Values

Triangle’s practice is built on some very clear values:

• All children and young people have the right to learn, grow and take risks, to be respected and to be involved in decisions about their lives.
• Children and young people should be active partners in the assessment of their situations and generally should be approached as the primary client in our work: we aim to avoid placing children or young people in passive, vulnerable or victim roles.
• Children and young people’s needs, including those arising from their impairments or from their experiences, must be properly understood if they are to participate meaningfully and have their needs met.
• Children and young people’s communicative competence can be enabled or constrained by adult behaviour and as part of our role we may need to intervene with adults within and beyond Triangle.

We are committed to working in partnership with children and young people, taking seriously the feelings and perceptions of the child or young person and those most closely involved in their lives. Triangle is advised by several consultative groups of children and young people; these groups help us with our work at many levels.

We have a strong commitment to anti-oppressive practice and to making our service sensitive to individual children, young people and families, in terms of race, culture, gender, sexuality and religion as well as the child or young person’s particular individual needs. Triangle is informed by an understanding of the social model of disability, which recognises the powerful nature of oppression as secondary to a child's impairment. This means many of the children and young people we work with face two different problems: the direct impact of their condition or impairment plus the consequences of growing up in a disabling world.