COVID-19 Project with Scottish Young People

Parent/Carer Info Sheet

What is the Project?

During the Covid 19 crisis the voices, needs and experiences of young people have largely been missing from the news national debate. At a Place in Childhood, we believe it is vital to listen and understand what it is like for young people, what the big changes and challenges are and will be for them, and how they think these could be addressed. Our aim for this project is to help young people record their views and advise the powers-that-be on what young people would do differently if they were in charge.

 

What’s involved?

Each Project engagement involves:

  1. An Online Workshop (between 60-90 minutes) which is led and facilitated by the young people in charge, asking “what would you do if you were in charge of the crisis?”. The next takes place 11am-12:30pm on Saturday 30th May. These use Zoom video conferencing software and tools which enable us to share and collaborate creatively together, and require only an internet browser and connection to attend.
  2. A Questionnaire (5-10 minutes each) after the workshop.
 
Why should young people participate?

This is an opportunity for the participants to speak on behalf of the young people of Scotland at a very difficult time, and their advice could give the powers-that-be important ideas on what they can do to help.

Participation will be fun and interactive, and what the group produces may also provide a unique and invaluable historical record of what young people felt and thought at this time.

Each young consultant on the project will receive £10 per project engagement, paid upon the completion of a full contribution (i.e. active participation in one workshop and follow-up questionnaire). (Where required, this may be paid as a donation of book vouchers to the school on behalf of any participating pupils).

We will arrange for this to be sent as a voucher -either Digital Select Giftcard or Amazon-  depending on which the young consultant most prefers.

 

What will happen to the project results?

APiC will publish public blogs and a final report on our website to broadcast how we did the project and what young people told us. Participants and parents/carers would be free to share these with friends, family and colleagues. Nothing will show any names or information by which participants can be identified unless we have written permission from them and from you. Any important advice the young people have for the powers-that-be, we would try to represent on their behalf. We are seeking additional funds to continue the project, and if so, there may also be more opportunities for the (paid) young consultants to help, if they enjoyed the experience.

 

Ethics:

Completion of a parent/carer/participant consent form is required before participation. This takes 3-5 minutes to complete and is available via a link here, and at the top and bottom of the page. You may contact the project lead below through email or telephone should you have any concerns before, during or after the process of this project.

This project follows APiC Ethics and Data Protection Policy, which in turn, follow both legal and advisory frameworks around researching with children and young people. While it is not our intention to delve directly into sensitive issues with participants, we recognise that this time of crisis is hard for all of us and talking about it may be (even unexpectedly) difficult. We consider consent to be an ongoing process, and if a participant or yourself withdraws consent at any point we will respect that decision immediately.

Due to using video conferencing software, we may not be able to provide the same level of comfort to a participant as we could in person. We therefore require affirmation from you (via the consent form) that you will discuss this project with your child before and after the process to make sure they are OK and provide any comfort that may be needed. Please feel free to discuss any concerns you may have with us before or after the process if that would be helpful to you or to your child.

 

Data Protection:

APiC is the data controller on this project and upholds the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. The main form of data collected will be notes, but there may be instances where speech or video is recorded for the sake of disseminating high-quality and appealing outputs. For further details of how your child’s data is processed and stored, you can contact the project lead below.

 

 

For Further Information:

Please contact Dr Jamie M Hamilton, Co-director Policy and Research at jamie.hamilton@aplaceinchildhood.org or on 07816 986220.