Ethical principles of Young Adviser activities

The statutory duty of the Ombudsman for Children is to meet children and young people and relay their views to relevant parties. The Young Adviser activities have been developed by the Office of the Ombudsman for Children for a long time. Ethical principles are the primary guide for developing the activities.

In the Young Adviser activities, the Ombudsman for Children complies with the following principles:

Promoting the rights of the child

The activities aim to promote the rights of the child: to ensure that children’s opinions and views are increasingly heard and taken into consideration in society. The activities achieve effective outcomes for children, and their opinions and views are genuinely utilised in the work of the Ombudsman for Children.

Equality

The activities reach children and young people as equally as possible. In selecting groups for meetings, it is ensured that they represent different areas of life and capture the everyday circumstances and lives of diverse children, including minorities. Children from different parts of Finland get opportunities to participate in the activities.

Voluntariness

Participating in the activities is voluntary for children. Children also have the choice not to participate. Everyone gets to share their thoughts and experiences to the extent they want. Children may opt out of answering certain questions or choose not to take part in a given assignment if they want.

Providing information for guardians

If the children participating in the activities are aged under 15, their guardians will be informed of the meeting. However, the age limit is applied on a case-by-case basis, taking the children’s developmental level into consideration.

Children’s expertise

Children are given the opportunity to freely share their experiences and views. Children are experts, and we are interested in hearing what they think. Children are encouraged and supported in expressing their thoughts, and it is emphasised to them that there are no right or wrong answers.

Constructive discussions

The activities follow the principles of constructive dialogue, which include listening to others, using everyday language, being present and respecting others.

Direct quotations

The discussions held during meetings are primarily recorded. This ensures recording what the children say as accurately as possible. The children and their guardians are informed in advance about the recording and its purpose in a letter. The letter also informs them of the fact that the children’s names or other identifying information are not recorded.

Transparency

As a rule, the content of the activities is transparent. To ensure this, a memorandum is drawn up after each meeting. The background organisation will submit the memorandum to those who participated in the meeting to view and comment. Once they have approved the memorandum, it will be published on the website of the Ombudsman for Children.

We do not perform inspection visits

The Ombudsman for Children is not authorised to process matters concerning individual children or families or to investigate the activities of other authorities. As a result, meetings with the Ombudsman for Children are never inspection visits.

Continuous development

This operating model is continuously developed based on observations made in the activities and feedback received from children.