- DREAMING 4 REAL -

Our intentions were to create a method of consultation that would arouse the imagination of those involved and inspire members of individual communities to make a difference in the lives of the groups they represent. We hoped this would be achieved by developing specific projects born from information collected, which would work to address issues highlighted during consultation.
There was a possibility that funding would be accessible for such projects via the Local Network Fund, who have had involvement with this consultation process since its outset (indeed one such project - a drama initiative at Shelthorpe School is already successfully underway). Charnwood Arts, the chosen body to conduct the consultation, aware of the tight timescale being worked to, and in order to meet the DFES deadline, decided that initial concentration should be focused on the 8-11 age group. Charnwood Arts had had recent local involvement in similar consultation work with other age groups of children. Therefore, in light of the aforementioned time constraints, it seemed sensible that the planned consultation should build upon data previously collected from the area, in order that as comprehensive a consultation process as possible could be completed within the time frame.

The consultation task group was extremely keen to develop something that was creative and bore a physical end product, so that those involved in its conception could attain a sense of ownership, empowerment, contribute to developing self worth, and engender a sense of belonging to the community in which they live. Charnwood Arts were also able to offer the construction of a ‘legacy’ website for the project within the budgetary constraints. This allows further consultation to take place through future workshops and on-line involvement.

It was decided that different social groups/target groups of children would be invited to highlight their own personal issues surrounding childcare, via the medium of designing a Community Village. So in essence, we planned to create a model of good practice, which could be built upon and further developed each year. The various groups involved each had responsibility for designing an element within this village, where each element or community space would represent a vision of their ideal world. This concept has elicited information from children on how they currently use provision, what they would like to use, and possible barriers to accessing services.

The final designs, created from discussion and group artwork, concentrated on the elements needed to achieve their ideal social setting. The end products show consideration of how the design combats the problems faced by their particular communities when attempting to access facilities for children. We hope that involvement with this project has allowed the children opportunity to inform future childcare and leisure developments and their location.

On completion of the project, the ideas of the different groups have been brought together to create a visual indication of what children ideally want from their social settings. The task groups hoped that by using such a novel method of consultation, we would uncover issues that may have remained unearthed if a more conventional method had been chosen. The consultation with children has also been used to create a banner showing a range of their comments and concerns alongside their artwork for ideal buildings and communities. This develops the consultation project into more of a 'planning for real' exercise, enlarging children's vision of what is currently available in their communities.

This project, and the idea of modelling environments for children, has the potential to be built on and developed. We intend the consultation to become a continual process where children's ideas and information are regularly translated into the model's evolution. The ‘Dreaming4Real’ process acts as an immediately accessible indicator of the actions needed to truly achieve an environment that is responsive to children's needs. The consultation process provides a framework for individuals and identified groups to create their own vision and stories. The role of Charnwood Arts is to identify the links and differences between groups and to highlight key issues. The collective ideas of Charnwood's diverse children's community are exhibited on the banner and through the website. Subsequently, this can act as a starting point to accessing the needs, wishes and ideas of Leicestershire’s children.

A summary of thoughts expressed in the project have been produced in the following magazine to make the project more widely accessible. The physical end to the project itself acts as an illustration, but also as a catalyst of inspiration for those involved during the consultation and for groups to devise constructive community action as a result of the data and experiences elicited.

Defined target groups were identified, which included issues such as geography, heritage groups, age range and type of service. This influenced the venues for consultation projects.
Geography of Charnwood
Rural Town Small town
North Charnwood South Charnwood Metro-fringes
Areas of deprivation
Specific Groups
Asylum seekers Groups who suffer economic deprivation
Ethnic groups Special needs
Looked-after children Travellers Affluent communitiesCharnwood Arts approached a variety of identified groups within the community, to engage their collaboration in this exercise. Demographics within Charnwood clearly indicate that the district has the highest population of children in each age range. It also has the highest levels of deprivation, wide representation of different ethnic groups and hard-to-reach communities and families, including travellers, refugee and asylum seekers.
The eventual delivery of the project sought to address a cross section of this diversity. Some groups, notably travellers, were not covered by the project.

A small contact team was established to initiate and lead this project. This consisted of three people with a community arts background and experience of working with children and two teachers, also with community arts backgrounds. Issues regarding confidentiality and child protection were discussed and redressed. Key personnel were involved for specific work with different identified groups in order to ensure full representative participation in the consultation.

The final product was produced by individuals with relevant skills, to ensure the highest quality. The project begins a new process and approach to informing service planners and providers on the development of new childcare provision.

•	To provide valuable information for the annual childcare audit and inform the writing of the Early Years and Childcare Development Plan.
•	To help in the planning of services for children.
•	Hearing about the experiences of children can show where and how services need to be improved.
•	It is a way of finding out information that only children hold.
•	It is a way of including children in a partnership with service providers.
•	It is a way to make services more sensitive to the needs of specific groups of children.
•	Expensive mistakes in the planning and delivery of services can be avoided.
•	Children can receive as well as give information.

October 2001
Initial sharing and development of ideas with contact team.
November 2001
Defining specific outcomes and structure. Developing a range of contacts, training and targets for specific groups.
December 2001
Allocating and undertaking contact work with groups, final time-tabling for consultation confirmed.
January 2002
Delivery of programme.
February 2002
Delivery of programme and review of progress.
March 2002
Production process.
June 2002
Launch to coincide with National Childcare Month.

We recognise that the needs of children are diverse and complex and that a range of services will be necessary to meet these needs. One of the ways of gaining insight into the increasing variety of needs and experiences among children, is to listen carefully to what children are able to say about their life's experiences.
This project allows an interesting access point for children to direct their opinions, share their views and begin to empower themselves in ways that can make a difference to their own lives and that of the communities they represent.
By creating a model of good practice we are allowing the views of children to be expressed and immediately understood irrespective of their backgrounds, language or culture.
The consultation and methodologies employed were seen as a first step in devising new ways of engaging children with these issues. Charnwood Arts has developed many new ideas through the project and has made many observations as to how to approach such work differently in the future.
Working through the visual arts was highly successful in engaging children’s creativity and a high degree of individual thought and emotional engagement resulted. A drama based approach would have elicited different responses and a writing-based project further differences. It was the combination of these approaches that underwrote the success of this first attempt at consultation through these methods in Leicestershire.