Norfolk Safeguarding Partnership - Child-Centred Practice & Voice of the Child Training
We were pleased to deliver our Child-Centred Practice & Voice of the Child training in partnership with the Norfolk Safeguarding Partnership. These sessions brought together practitioners from across children’s services to reflect, share experiences, and strengthen their approach to ensuring that children’s voices are truly at the heart of practice.
The training aimed to deepen understanding of what it means to work in a genuinely child-centred way, beyond process or procedure, and to develop practical skills to ensure children’s lived experiences are recognised, understood, and meaningfully represented in assessment, planning, and decision-making.
Through reflection, discussion, and practical exercises, participants explored how to:
- Develop and sustain child-centred practice, ensuring the child’s voice is clearly understood and represented
- Recognise and interpret the different ways children and young people communicate their experiences
- Record children’s voices accurately and respectfully in practice
- Listen to what children and young people tell us about being heard and understood
- Strengthen children’s rights, participation, and advocacy, keeping the child central to all interventions
- Learn from Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews, understanding the risks of not representing the child’s voice
- Identify and overcome barriers that prevent practitioners from fully understanding children’s lived experiences
- Apply practical tools and approaches to embed this learning in day-to-day work
Participants reported that the training provided valuable opportunities for reflection and practical application. Many highlighted a renewed commitment to:
- Actively seek and amplify children’s voices
- Challenge assumptions and biases in professional decision-making
- Embed reflective, empathetic, and rights-based approaches within their teams
The sessions strengthened both individual and collective practice, reinforcing the importance of placing the child at the centre of every conversation, plan, and decision.