A case study of children’s participation in health policy and practice

This chapter considers children and young people’s participation in the development of health policy and service delivery. The chapter was written by Louca-Mai, at the time a postgraduate researcher at the University of the West of England, in collaboration with Emily (Barnardo’s Participation Manager) and Felicity and draws on our experience of a project in the Bristol Community Children’s Health Partnership (CCHP). The project involved health professionals, young people and Barnardo’s participation service working collaboratively to develop a strategy and framework to support children’s participation in the organisation. The chapter considers the lessons from this work for the involvement of children and young people in health policy and services from both professional and young people’s perspectives.