I take care of the infants. When they
are hurt I take them in. If they haven’t got any
friends I try to find some for them.
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These are the things we like in our area
I like my school because it’s good.
I like my dog.
I like the people in my area.
I love the view from my house and my friends.
I love living here because it is close to my school
and because of friendly neighbours.
I like the style of the houses and the people
because they are friendly.
I like the trees and fresh air because it's good for
global warming.
I like the beach and Victoria Park because there is
lots of games to play.
I like all the shops.
'I like the trees and
fresh air because
it's good for global
warming.'
These are the Things we want to Change about
our area
I want to make X [my area] safer with no broken
glass on the floor. Can you bring Brynmill park up
here?
I want fun things to play on in my street.
We want safer roads and more places for children
to play in.
I don’t like the rubbish. Can you please sort it
out?
We want to keep Swansea clean.
People should keep their dogs on leads and not
let them poo everywhere.
In X [my area] there are lots of cars which are
smelly and noisy.
Sometimes cars park and drive on the
pavements.
Neighbours are noisy with their music.
Some people are scary because they are drunk
and lie on the ground in front of our gate.
Where we Play
I like to play football.
I like to play with my friend on the trampoline in
my garden.
I like to go on the high wobble in the park, but it’s
not there anymore.
I like to play football in Victoria park because I
make friends.
I love playing on the beach in the sunsets.
I ride my bike and I like playing football.
What we do at Weekends and in the Evenings
Every weekend I go in my caravan. And I enjoy
swimming.
I want more apparatus in Colbourne Park.
I go to a teenagers nightclub on Tuesdays at Time
nightclub. I want more football clubs in my area.
We want more swimming pools in our area and
swimming clubs, not lessons.
I go to the Groovy Café every Tuesday. It’s 50p to
get in and you get free games and tuck. You get
to go out on trips. We need more clubs like this
during the holidays.
What we would like to Play and what we would
like to Change
I would like to swim in a swimming pool all day
near my house.
I would like to go pony riding.
A new park with a trampoline.
We want more parks, less wood chippings, more
grass and more places to play.
We want more swimming pools nearby so
whenever we want to go swimming, we can walk
in.
We’d like to play street basketball and have
somewhere special to play.
Why adults should listen to children and ways in
which children could be listened to by the
Council.
We want more projects like Generation 2020.
We want children’s workers who will listen to us.
They should come into our school and talk to us
when we are playing in parks and in the street.
We want you to listen to us because you can
change things and make it a better place to live
in. We would also like more projects like
Generation 2020.
Listen to us because we can help you do more
things for us. The picture is us talking to people
from the council and hearing what the council is
doing. Do more projects in schools about our
favourite things.
It’s important that you talk to us so you can give
us what we want.
'Listen to us
because we
can help you
do more
things for us'
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Pictures show Children's Aspirations for the Future.
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Supporting Children for a Dissemination Event
In order for the children to feel confident and comfortable we
undertook the following steps to ensure that the event was a positive
experience and we avoided tokenism:
1. We Supported the children to think about what
was important to them so they could compose
their own sentences rather than having them
given to them. We designed overhead pictures
for OHP on plain paper before drawing a ‘best
copy’ on acetate.
2. We divided the children into groups according
to confidence levels. We agreed with each
child that if they were too nervous or changed
their mind about speaking another child in the
group or one of the researchers would speak
on their behalf.
3. Many of the children had not been to a large
council chamber room. We arranged to have
rehearsals in school halls of so that they could
practice what they were saying and see their
overheads.
5. We designed the programme with the children
in mind. This meant that it did not last too long
(one and a half hours) with a 20 minute break
in the middle. We ordered biscuits, fruit and
juice during the break as well as tea and
coffee. We also told every speaker that
children would be present to ensure that adult
presenters tried to use straightforward
language.
6. The council chamber is a large room with tiers
of arm chairs and desks, making it very
intimidating. To make the room feel welcoming
we decorated the room with artwork that had
been produced throughout the project,
streamers and balloons.
4. So that the children knew what was happening
on the day we assigned one researcher to
each of the groups who walked with them to
the front of the room and stayed with them
during their group’s presentation. We used a
rug at the rehearsals and on the day so each
group would know where they needed to
stand. We did this to ensure that the children
would feel confident.
7. We tried to use visual material as well as
spoken words at the event. We stressed that
the children’s pictures on overheads were as
important as what they said. We mounted
some artwork and photographs from the
project onto display boards for the audience to
look at during the coffee break. These were
accompanied by titles and grouped into the
research findings themes.
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Appendix 2:
Example Consent Form and Parent Information Leaflet
City And County Of Swansea Generation 2020 Project
Consent Form
I would like to talk to Vikki and Fiona about what I like to
do in school and in my spare time.
Vikki and Fiona will be writing down what I say and
recording some conversations.
I know that some of the things I say or write will be
written in reports and articles about the Generation
2020 project. But my name will not be used – so people
won’t know that it was me who said it.
I know that if I say anything to Vikki or Fiona which
makes them think that me or another child might be hurt,
she will have to tell someone else to make sure that the
child is safe. Vikki and Fiona will talk to me about what
they will do if this happens.
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Project Generation 2020
This flyer gives parents & carers information about an exciting new project called Generation
2020, that your child is involved with at school. The project is aiming to listen to what children
want and what they think about local council services in the City and County of Swansea. Their
opinions will be used to plan services for children in the future. We are conducting research
with the children through a series of games, arts and craft activities to find out what children’s aspirations are and the priorities that they think the council should be focusing on. The
project is 6 weeks long and will run up until the Easter break. The research will be collated to
form a report with recommendations and the project will be replicated in other schools in the
City and County of Swansea. In the long term, we hope that children can participate in a
meaningful way in the Councils strategic development. All the children can choose whether
they would like to be involved in the project or not and this has been explained to them carefully. All information given by the children will be anonymous, so we will not be mentioning any
names, addresses etc in the report.
Who Are We? The work is being carried out by a researcher from Barnardos Cymru and the
Sure Start Development Worker (part of Social Services). We are visiting the classroom once
a week for half a day. If you would like more information on the project please speak to the
class teacher, or ring Vikki ( Barnardos Cymru) on 01792 463357 or Fiona ( Sure Start) on
01792 612157.
Thank you for your support
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