Exploring young people's participation in interprofessional education, taking a children's rights approach

Abstract

The Children, Young People and Families module was developed at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK in 2004. The module is jointly taught to community health and social work students with the active involvement of a Barnardo's Young People's Group. This module was developed in direct response to the challenges of the UK Every Child Matters policy agenda highlighting the importance of partnership and participation as the bedrock of effective practice in integrated children's services. For the writers, a commitment to the value base of social work means that it is not enough to lecture about child-centred practice, children's rights and the importance of participation, without modelling these principles in our practice as educators. This article outlines key aspects of the module and its delivery, including the authors’ learning from partnership work with the Young People's Group. The work is evaluated drawing on student feedback and findings from an evaluation exercise carried out with the young people.