Child Friendly Bradford District
In Bradford, we have an ambition to become a more Child Friendly district - where we give more children and young people more voice and more influence over local services.
The Child Friendly Bradford District programme is a children’s rights-based approach to Local Government which is rooted in the ‘UN Convention on the Rights of the Child’ - particularly Article 12 of the convention which describes their ‘right to be heard when adults make decisions that affect their lives’.
This is reflected in the Children and Young People’s Strategy for Bradford District, where voice and influence is described as a core value that underpins all of our local approaches. Across the district we have a range of ways for children and young people to make their voices heard ranging from school councils to groups such as:
- Children in Care Council
- Care Leavers Council
- BradStarz SEND Youth Forum
- Healthy Minds Apprentices
- City of Culture BD25 Youth Panel
- Youth Service HDRC Young Ambassadors
- NHS Youth Opinion and Advisory Group.
Our journey so far
After completing a Foundational Year on the UNICEF UK 'Child Friendly Cities and Communities' programme, we launched our local Child Friendly ambition in November 2022 at an event attended by local schools, youth groups and decision makers. We also revealed the winner of our design-our-logo competition, Bella from St John’s Church of England Primary School.
We have delivered Children’s Rights Training to over 300 members of the workforce, established a local youth voice community of practice, held a youth summit on the theme of Emotional Wellbeing and delivered local democracy workshops to numerous school councils from all across Bradford District. We are working in partnership with Living Well Schools to develop and embed pupil voice within primary school settings and throughout 2025 will be developing a new strand of work on Children’s Right to Play.
If you would like more information or support around Children’s Rights and how to give more children and young people more voice and influence please contact us on: childfriendly@bradford.gov.uk. You can also follow us on X (formerly known as Twitter).