Putting children at the heart of policy making, including involving them directly in policy development, is important. Councils are already working hard to engage children and young people in policy development, as seen in a series of case studies on this page.
Councils have responsibilities under the Children Act 1989 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) to ensure children are able to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting them, and to have those views taken seriously.
In our 2020 policy paper, “A Child-Centred Recovery”, we emphasised the importance of putting children at the heart of policy making, including through involving them directly in policy development.
We have collated a set of case studies looking at how councils are already working to engage children and young people in policy development. These case studies show a variety of mechanisms for engaging young people, and look at how to give young people a say across a wide range of policy areas.
If you have a case study on engaging children and young people in policy development that you'd like to share here, please get in touch. Please use our case study template when submitting a case study.
