Method guide · Work with a structured grid
Youth Commissioner Authority Workshop
Agree real decision authority and supporting resources with young commissioners, including reasons, responses, and adult accountability.
- People
- 4–16
- Base procedure time
- 90 minutes
- Recording
- Shared record
Purpose: Make a decision; Build working relationships.
English guide
Text acceptance is not approval of this rendered page, its media, or publication.
How this method works
A method for agreeing the scope of decision authority delegated to young commissioners, decision by decision. Remove barriers to diverse selection, and have young people write the decisions they want to make and the authority required. The adult lead chooses ‘Delegate’, ‘Delegate with changed conditions’, or ‘Cannot delegate’, and returns reasons and a response date. Add budget, information, training, consultation methods, and payment, then test. Establish consent, withdrawal, no disadvantage for non-participation, and safety advice contacts. After withdrawal, people choose among return, deletion, anonymisation, and stopping use for existing records. Adults retain final responsibility and reasons for non-implementation; the result is an authority agreement with resources and a review date. This description is an original adaptation with changes to UK government guidance under OGL 3.0. Do not use it to make participants speak for absent young people or where safeguarding lead, backup, or adult lead cannot be provided.
Phase schedule
Minutes are cumulative from the start of the base plan, not a live timer. Read scaling for any additional time. Phase controls do not advance automatically.
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- Check diverse selection, consent, and safety0–15 minutes from the start (15 minutes)
Action: Check. Participation: Everyone, safeguarding lead, and backup.
Shared record
- Write decisions and required authority15–35 minutes from the start (20 minutes)
Action: Write. Participation: Groups of 2–4.
Shared record
- Return delegation choices and reasons35–55 minutes from the start (20 minutes)
Action: Return. Participation: Groups of 2–4 with the adult lead.
Shared record
- Decide resources and consultation55–70 minutes from the start (15 minutes)
Action: Decide. Participation: Groups of 2–4.
Shared record
- Test a fictional case and confirm review70–90 minutes from the start (20 minutes)
Action: Test. Participation: Everyone with the adult implementation lead.
Shared record
Facilitation steps
- For 15 minutes, check barriers to diverse selection, consent, necessary procedures, withdrawal, payment, and safety advice contacts.
- For 20 minutes, young commissioners write the decisions they want to make, necessary authority, and areas they leave to adults.
- For 20 minutes, the adult lead chooses delegation, delegation with changed conditions, or inability to delegate, and returns reasons and a response date.
- For 15 minutes, add each authority's necessary budget, information, training, consultation methods, and data handling.
- For 10 minutes, test whether delegation scope, exceptions, and consultation actually work in a fictional decision situation.
- For 10 minutes, record adult final responsibility, implementation lead, adoption decision, reasons for non-implementation, and review date on the agreement.
If something changes
If
Before starting, any of the safeguarding lead and backup, day contact/emergency advice, or adult able to decide delegation scope is missing.
Then
Do not begin the authority agreement; cancel and have only the organisation confirm roles, delegable scope, and a rescheduled date.
If
Even one person indicates withdrawal of consent, a break, leaving, or another way to participate.
Then
Stop recording without asking why; return, delete, or anonymise existing records according to the person's choice and stop their use. Do not use non-participation in evaluation or reduce payment or participation opportunities.
If
Even one safety concern is raised, such as harm, self-harm or harm to others, or acute distress.
Then
Stop authority discussion and shared recording; do not promise secrecy, and have the safeguarding lead move to the displayed local procedure and emergency/advice routes.
Preparation
Materials
- One self-made agreement slip per decision, with the decision, three delegation choices, and reasons
- One conditions sheet per decision for budget, information, training, and consultation methods
- One guide per person to consent, post-withdrawal handling, non-participation, and payment conditions
- One safeguarding/backup/day-contact/emergency-advice card per person
- One whole-group publication/secondary-use/storage/deletion checklist
- One set of dictation, drawing, large-print, and pass cards per person
- One thick pen per person
Room and setup
- Display the safeguarding lead and backup, day contact, local emergency procedure, advice contact, and adult holding final responsibility; cancel if even one is missing.
- Provide selection routes reaching diverse young people and alternatives to participation barriers. Explain plainly age- and circumstance-appropriate consent, necessary procedures, withdrawal, no disadvantage for non-participation, payment conditions, and post-withdrawal handling of existing records.
- Provide dictation, drawings, large print, breaks, and passing. Collect no personal data or only the minimum; define publication, secondary use, storage, and deletion beforehand. For each decision, identify real delegated and non-delegated authority, adult implementation lead, response date, adoption decision, and reasons it cannot be implemented. Do not ask participants to speak for all young people or rubber-stamp adult-created work.
Adjust for people and time
Do not use the method with fewer than 4 people, as views and responses cannot be compared. Divide participant count by 4 and round up for the number of groups, then form groups of 2–4 differing by no more than 1 person. The adult lead returns reasons to every group. With 17 or more, use separate sessions of no more than 16 with safeguarding lead, backup, and adult implementation lead.
Safety and non-applicable situations
Cancel without safeguarding lead/backup, contact and emergency advice, or an adult able to decide real delegation. Preserve diverse accessible participation and consent; allow withdrawal, breaks, leaving, and alternative participation without reasons, evaluation penalties, or payment/opportunity reduction, handling existing records by choice and stopping use. Stop discussion/shared recording for any safety concern, promise no secrecy, and use local safeguarding procedures. Adults retain final responsibility, resources, implementation and response duties, and data management; do not ask participants to speak for absent/all young people or rubber-stamp adult work.
Manuscript's recorded references
These translate the original manuscript's source and rights claims. They remain separate from any current-page notice below; they do not establish new verification.
- GOV.UK Methods for engaging young people: Youth commissioners
Adaptation under OGL-3.0; changes made
- Conditions of OGL-3.0
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
OGL-3.0
Current-page licence notice
A Taiwa no Fumen adaptation based on the UK government publication identified below. Any separately stated terms apply to the material they identify.
Changes: timings, instructions, materials and branches have been edited for this site. The English edition translates the Japanese manuscript, not the government text verbatim.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
This notice does not grant blanket rights to third-party works, personal data, organisational logos or trademarks.
This is not an official or government-endorsed method.
See the licence for its no-warranty and other terms.
© Crown copyright 2026
Credits on the checked source page
- Published by: Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Source page checked on 2026-10-17: Methods for engaging young people.
Source lineage
Open Government Licence v3.0 · Legal code · Official source policy
This material-specific notice does not itself establish publication clearance. Preserved manuscript references above remain separate from the current page's credits and licence evidence.
Diagram, print, and video language
Original Japanese guide, diagram, and print view. Their labels and print text have not been translated; an English print edition is not provided here.
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The manual English phase controls are a navigation aid, not a live facilitation timer. Interactive diagram motion remains pending.
Editorial provenance
Japanese source status and logs are provenance only. They do not mean this English text or interface was field-tested. Historical fixed-text acceptance and hold records remain specific to their recorded versions; displaying them neither asserts current acceptance nor resolves source-specific restrictions.