What does "voice of the child mean?
The term ‘voice of the child’ refers to the meaningful involvement of children and young people in expressing their views, wishes, feelings, experiences and perspectives.
It is about understanding their experiences, recognising how they communicate, and ensuring their voices directly inform the decisions we make about their lives. Effective safeguarding and support depend on our ability to see the world through a child's eyes and respond to what they are telling us – both verbally and non-verbally.
Listening to and acting on the voice of the child is central to effective practice when working with children in all areas of learning. How we understand children’s lived experiences and hear their views about their lives and circumstances directly informs our ability to take effective action to support or safeguard them.
Working Together to Safeguard Children states:
Assessments should be child-centred and responsive to the voice of the child. This means decisions should be made in the child’s best interests, rooted in child development, age-appropriate, sensitive to the impact of adversity and trauma and informed by evidence. Observation can be an important way to get the perspective of babies, infants, and non-verbal children. In the case of disabled children, practitioners should consider whether any specialist communication support is required and consider how advocacy services can support the child to communicate their views.
Why is listening to a child important?
Children and young people are experts in their own lives. By actively seeking and responding to their views, practitioners gain a more complete understanding of a child's lived experience, helping us make better-informed decisions and provide more effective support. This is not only good practice but a fundamental part of safeguarding and promoting children's welfare.
When children's voices are genuinely heard and acted upon:
- assessments are more accurate and meaningful
- risks and protective factors are better understood
- children are more likely to engage in support and intervention
- decision-making is strengthened by a clearer understanding of the child's daily experiences and wishes
How to capture the voice of the child
Children communicate in many different ways. Their voice may be expressed through spoken language, behaviour, body language, emotions, play, relationships and interactions with others. As practitioners, we must remain professionally curious and consider both what is being said and what remains unsaid.
Observations can often provide valuable insight. Changes in a child's presentation, behaviour, confidence or interactions may tell us as much as their words. It is important to approach these observations with an open mind and avoid making assumptions.
Children are most likely to share their experiences when they feel safe, respected and understood. Building trusting relationships takes time, consistency and creativity, but it is the foundation of effective practice.
Practitioners can support meaningful participation by:
- speaking with children in environments where they feel comfortable
- seeing children alone where appropriate and safe to do so
- working at the child's pace
- revisiting conversations over time
- using age-appropriate and accessible communication methods
- involving advocates or specialist communication support when needed
For some children, particularly those with additional needs or communication differences, tools such as visual aids, communication boards, symbols, Makaton, sensory resources and digital technology can help ensure their views are effectively expressed and understood. Helpful tools to use include:
- visual aids
- symbols
- spider diagrams
- communication boards
- Makaton
- sensory tools or
- digital technology tailored to the child's communication style and preference.
Capturing the child's lived experience in their own words, or through their chosen method of expression, is central to inclusive, child centred practice.
Working together to understand the child's experience
No single practitioner will hold the full picture of a child's life. Multi-agency working is essential in building a deeper understanding of how a child communicates and what their experiences may be. Teachers, health professionals, social workers and other practitioners can all contribute valuable insights that help us understand the child's world.
At the same time, we must ensure that the child's voice does not become overshadowed by the views of the adults around them. While parents, carers and family members offer important perspectives, the child's experiences and wishes must remain central to assessment, planning and decision-making.
Reflecting on your own practice
Good practice also requires self-awareness. Our own experiences, beliefs and assumptions can influence how we interpret a child's behaviour and communication. Taking time to reflect, seek supervision and challenge our biases helps ensure we remain focused on the child's perspective.
Practitioners should regularly ask themselves:
- have I genuinely heard this child's views?
- what might this child be communicating through their behaviour?
- have I adapted my approach to meet their communication needs?
- how has the child's voice influenced my assessment and decision-making?
- would the child recognise themselves in the way I have recorded their experience?
Good practice tips
Pay attention to all the different ways that a child may be communicating
- The voice of the child can include both what is said and unsaid, verbal and non-verbal indicators, and the child’s behaviour.
- Listen to and observe children carefully and offer a non-judgemental approach, especially if a retraction is made.
- Observations are important, how is the child with new people? Do they appear intimidated or quiet or do they seem loud and boisterous. It is important to consider the child’s presentation and what that could mean.
Ask other professionals for their knowledge of the child
- It’s vital all professionals share information to gain a full overview of a child's situation and provide a co-ordinated approach to support. You may find that other professionals who see children regularly, such as teachers, can offer valuable information about how a child communicates, as well as about any changes in their behaviour.
Identify and speak to those closest to the child
- Speak to other children and adults who the child feels comfortable with, to make sure important information is not lost. Explain to the parents and child the benefits of involving family members, friends and neighbours in assessments, but remember that it is always important to ensure that consent is gained to do so from the person with parental responsibility for the child. The only time consent can be overridden is when a child is deemed to be at risk of significant harm and child protection enquiries are being undertaken.
- Take care to ensure the child’s voice is not overshadowed by those of the adults around them.
