- Being a child friendly city
- UN Rights of the Child
- The Children and Young People’s Plan
- The Child Friendly Leeds 12 wishes
- The Impact
- Our year: 2023
Being a child friendly city
Leeds has a bold ambition - to be the best city for children and young people to grow up in. A place where children are valued, supported, enjoy living and can look forward to a bright future – a truly child-friendly city.
From the influential first years of life, to a child’s learning, and the care and love children receive growing up - these things that shape our communities. It brings everyone who shares this ambition together across the city; from enthusiastic individuals to large organisations. Every contribution counts and everyone can play their part and make a difference.
Child Friendly Leeds has been a key part of the Leeds improvement journey since its launch in July 2012. The team have always asked themselves and others across the city: What is it like to be a child or young person in Leeds, and how can we make it better?
In Leeds, we believe that we can only work towards answering this question, by creating a partnership of public, private and third sector organisations – over 600 Child Friendly Leeds ambassadors. Our ambassadors support in a range of different ways, from sponsoring awards events and providing leisure and sporting opportunities for children looked after and care leavers, to offering supported internships for young people with special education needs and disabilities. With their support, we have been able to improve outcomes for children, young people and families across Leeds, and work towards our ambition of making Leeds a child friendly city.
Find out more about getting involved
UN Rights of the Child
The Leeds ‘child friendly city’ ambition was inspired by the Child Friendly Cities work originally done by UNICEF, who launched the International Child Friendly Cities Initiative in 1996. This was done in support of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. It encouraged cities to become more child and young people focussed, ensuring their rights to essential services and empowering them to have their voice hear.
As the first city in the UK with a Child Friendly City ambition, ‘Child Friendly Leeds’ was launched by Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 2012. Since then, we have worked in partnership with organisations across the city to make improvements, always guided by the voices of children and young people.
UN Rights of the child Article 12 says that every child has the right to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting them, and to have their views considered and taken seriously. This principle recognises children and young people as actors in their own lives and applies at all times throughout a child's life.”
The Children and Young People’s Plan
Leeds has placed children and young people at the very heart of the Best City Ambition. How do we work towards this? The Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP) 2023-2028 is the shared vision for everyone working with children and young people in Leeds. All partners and practitioners are encouraged to use the plan as a focus for their work to improve outcomes for children, young people and their families and communities.
Leeds Children and Young People's Plan 2023-2028
The Child Friendly Leeds 12 wishes
The voices and views of children and young people are at the heart of making Leeds a child friendly city.
The 12 wishes capture the views of 80,000 children and young people in the city, learning about their top priorities and issues. We work in collaboration with people across the city to make the 12 wishes everyone’s priority! We want to ensure that everyone in Leeds is working towards improving outcomes in all 12 wishes, and as a city we create as many opportunities and experiences for children and young people to enable them to reach their potential.
Find out more about how the 12 wishes were developed:
The impact
Leeds has been through its own improvement journey over the last decade. From an inadequate Ofsted inspection in 2009, to the 2018 Ofsted inspection which judged Leeds Children and Families as outstanding. In 2022, services provided to children and families by Leeds City Council staff and partners were once again rated ‘outstanding’ by government inspectors, Ofsted. Leeds remains one of the only core cities in the country to achieve the highest Ofsted rating and were commended for its ‘highly effective partnership working and promoting a culture across the city where children and young people are at its heart.’
Ofsted inspectors praised the council for its work to ensure children have a voice and influence over services. Young people told Ofsted inspectors that ‘they feel valued, listened to and respected by senior leaders.’ They said that they ‘genuinely feel that their role makes a difference.’
The Child Friendly Leeds team continues to play its part in maintaining this standard, and continually improving outcomes for children and young people.
Our year: 2023
Some of our key achievements in 2023 include:
Over 2,100 families received a gift through Child Friendly Leeds partnerships.
Over £18,600 worth of gifts were coordinated by the Child Friendly Leeds team for the Christmas 2023 initiative.
Over 5,100 people attended Child Friendly Leeds events organised for children and families.
£36,000 worth of play provision was funded through the Play Enabling Grant.
Over 3,000 tickets given and over £55,000 saved by care-experienced families, through attending events/opportunities for free.
42 more ambassador sign-ups, totalling at over 600 ambassadors who are part of the Child Friendly Leeds network.
38 Play Streets took place where children and families used their local area for play.