Giving Children a Voice

A step-by-step guide to enabling and harnessing the potential of children's voices to transform the settings that form part of their everyday lives

This book promotes the potential for children to advocate for themselves. Providing five simple steps, it demonstrates how to create an environment in which the authentic voice and opinions of the child are heard and to build platforms to help amplify that voice.

How do you ensure that children's voices and ideas are heard and valued in relation to the settings that form part of their everyday lives?

Presenting an easy to adopt step-by-step framework, this book argues in favour of children's potential to advocate for themselves, in contrast to the current model in which adults take full control and advocate on the child's behalf. By honouring and harnessing the involvement and contributions of children, social workers and education professionals will be able to improve their daily practice and positively transform key spaces within society to create environments where children experience a sense of belonging and purpose, full of potential benefits for both adults and children. Practical at its core, the book has wide applications, from examining the place of children in legal matters, such as divorce, through to the child's engagement in decisions about their education. International case studies reveal how the model works in practice and encourages children's voices and their participation.