Since our meeting with Haringey Council last April, sendPACT has regulary been attending meetings with Haringey officials to discuss how to engage with parents/carers going forward. Most of the members at the meeting are Haringey officials, and we thought this was the opportunity for us to share our views on what good engagement looks like – by following Hart’s Ladder of Participation.
Roger Hart is a child-rights academic and the ladder of participation is a model he developed in 1992 as a tool for recognising young people’s participation. Hart’s ladder describes eight levels of decision-making, control, and power that can be given to children and youth by adults.
The council has created a coproduction group whose remit was to work towards coproduction. We presented to the group a version of Hart’s ladder (see image below) and how this should apply to parents/carers in Haringey. We believe that to truly be in coproduction with parents/carers, then Haringey will need to aim for “parents/carers led activities in which decision-making is shared between parents/carers and professionals working as equal partners.”
Is Haringey really ready for coproduction?
sendPACT 