'What it means to me': Exploring the practice of listening to young people when responding to child exploitation and extra-familial harm

This project forms part of a wider NHS England–funded research and innovation programme delivered in partnership with the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes (BLMK) Health and Care Partnership. Positioned within the ‘Safeguarding children and adults with complex needs’ pillar, the work focuses on strengthening responses to child exploitation and extra-familial harm through a sustained focus on listening to, understanding and embedding the voices of children and young people within practice.

The core research study—‘What it means to me’—explores how the voices, experiences and perspectives of young people are currently captured, shared and used within multi-agency safeguarding responses, and what difference this makes to their experiences and outcomes. While policy, statutory guidance and practice frameworks emphasise the importance of listening to children, there remains limited evidence about how this is operationalised in day-to-day practice, how children’s voices inform decision-making across agencies, and how this is experienced by young people themselves.

To address this, the study adopts a multi-method, practice-near design in Luton, including case file analysis, and in-depth interviews with both professionals and young people. The research maps current practice and identifies gaps and opportunities for improved processes.

Running alongside and emerging directly from this core research is a practice-oriented development strand focused on the Pan-Beds Child Exploitation Toolkit. As findings from the study have begun to highlight specific challenges in how children’s voices are captured within assessment processes, the project has evolved to include a collaborative, co-produced programme of work aimed at strengthening the toolkit and its application in practice.

This strand responds to identified limitations in existing assessment tools, including a narrow or discrete focus on ‘voice of the child’, limited guidance for practitioners on how to engage meaningfully with young people, and insufficient direction on how children’s perspectives should shape assessment outcomes and recommendations. Building on the research insights, the project is working with professionals and young people to develop a supplementary resource that embeds the voice of the child throughout the assessment process, rather than treating it as a single section or output.

The development of this resource follows a co-design methodology, drawing on the expertise of practitioners and the lived experience of young people (including through the Young Researchers’ Advisory Panel). Using a structured “double diamond” approach—discover, define, develop and deliver—the project combines evidence from the research with participatory design processes to produce a practical, accessible tool that supports relational engagement, improves communication, and enables more meaningful documentation and use of children’s voices in safeguarding decisions.

Taken together, the research study and toolkit development represent an integrated programme of work that moves from understanding to implementation. The project not only generates new empirical evidence about how children’s voices function within safeguarding systems, but also translates that evidence into practical tools and approaches that can be embedded in frontline services. In doing so, it aims to strengthen child-centred practice, improve multi-agency working, and ultimately enhance outcomes for children and young people affected by exploitation and extra-familial harm.