Voice of the child

2. Considerations and first steps

The following considerations are positive qualities, principles or approaches that underpin effective communication and aid workers ensuring the voice of the child is captured.

• Be flexible in your approach. No one method or tool will work for every child
• Workers must ensure they make sufficient time to spend with each child or young person
• Need to establish a working relationship with the young person and engage their interest. (Establish ground rules and boundaries)
• Develop trust and a rapport through non-intrusive questions. 
• Give the young person a good introduction to your role and duties to them
• Consider how you could make the child more comfortable
• It is important to have a variety of tools available to help  communicate with children and young people
• Workers need to work at the child’s pace and tailor their  communication style to the best way of communicating  with the individual
• Understand their diversity needs, plus their interests and activities. For example, use open-ended  questions or T.E.D questions* to give them the  opportunity to share 
• Activity based communication helps both children  and young people feel more comfortable expressing  their feelings, and helps build trust 

This child centred approach is fundamental to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of every child. A child centred approach means keeping the child in focus when making decisions about their lives and working in partnership with them and their families.

*TED Questions begin with Tell, Explain or Describe. Examples of TED “questions” Tell me more about that.  Explain the situation to me. Describe that to me.