After a child has shared their views

Robert:

After a child or young person shares their views and experiences, what responsibilities do adults have? How can we make sure that children know they’ve been listened to? And what happens next?

Marie:

So a young person once told me, people love to ask me how I feel, but nobody ever listens. And I think that is a really important lesson for adults. The worst thing we can do is ask children and make them feel that they have choices or make them feel that they are going to be listened to and then do nothing with them. So I think the main duty on us as adults once we’ve asked a child to share their views, is to do something with those views. It’s not to say that every child can always get exactly what they want, but we have a duty to follow up, and we have a duty to try to explore those views and see if we can support the child in the way they have asked for. And if we can’t, then we need to discuss together with the child what else is in place, what else can we do?