Young people being heard in their residential house

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Cryne, Adrienne and Steckley, Laura (2025) Young people being heard in their residential house. Relational Child and Youth Care Practice, 37 (3). pp. 132-149.

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Abstract

Few studies in residential child care focus directly on young people’s participation in the daily decision making of their residential house. Research more generally indicates that young people regularly feel excluded from decision making forums. This article discusses a study that explored practitioners and young peoples’ experiences of participation in their residential child care house. The research was a Master’s dissertation, carried out in 2022 as part of the requirements of the MSc Advanced Residential Child Care course at The University of Strathclyde in Scotland. It found that young peoples’ participation was perceived by both young people and practitioners to be valued. It also found that facilitators to participation were mostly located within individual characteristics of practitioners and that complexities related to obstacles received limited attention. The findings, contextualised with relevant literature, can offer some understanding of what helps and hinders young peoples’ participation in their residential house, and may support the development of practice in other residential or social care settings. Most importantly, a development orientation to supporting young people’s participation is needed for both practitioners and young people.

ORCID iDs

Cryne, Adrienne and Steckley, Laura ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6021-2302;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)