Doing It Justice

A comprehensive resource applying ethical values in working creatively with care-experienced children and young people.

This resource provides a values framework, practical guidance, and case studies for ethical participatory arts practice when working with care-experienced children and young people.

Overview

Edited by Stella Barnes and published by A New Direction, the guide aims to embed ethical values into creative work, translate values into tangible actions, and support practitioners to work in trauma-informed, inclusive ways.

Core Ethical Framework

The document is structured around five value pillars:

• Safety, Care & Love – Creating environments with high adult-to-child ratios, warm welcomes, secure spaces, strong listening culture, and robust safeguarding
• Choice, Agency & Ownership – Moving young people from recipients to partners through co-creation, youth-led design, and collaborative theme development
• Trust, Respect & Understanding – Recognising that trust is a journey earned slowly through reliability and accommodation of individual needs
• Justice, Advocacy & Rights – Foregrounding children's rights, including experts by experience in design, and supporting self-advocacy through art
• Reflection & Learning – Embedding practitioner journaling, session debriefs, peer reflection, and continuous training

Cross-Cutting Themes

The resource emphasises trauma-informed approaches based on six principles: safety, trust, choice, collaboration, empowerment, and cultural consideration. It advocates against tokenism, promoting genuine power sharing and long-term engagement. The guide repeatedly emphasises process over product – exploration and relationship-building over polished outcomes.

Practical Applications

The guide provides practical "You Could" actions including: auditing practice against values, co-creating group agreements, budgeting for participation support, providing practitioner wellbeing support, offering leadership roles to young people, creating reflective logs, working with psychologists where appropriate, and building freelancer support networks.

Case Studies

The resource includes detailed case studies from projects such as We Belong, Supersmashers, Duchamp & Sons, Lung Theatre, and the Foundling Museum project, each demonstrating how the ethical framework translates into real-world practice.