In Leeds it is recognised as one of the five outcomes within the Children and Young People’s Plan that “all children and young people are active citizens who feel that they have a voice and influence” and a core behaviour that underpins everything we do: “we listen and respond to the voice of the child”.
Our approach focuses on building positive relationships and trust with children and young people to enable them to feel safe to share their thoughts, wishes and feelings.
To support practice there is now a dedicated page on the LSCP website Voice and influence | Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership
In Leeds, our practice model focuses on a restorative, trauma informed, strengths-based approach that puts the voice of children, young people, parents, and carers at the heart of all decisions.
Children and young people have a voice and influence at an individual, family, service, and strategic level, this assists us to identify how to best support and engage children and young people and involve them at all levels. We have developed 5 O’s model (this link goes to a pdf of the report on the Leeds for Learning website) to ensure voice and influence activity demonstrates an outcome and is owned by a specific team or service. The voice and influence of children and young people should not be a standalone entity but embedded within the culture, discussions, decisions, and actions. Hearing and responding to the voice of children and young people is paramount to the work of the safeguarding partnership in Leeds.
Every year, local youth voice guides are updated with their current children’s champions contact details (elected members) and shared with children and young people across the city: How young people can have their voices heard across Leeds
Below are just some of the ways that the safeguarding partnership have endeavoured to include the voice and influence of children and young people during 2025/26.
Social care staff and students participated in four training sessions delivered by the voice influence and change team and shaped by care experienced young people. This training aims to further strengthen their confidence, knowledge and skills in embedding the voice of the child in their practice and building relationships with children and young people.
“it's been a great session, thank you! It’s been really interesting to hear young people’s views. Throughout my practice I want to ensure I take time to build relationships with the young people I am working with and use different tools to gather their views and wishes”
The care leavers council have planned, developed and delivered two total respect training sessions to social care staff. They chose to focus on three areas of practice; communication, supporting young people with their mental health and identity.
“I have learnt the importance of listening to young people, understanding what they want and need and the value of communication and language”
The LSCP Executive members met with a group of 10 care leavers (the majority from the care leavers council) to participate in a workshop with the following aims:
- Opportunity for care experienced young people to meet with the Executive Board of the Children and Young People’s Partnership and learn more about them and their roles
- Young people to have a greater understanding of what safeguarding means and the safeguarding role of the Children and Young People’s Partnership
- Young people to discuss and explore the role of different services in keeping them safe in the city (safeguarding).
- Opportunity for young people and senior leaders to ask each other questions
- Young people to share their experiences about the different staff and services who are responsible for keeping them safe
A summary report of the workshop outlining learning and next steps was shared with the young people, executive board and wider partnership and updates on progress below were shared back with the young people in April 2026.
Updates
- Police - overall positive feedback from young people about their experience with the police. The care leavers council requested the police visit the group and reps have been twice now April 25 and Jan 26 and developed positive links.
- Health - Key findings from the session were shared with the Quality in People's Experience Committee in July 2025. Health and issues accessing dentists- a list of dentists which care leavers can access has been circulated to Pas. PAs should also advocate to ensure all young people are registered with a dentist. Also shared positive news with care leavers Government extends free NHS services for care leavers - GOV.UK
- Social Care - young people shared they wanted better support around mental health. This is being addressed as a priority action by all the leads in the new Corporate Parenting Strategy and the manager of the care leavers service developed a “you said, we did” in response to more detailed feedback the care leavers council had raised about mental health
- Social Care - feedback from young people identified issues around communication, support, not being aware of cultural needs, being trauma informed, not having to re-tell their story and being trusted. The Director of Children and Families identified that these issues relate back to our children in care promise and care leavers pledge which social workers and PAs are required to share and explain to young people they work with and so there is a need to strengthen the accountability of the relatively new care leavers pledge. So we will continue to promote this feedback mechanism and telluswecare contact details and be sharing this feedback in Voice of the Child Training delivered to social care staff and social care students
- Education-the issue raised around having social care meetings in school day that can be traumatic and affect learning and has been shared with Virtual School and Independent Reviewing Officer Team. The Virtual School have incorporated this learning into training for designated teachers and school staff.
Youth voice group takeover
The partnership requested that the Voice, Influence and Change (VIC) Team facilitate an annual “youth voice group takeover” event, to provide the opportunity for members to meet directly with young people from youth voice groups across the city and listen and respond to the issues they feel are the most important.
Outcomes from the 2025 takeover:
Safe Spaces - Leeds Young Carers, Engaged Active Participation group are working with Safer, Stronger Communities on a walk safe app and active bystander training.
Parks -safety and lighting - Lead worker for Child Friendly Leeds wish 2 is working with parks and countryside to ensure concerns are considered and included in the upcoming play review.
