One of our two strategic goals is helping organisations, communities and society to keep children at heart.

Our work under this goal currently comprises:

England’s Children

Our members’ manifesto gives us a clear, comprehensive and ambitious mandate of their top collective policy priorities for children and families. It frames and informs all our work, and we will review and refresh the mandate with members during the course of this parliament, ready for the next general election.

Children at Heart in democracy

a)    Rebuilding our regional events and engagement with members to ensure we debate and explore how children and families are included in, and can benefit from, emerging devolution arrangements across England

b)    a funded partnership initiative running up to and through the next general election, to gather and promote younger children’s voices and ideas about the world and society they are growing up in.

In Children We Trust

Children England, with support from Lankelly Chase Foundation and a range of sector partners, is exploring the potential to create a new form of ‘public ownership’ and local trusts for children and young people, through which children can own and democratically control assets and resources for meeting their needs.

4in10: London’s child poverty campaign

Supported by Trust for London and City Bridge Trust, the 4 in 10 Campaign is working hard to make child poverty a top priority for all parties and candidates in London’s 2016 elections and beyond, and to support practical learning and sharing of ideas to tackle child poverty across London’s councils and voluntary sector organisations.

Open to All

Our campaign, launched with NCB, aims to encourage all charities to review requirements for university degrees within their recruitment, and to positively adopt the ‘Open to All’ badge and commitment to value all talents and educational backgrounds in our workforce. Aiming to mimic the Living Wage as a voluntary standard for employers, we may seek to fund and develop Open to All as a discrete initiative.

Listen to my Voice

Ongoing partnership work with Stoke council, to develop, support and share best practice in putting children and young people’s views at the heart of day-to-day practice and management, for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)

Beneath the Threshold

Beginning with a small piece of research under our Engage London programme, we aim to undertake and expand our research, analysis and recommendations about the experiences of children, young people and voluntary organisations in terms of safeguarding needs and risks ‘beneath the thresholds’ for child protection and mental health referrals.