Child Maintenance, Children & Young People: The power of partnerships. Part 2, From Idea to Action….

With Jodie and Rebecca on board the project started to move forward.

My whole career I’ve worked with adults in some capacity and while I’ve supported many a group involving young people or whole family led activities, young person’s participation was alien to me and I valued the expertise of Rebecca and Jodie to ensure we got it right. The project wasn’t just about filling a gap in information; it was about getting a young person’s voice in an area they haven’t been meaningfully included in.  It had to be led by young people themselves, in their experiences and needs.

Our first catch up was a long discussion of lots of questions like:

• What do children and young people already know?

• Will they need a session on what Child maintenance is first?

• How can we build resources that are genuinely useful not patronising or overwhelming?

• Who else might we need to bring into the project?

• Is there any concerns in carrying out the project?

One thing that we all agreed was that this project should ‘cause no harm’. As a professional adult working in the field of child maintenance, I’m fully aware of the reactions it can stimulate, the stigma that surrounds the topic and the safeguarding issues for many families who use the system and at no point would I want a child or young person to experience this by being involved in this work. And we kept this at the forefront of all planning.

We agreed the resource should be simple and based around the definition of child maintenance, without going into the complexities of the system. The goal: to create something that helps children and young people understand:

• What child maintenance is

• Why it exists

• What their rights are

• Where to go if they or a parent need support

A few planning meetings later, setting expectations, planning what would be involved and costing it up, we had a plan. We had child maintenance expertise and the young people but none of us were creators of more than something on canva and with hoping the resource would become widely available , we brought in an animator who specialises in creative arts for social change, Martin Ayres from Caged Beastie.

Our first action was to meet with the parents and guardians of the young people who will be potentially involved in the project. Try, where we could, to alleviate any concerns. And then in April 2025 I met the wonderful group of young people who agreed to help shape the end resource. I call it a resource at this stage because, in my head I had an idea of what it would be but really, we never knew, we wanted the young people to tell us what they wanted to see!

We agreed 3 evening sessions with the young people to develop and shape the resource. 23 young people sat around the room on the first night, some coming and going, some opting out from the start and then a core wee group who got right into it (and became the project co producers until the end!). We chatted about the official DWP definition of child maintenance then broke it down into sections and what each part meant to the young people.

One of the most insightful discussions was around what the young people felt were ‘everyday living costs’ to them breaking down what they felt was an essential cost, non-essential and a new category of ‘non-essential but really important to me in 2025’  A 15 minute debate on smart phones ensued, now I’ve had this type of discussion with adults, who firmly said a smart phone was not essential. Then I listened to the compassionate debate between the young people, which ended with them agreeing that a basic phone is essential for emergencies and a smart phone is not essential BUT it is important to them in 2025. Why? Because it’s how they communicate, it’s a lifeline for them for socialising, gathering information and decision making and without one they would feel isolated, and it could affect their mental health.

The last session was focused on the resource and information to be included.

They felt young people don’t really pick up or read leaflets anymore and would generally ask a parent if they wanted to know more but did agree that not all children might be able to do that so agreed a leaflet would work, with a QR code link to more information to not overwhelm on a leaflet. 

Non negotiables for the young people were:

·        Stand out visually and be relatable

·        Not lots of writing

·        In a format that’s accessible for neurodivergent young people

Martin really did have his work cut out and the young people really challenged what the resource would look like. He gave lots of examples of other resources for young people for other campaigns, but the group just didn’t feel it represented them so lots of tweaks, colour changes, and writing changes have happened till the group agreed to the final version.

I’ve absolutely loved being part of this project because something powerful happened along the way, the project started sparking new conversations between young people and adults, conversations that were informed, compassionate, and focused on understanding.

The partnership showed the power of working across organisations, each bringing their own strengths. Fife Young Carers deep understanding of young people’s lived experiences. My background brought the child maintenance knowledge and Martins skills of  using creative arts to bring out ideas and discussions.  Together, we built something none of us could’ve have achieved alone.

Look out for the big reveal and Part 3: What’s next…..