Children's Participation as Public Intelligence
A curated platform showing how children's views have changed real policies, services and public spaces, and how institutions can do the same.
Children's work from Bruna's participatory research.
Children are not only beneficiaries of policies. They are sources of public intelligence: they know how institutions, services and spaces affect their lives, and they can help improve them.
When designed ethically and rigorously, children's participation is not symbolic. It produces real evidence for better public decisions.
Children live in the city. They occupy and use public spaces and services every day. Their experience is information most decisions are still made without.
Spaces and services designed without the people who use them are often used less and corrected later. Listening early costs less.
Planning for children without asking them means planning on assumptions. Participation turns those assumptions into evidence.
Our approach
Most participation methods ask children to talk like adults. Young children explain their world through play, drawing and movement. We treat that as evidence, and design ways for institutions to read it.
Play
as a political language
0 to 5
the ages most often left out
Evidence
for design and evaluation
Ethics
no child data, by design
Governments and international organisations are starting to document what changes when children take part in decisions. These reports show what we know so far, and what is still missing.
By Council of Europe, 2016
Ten indicators that help governments measure how well they put children's participation into practice.
By UNICEF, 2020
Guidance for UNICEF offices and partners on meaningful and safe participation of adolescents.
By Government of Ireland, 2015
A whole-of-government strategy, built on the Lundy model, to include children in decisions on community, education, health and justice.
Children speak in a hundred languages. Public institutions need to learn to listen in more than one.
This platform documents participatory practices and what institutions need so children's views change decisions.
Real examples of children's participation, on a map and in a searchable list.
Reports and evaluations on what changes when children take part.
What helps governments, schools and NGOs move from consultation to real influence.
Support to design participation processes and turn children's views into recommendations.
9 initiatives across 38 countries
Hover over a dot or shaded country for a quick overview, or switch to List to search and filter.
United Kingdom · UNICEF UK · Early childhood, 0–5
108
nursery schools registered (2021)
0–5
age group
3 years
per award, then reaccreditation
Nurseries report that children became more confident in sharing their views and more aware of their own and others' safety. Independent evidence for early years settings is still limited.
Public sources only
Every initiative is backed by reports, evaluations or official pages.
Reviewed and dated
Each profile shows its sources and when it was last checked.
No child data
We map initiatives, never children.
Small on purpose
A few well-sourced cases over many unverified ones.
Start with a 30-minute call. No budget or proposal needed.