Challenge barriers to seeing the child alone and hearing their voice
- While it’s important to observe the child’s behaviour with the parent or carer, it’s also important to see them alone (provided they are at an age where they can engage in a meaningful interaction with you). If a parent or carer refuses to allow the child to be seen alone without a valid reason, record this and seek advice this could be through reflective conversations or within supervision.
- It’s also important to see children in different places that meet their needs, including at home and at school, nursery or college.
Empower children to make sure their voice is heard
- All children have the right to be heard and taken seriously in matters which affect them.
- Think about how you can listen to children and address any power imbalances in social work, a system that is run, managed and controlled by adults. Empowerment could include making sure children have access to accurate and accessible information, giving children some control over meetings, and encouraging a culture of participation.
- It is good practice to refer to Barnardo’s for an advocate for the child; this should be discussed with the parents and consent obtained prior to referral.
Understand the child’s identity and background and check your own biases and preconceptions
- We all make assumptions and form expectations about people based on factors like class, ethnicity, gender and disability. These assumptions and expectations can influence how we understand children’s expressions and behaviours, preventing us from hearing their voices.
- It’s important to be mindful of your potential personal biases and carve out time to reflect and discuss how these might influence your practice and responsibility to act as an advocate for the child’s voice.
Provide children with the tools they need to communicate effectively
- Think about how to adapt your practice to hear their voice and not exclude children who would otherwise participate. Consider how best to communicate with a child, taking into account disability, age, development and language.
- Ask yourself whether any specialist communication support is needed for children who have disabilities and/or complex communication needs. This will sometimes need wider discussion with other agencies.
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We can create a communication passport for children to support them and practitioners when communication with them. You can do this on mosaic;
Person record> documents>Forms and letters> create>communication passport
Build trusted relationships with children
- Building a trusted relationship with a child is essential to hearing, understanding, and acting upon what a child is communicating. In practice, it is the quality of these relationships that determine if children feel confident in the relationships and therefore willing to share their information. Investment in the relationship is key. We should be listening and therefore the children heard no matter what.
- Time and creativity may be required to build enough trust for a child to share their feelings and for you to properly understand what is being communicated.
Include the child’s voice and your observations in all assessments, arrangements and decisions
- To have an impact it’s important that the child’s voice is accurately recorded in assessments and factored into arrangements and decisions. Make the child aware of the impact their participation has had. And if decisions have been made that do not align with the child’s wishes, take the time to explain this to them.
- When recording assessments, describe the child’s voice, explain how that voice has been determined, and outline what the child sees, hears and experiences on a daily basis. Alongside what the child communicates verbally, also describe the child’s physical appearance and demeanour, behaviour, expressions and interactions.
Capturing the voice of a preverbal child
A child's age or ability to speak should never prevent us from understanding their experience.
It is often found that practitioners state that the ‘child is too young’ when asked about the child or to give the child’s views. The following are hints and tips on ways to capture the child’s voice when they are preverbal.
A preverbal child is in a developmental stage where they communicate using non-verbal skills, such as pointing, gesturing, and babbling, rather than functional spoken words. While common in toddlers (ages 2-4), it refers to any child who understands communication but has not yet developed speech, often preparing for verbal communication.
How to capture the voice of a preverbal child
Babies and pre-verbal children communicate through facial expressions, body language, sounds, reactions and interactions with their environment. Practitioners should carefully observe these cues and consider what they reveal about the child's wellbeing, relationships and daily experiences.
When working with babies and very young children, it can be helpful to reflect on questions such as:
- does the child appear safe, comforted and emotionally secure?
- how responsive are caregivers to the child's needs?
- what does the home environment tell us about the child's lived experience?
- if the child could speak, what might they tell us about their day-to-day life?
Be present to the child
The words that adults use to describe the lives of a baby/ toddler are powerful; they can provide a baby/toddler with opportunities, or they can limit the influence the baby/toddler has on their world of experience.
When working with a preverbal child ask yourself the following:
- Perspective of the baby/toddler - Consider and reflect on your feelings that your observations have provoked
- Relationships, reciprocity and responsiveness - Do they support you to focus on the baby/toddler perspective? Is this challenging - if so, why?
- Environment - Reflect on what this could tell you about the lived experience of the baby/toddler
- Simulation - What does it feel like to be a baby/toddler living here?
- Empathy and early attachment - If the baby/toddler could tell you, would they look forward to the day ahead and end it feeling content?
- Needs and nurture - Do you have the sense that the parent is attuned and empathetic to the baby/toddler’s feelings and needs?
- Time to value and feel valued - Does the baby/toddler feel safe and loved? Does this baby/toddler have someone in their life who really loves and cares about them?
Turning children's voices into action
Listening is only the first step. To improve outcomes for children, their views and experiences must be clearly recorded, reflected in assessments and visible within plans and decisions. Practitioners should be able to evidence not only what the child has communicated, but how that information has influenced intervention and support. Children should also be given feedback so they understand how their participation has made a difference.
Key message for practice
The voice of the child is not a standalone task or section of an assessment, it should run through every conversation, observation, decision and action we take. By being professionally curious, building trusting relationships and adapting our approaches to meet the needs of individual children, we can ensure that children's lived experiences remain at the heart of safeguarding practice.