Children and young people’s participation in consultation - Dr Anwen J Marshall

Conversations about Consultation

Dr Anwen Marshall graduated as an Educational Psychologist from Bristol University in 2021. She currently works in Bristol City Council where she also holds the role of ‘person-centred champion’. She supports person-centred work in her service and with colleagues. Before training as an Educational Psychologist (EP), Anwen worked as an Assistant EP in London for two-years, based in a primary school.

For her doctoral research, Anwen explored EPs’ views on children and young peoples participation in consultation meetings. This involved of two phases of data collection, phase one was an online questionnaire and phase two consisted of appreciative informed semi-structured interviews with EPs.

Her research found a difference between beliefs and current practice, where trainee EPs/EPs generally believed in the benefits of participation, but EP practice often not mirroring this. Attitudes, facilitators and barriers were explored and Anwen very generously shared some of these on todays episode. Anwen also share elements from the model for participation she created as a product of her research. The model considers both systemic strategies and practical meeting strategies. We were really privileged to speak with Anwen about her research and hope this promotes reflection on our practice.