Resource gaps in schools - LCC School Wellbeing team offer a range of training and resources e.g. Weapons Awareness: training and resources | School Wellbeing.
Young people friendly spaces - Play and recreation’ and ‘child friendly planning’ was included in the Leeds Local Plan consultation which will influence the development of Leeds.
Co-produce PSHE in schools - PSHE training sessions for schools are being reviewed with young people including body image, online safety, puberty, body changes and contraception. The My Health My School Survey can help schools to shape PSHE based on what students are telling them.
Safe public transport - The Leeds Youth Council and Members of Youth Parliament have written to the Mayor of West Yorkshire and the Executive Director of Transport for West Yorkshire Combined Authority urging them to address a number of issues.
Safety in gyms - Active Leeds spoke to young people, resulting in Positive Futures delivering training to leisure centre staff to equip them with knowledge, tools and skills to manage anti-social behaviour.
Improve access to trusted adults - Time for Young People’ service provide open access emotional support - https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/information/young-people/well-being/services/time-leeds.
Create more night time youth spaces - Youth voice guides are available detailing key contacts to find out about activities in your local area - https://wearechildfriendlyleeds.com/2025/02/26/how-young-people-can-have-their-voices-heard-across-leeds/.
Nominate a school nurse for every school - Each cluster (local partnerships of schools and key services) in Leeds has a nominated school nurse. 11-19 year olds can also text a 0-19 Specialist Public Health Nurse using ChatHealth (a confidential text messaging service) on 07520 619 750 for real time advice.
Raise awareness of safe spaces - Leeds Youth Service and the Violence Reduction Partnership led on a photo voice project capturing the work of 47 young people, from 5 youth groups who captured over 700 photographs - Leeds Safe Spaces PhotoVoice Exhibition Showreel. Further projects are ongoing as part of Child Friendly Leeds Wish 2.
Create a Youth Hub - There is a South Leeds Hub - https://www.schoolwellbeing.co.uk/activity-centres/resource-collections/south-leeds-youth-hub
In January 2026, 31 young people from 11 youth groups took over the Children and Young People’s Partnership Board including: Barca VIP, Care Leavers Council, Aim Project (GIPSIL), LEAP (Family Action), Members of Youth Parliament, YouthWatch (HealthWatch), The Time Service (Children’s Society), SEND Youth Council, Halton Moor Ambassadors (Youth Association), Change by Shine (St Luke’s Cares) and Getaway Girls.
19 decision makers attended the event including members of the board and relevant officers relating to the Child Friendly Leeds wishes.
The aim of the takeover was to:
- Learn about and meet different youth voice groups from across the city
- Learn about and meet different decision makers in Leeds
- Share and learn about key issues for young people
- Discuss possible solutions and agree next steps / actions
During the takeover students presented their issues to board members and services. Following the discussions, board members and services agreed with young people how they would work together to tackle the issues raised. The Voice, Influence and Change Team then follow up with services every 3 months for updates and present a summary of actions taken at the next takeover in November 2026.
The My Health, My School Annual School (MHMS) survey, is a well-recognised method of hearing the views of children and young people from across the city. It is a free on-line survey for pupils in Years 5, 6, 7, 9 and 11 as well as pupils attending any Specialist Inclusive Learning Centres (SILCs) and post-16 settings in Leeds. The survey gathers important pupil perception data and measures health behaviours and contributes to school improvement.
The survey includes various areas which related to safeguarding, such as feeling safe at home, gangs, knife crime, exploitation, on-line safety and where to go for support. The survey data is available to all members of the partnership and subgroups to review.
The Voice Influence and Change Team produce three six-monthly city-wide voice and influence reports (themed around social care, universal/ seldom heard, SEND) providing updates on key issues shared by children and young people and parents and carers and case studies describing how teams and services are enabling them to have their voices heard and influence change. These reports are shared with the partnership and across the city and include updates from educational settings and third sector partners. Voice and influence are embedded within all CYP partnership meetings – from being included in reports presented and discussed at the meetings to having dedicated agenda items. The third sector safeguarding group also has a regular agenda item on voice and influence.
There is recognition that further work still needs to take place to hear the voice of those children and young people who have experience of the safeguarding system through Early Help, Child in Need and Child Protection and this will be explored further in the coming year as part of the reforms and transformation programme.
Communications
The LSCP newsletter is issued monthly to practitioners across the city. 3529 registered practitioners receive updates on guidance, training opportunities and information on how to improve their practice.
The LSCP website functions as a multi-agency safeguarding hub, bringing together guidance, learning, policy information, practitioner engagement opportunities, and safeguarding resources to help practitioners work consistently and effectively to protect children and young people. The website had 70k visits during 1st of April 2025 to 31st March 2026.