If a child speaks and nothing changes, are they truly heard?

NCERCC read an article in a (kindly shared and highly recommended) weekly NAFP newsletter. The article by Catherine Lockett forms the basis for this one. Thank you Catherine and NAFP.

The definition of the voice of the child refers to the real involvement of children in expressing their views, opinions and experiences. It includes verbal and nonverbal communication and goes beyond simply seeking their views, to actively including them in decision-making processes (NSPCC 2024).

NCERCC has called this Participation, we published a handbook (written with children), and we’ve publicly raised the questions: What happened to Participation and Participation workers?  What happen to Children’s Rights workers? NCERCC recalls one Children’s Commissioner and senior team describing themselves as ‘Children’s Rights activists’. Remember we had a Children’s Rights Director? (publications still accessible).

Reflective questions

• Do we really enable children to contribute to their own case decisions?
• Do we really enable children’s views to contribute to service improvement?

To do so requires we move from a practice that records children’s views to one where children actively contributing to change. Nothing about us without us.

Think

• Relational – shaped by who is asking, how safe the child feels, and what has happened before
• Contextual – influenced by family dynamics, culture, disability, trauma and fear of consequences
• Dynamic – children’s views change as trust grows and situations evolve

Children’s voices are often translated into adult language and reshaped to fit a process, an assessment, a form.

Reflective questions

• “In this home and organisation do we create a system that fits our purpose, or do we try and fit our purpose into a system that does not fit, or offer creativity, flexibility and allow and encourage professional curiosity?”
• “What might have made it safer for a child to speak?”

Children have limited power in adult-led systems where adults determine the outcomes.

Fear shapes what children say and what they don’t say.

When we consider children who are avoidant and silent, do we truly consider things from their perspective?

Reflective questions

• Adults have to reflect, analyse and challenge their power. How do we create and sustain fear?
• Do we act to tidy things up into something neat and understandable instead of sitting down with the unknown and painful things children are feeling? Whose voices are the most comfortable for us to listen to?
• Think of a child’s internal conversation – does it go like this? Speaking can feel risky; it has consequences, it could get someone in trouble, they might not be believed, things might escalate, “I might be taken away, and things might be worse for me”.
• Do we “put ourselves in their shoes” regarding the consequences if they speak?
• How do we create protected space? ( For a child’s experience to be recognised. For a carer,  to reflect, to be held, to be supervised and to have a debrief about a situation and the impact it also has on practitioners’ resilience, and their own thresholds of discomfort.

• How could we implement the Lundy model of participation?

Hearing is listening, recording, and reflecting.

Honouring is allowing children’s voices to influence decisions and not just the narrative.

Safeguarding can mean making decisions that children might not like or understand and sometimes we can’t act on what they want, and this can lead to feelings that their voice doesn’t matter. However, children have a right to know the decisions being made, and why, and how we connect and communicate with children is crucial.

“I didn’t like the decision, but they told me why”.

We must be honest about limitations and safety, but how we respond to children is important; we need to leave the door open and not shut down the voice. We need to check how we say things; we need to check with children what their level of understanding is, and we can ask them, “What is your understanding of this?”, we can ask them, “What is your understanding of what might happen next?”

We can’t always fix things, but we can acknowledge the impact.

Hearing and honouring children’s voices.

• is naming what the child has said, for example, the fear of what might happen next; it’s not about the quotes that they make
• is about challenging minimisation and conversations that often drift to adult needs about resources, our own time constraints and priorities, and our own needs
• is about what this means for the child, who should always be at the centre of the discussion
• is consistently asking where the child is in this, and how we provide feedback to them in a meaningful way
• is a willingness to carry children’s perspective even when they’re not in the room