Centering youth voices: investigating the experience of extensive service involvement for young people with complex needs

Abstract

While previous scholarship on youth participation and service involvement and integration has had a risk and protectionist focus, there is a lack of research on young people’s own experiences of extensive and multiple service involvement and their ability to contribute to the service system to better support their needs. Underpinned by the theoretical frameworks including the ‘New Sociology of Childhood’ and human rights, this study aimed to explore how young people perceive the services they receive, and how services can better meet their complex and interrelated needs. Furthermore, this study aimed to uncover how young people perceived their ability to be agents of change within the service system and service co-design. Through a qualitative methodology, this study examined an existing dataset of sustained co-design workshops using secondary data analysis. Participants in the co-design workshops included 23 young people aged 15–18 years. Co-design workshops were transcribed to assist in the reflexive thematic analysis of the data. Analysis of the co-design workshops led to the construction of perspectives on extensive service involvement framed using ā priori themes. These themes include of Non- discrimination, Best Interests, Right to Life, Survival, and Development, Right to Participate and Be Heard, and Right to freedom of expression, Access to information. Five major themes mapped onto ā priori themes revealed the present perceptions of the Australian service system including Helplessness within the System, Risk Mitigation, Service to the System, A Place to Grow, and Choices. These themes revealed that young people’s descriptions of the current Australian service system were characterised by common negative perceptions across service areas. Four major themes emerged describing how young people can be better supported and become agents of change in the service system. Although the service system was perceived as purposeful to participants, inconsistent service interactions, rigidity of services, limited opportunity to exercise choice in their service experiences, and a focus on risk mitigation were mentioned. Persistent negative experiences across multiple service areas have further led to a deep sense of dissatisfaction, subordination, and withdrawal relating to the service system. Conversely, young people were agentic in their ability to share ideas for services to better support their needs and believed young people’s involvement required improvements in how respectful engagement was applied to them and greater investment into adequate resourcing for unmet needs was required. Furthermore, participants further shared their perspectives on the importance of non-discrimination in the form of non-judgemental support, as well as the provision of clear information about the service system and opportunities to participate in service reform. This influences young people’s ability to conceptualise and value their agency and voice. The implications and recommendations of this study provide valuable insight into previously unexplored experiences with service involvement through the lens of child-rights- based methodologies.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Supervisor	Rebekah Grace (Supervisor)