Leave It To The Kids!

Save the Children have created a recruitment pack that can help organisations to engage children and young people in the selection of staff.

Adults are frequently recruited to work with children, in a wide range of jobs, yet children rarely have any say in the deciding who works with them. Save the Children and The Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights (SACR)* have published a practical toolkit which not only makes a powerful case for involving young people, but demonstrates how it can be done.

Complete with examples of organisations where young people have actually been involved in the recruitment process, ‘The Recruitment Pack’ provides an excellent resource for employers who want to deliver their commitment to the Rights of the Child.

The pack is designed for anyone recruiting for positions involving working with young people by supporting employers to understand the benefits of involving children and young people, and by working through some of the challenges and questions that arise, the pack removes the obstacles that have traditionally excluded young people from being involved in selecting staff.

Central to the pack is the practical experience of organisations and young people from across Scotland. Edinburgh Young Carers Project, Moray Youth Action, Save the Children, Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Skye & Lochalsh Youth Forum, all feature as a series of case studies generating critical insights into how best to involve young people. This evidence-based approach allows it to be much more than a theoretical tool.

As well as providing information on the key elements of the recruitment process the resource considers where and how children and young people can be involved. The recruitment pack also includes tried and tested activities which will help adults prepare young people to be involved in all aspects of the recruitment process including writing job descriptions, shortlisting and being on an interview panel. {mospagebreak}

Sharon Laird, Development Officer, Save the Children, managed the recruitment pack and authored some of its sections. She explains why the Recruitment Pack came about.

“Save the Children shares with the Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights (SACR) a commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 12 of the Convention is concerned with the participation rights of children and young people.

“It states that signatories to the Convention (the UK became a signatory in 1991) ‘…shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child’.

“The purpose of this pack is to help organisations consider how to develop and deliver a commitment to participation by involving children and young people in the recruitment and selection of staff.”

The pack is aimed at anyone who works with, or in the interests of, children and young people. This could include youth workers, teachers, human resources officers, local authority workers, managers, community workers, facilitators or part of an organisation working with children and young people.{mospagebreak}

Sharon Laird continues:
“The pack is for those who have a desire to involve children and young people in recruitment processes. It will be of relevance to you if you have involved children and young people in recruitment before, but also if you are thinking about it and need some help to get going.

“The recruitment pack will help convince and confirm that young people’s involvement is positive and meaningful and has benefits to organisations, young people and candidates.”

The involvement of children and young people in the recruitment process is something that is becoming more common, as Allison Davies, Chair of the Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights explains:

“It’s been so heartening in the past few years to see how organisations are starting to involve children and young people in recruiting and selecting the staff who are to work with them; a clear sign of children and young people’s participation rights taking root!”

*SACR (The Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights) acts as a focal point for monitoring and promoting the full implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child for children and young people in Scotland.

It does this by encouraging organisations to adopt the Convention and to develop their policy and practice in accordance with the principles and articles of the Convention.
It also supports and facilitates opportunities whereby children and young people can learn about their rights and develop their role in society in relation to the Convention.

Further Information
Copies of the recruitment pack costing £25 plus £2.50 p&p are available from Joyce Sperber, Save the Children, 0131 527 8200 or email [email protected]. Save the Children will also be organising training. For more information contact Sharon Laird 0131 527 8200.