Practice · Tool or method
Children's Voices
- Children, Youth, Family
- Education, Skills
A practical, rights-based framework that equips early childhood and social service practitioners to genuinely hear children's voices and use their insights to improve service design and delivery.
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About this practice
What is Children's Voices?
Children's Voices is a structured, ethical practice for engaging children aged 0-12 in decisions that affect them. Developed by the Brotherhood of St Laurence (BSL) and aligned with the Australian Government Voice of Children Framework (2025), it gives practitioners a proven six-phase process and a toolkit of age-appropriate methods to gather genuine children's perspectives.
The six phases are: Plan > Train > Engage > Analyse > Recommendations > Feedback and Implementation.
What does it achieve?
- Strengthens children's agency and confidence
- Improves service design by centering the people services are built for
- Builds a culture of child safety and genuine listening
- Meets obligations under the UNCRC, NQF, EYLF, and National Principles for Child Safe Organisations
- Supports continuous quality improvement driven by real child feedback
Why use this practice?
Children are our best source of advice on matters affecting them. Research consistently shows that services improve when they genuinely listen to the people they serve, including children.
This practice provides:
- A practical framework grounded in children's rights (UNCRC Article 12)
- Tested engagement methods suitable for children aged 2-12
- Ethical guidance on consent, assent, disclosure, and privacy
- Tools for analysing and acting on children's input
- A process for closing the loop, feeding back to children what happened as a result of their views
Who developed it?
The practice is based on two key sources:
- BSL Practice Guidelines (Sparks, 2020), developed through BSL's HIPPY Australia network across 100 communities, tested over four years of action research
- Voice of Children Framework (Dept of Education / Griffith University, 2025), a national framework developed through consultation with practitioners, academics, children's commissioners, and policymakers
Key theoretical foundations
- UNCRC Article 12, children's right to be heard
- Treseder's Five Degrees of Participation, from assigned but informed to child-initiated and directed
- Lundy's Model, Space, Voice, Audience, and Influence as conditions for genuine participation
See it in action
Who it’s for
Early childhood education and care (ECEC) services, out of school hours care (OSHC) providers, family support programs, social service organisations, government agencies, and program evaluators who work directly with children aged 0-12 and want to embed genuine children's participation in service design and continuous improvement.
Target population
Children aged 0 to 12 years, particularly children in early childhood education and care (ECEC), out of school hours care (OSHC), and family support programs. Also relevant for service designers, policymakers, and program evaluators working with children in Australian social services contexts.
How it’s delivered
- Group work
- One-to-one sessions
- Outreach visit
- Digital technology
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