Children's voices': learning and conclusions from four consultations with children

• Author: Guio, A-C.; Marlier, E.; Frazer, H.
• Pages: 77-86

Feasibility Study for a Child Guarantee (FSCG) Final Report

77

5. ‘Children’s voices’: learning and conclusions from four

consultations with children

5.1 The ‘children’s voices’ study

The 2013 EU Recommendation on investing in children recognises, as its third pillar, the

right of the child to participate. In the light of this, consultations were organised within the

FSCG initiative, in the form of focus groups, in order to give children the opportunity to

voice their opinion and influence the final recommendations.

Consultations were carried out in four different Member States, each one focusing on

children from one of the identified TGs: Italy for children living in a precarious family

situation; Sweden for children with a migrant background (including refugee children);

Belgium for children with disabilities; and Romania for children residing in institutions. The

organisations responsible for leading the focus group consultations were selected from

among Save the Children and Eurochild members.

The focus groups provided an opportunity for children to undertake a sort of ‘reality check’

and to test whether the findings of the empirical reports about the five key social rights

under scrutiny (free ECEC, free education, adequate nutrition, free healthcare, and decent

housing) and the four TGs considered (children with disabilities, children living in a

precarious family situation, children in institutions, and children with a migrant background

[including refugee children]) align with or differ from the lived experiences of children

themselves. The exercise was also intended to demonstrate how child participation can be

built into the emerging concept of a future CG.

5.1.1 Selection of participants

A total of 35 children aged 9-17 participated in the focus groups. The size of the focus

groups was kept to 8-10 children in order to favour the participation of all children. Children

participating in the focus groups were selected through snowball sampling120 in each of the

four Member States selected, starting with those participating in existing projects led by

Save the Children and Eurochild partners.

 Belgium: the focus group discussion was conducted by the Department of Special

Needs Education at Ghent University. Children were selected from among those

participating in an inclusive programme in regular secondary schools in the Flanders

region. The focus group discussion was conducted in the presence of three staff from

Ghent University, along with parents and/or personal assistants of the children.

 Italy: the focus group discussion was conducted by Save the Children Italy's experts

in Torre Maura, an urban segregated area with high levels of economic deprivation,

crime, and violence, and low education levels. Its population is composed mostly of

households identified by the study as ‘precarious families’ in terms of economic fragility

and household composition. The concentration of Roma families is higher than in other

areas of the city.

 Romania: the focus group discussion was carried out by Save the Children Romania’s

experts in a residential centre in Bucharest that accommodates around 40 children who

ended up in state care (such as abandoned children or orphans), and is located in a

residential area of the city with access to public transport, schools, and leisure facilities.

 Sweden: the focus group discussion was conducted by Save the Children Sweden’ s

expert in premises of the organisation in RestadGård, which hosts the largest asylum

accommodation centre in Sweden. Asylum accommodation is temporary

120 Morgan (1996).