Too Vulnerable to Participate? A Systematic Literature Review of the Gap between a Right to Participate and Participation, in Welfare Services

Abstract

AbstractThere is a need to reconceptualize children as competent and reflective actors in their own lives, acknowledging their right to be heard and to participate in meaningful ways. This article explores and suggests the means to overcome the gap between the formal right to participate and meaningful participation in welfare services that involve evaluating a child’s family environment. For this purpose, we conducted a systematic literature review to synthesize the qualitative literature on how children and young people who have been in contact with child welfare services experience participation in the making of decisions that affect their well-being. The articles collected from eight scientific databases indicate that despite a growing general emphasis on the importance of child participation over the past 25 years, the operationalization of children’s right to be heard is challenging in child welfare services. There are challenges at both the organizational level, with the failure to fully acknowledge and operationalize children’s right to be heard in a sufficient manner, and at the individual level, with a need to improve opportunities for communication that facilitate trustful relationships between child welfare social workers and children in need. Based on previous studies of participation in a child welfare context at different levels, we conclude that a legally clear framework in combination with the realization of Skivenes and Strandbu’s definition of participation would increase the chances that children’s interests and right to be heard are respected, protected, and implemented.