‘We Had to be There to Make Sure it was What We Wanted’

Abstract

The article reports from a qualitative study of family group conferencing in Wales. Family group conferences are meetings of extended family networks that are convened in order to plan for a child’s care and welfare. They are an attempt to enable families to have a greater say in welfare decisions and often particularly encourage children’s participation in the meetings. The research was a qualitative study of 17 family meetings. Twenty-five children and young people were interviewed within 1 month of the meeting and 13 were reinterviewed 6 months later. Adult participants were also interviewed. The findings and discussion are related to the following broad areas: the risks and benefits for children of taking part in such interventions, some of the different priorities for children and adults regarding participation and the potential tensions between individual needs and rights and those of ‘the family’ as a whole.