Join us to explore how leaders can create the perfect setup for kids to have their say and make a real impact.
‘Are we leading systems in which children’s participation is inevitable, or systems in which participation has to be continually fought for?’
A systemic inquiry into the leadership conditions, organisational structures, cultures, relationships, and distributions of power that shape whether children’s participation rights are realised in everyday practice.
Led by Bez Martin
Anna Freud
This proposed offer moves beyond traditional participation training to focus on the role of leaders in creating the organisational conditions in which meaningful, rights-based participation becomes a natural consequence of how systems operate, rather than something dependent on individual champions or standalone initiatives.
Through an interactive systems-thinking workshop, senior leaders will be supported to critically examine how organisational cultures, structures, power dynamics, decision-making processes, and accountability arrangements enable or constrain children's participation rights. Drawing on systems-thinking methodologies, including rich pictures, the Iceberg Model, causal loop mapping, and systems leverage points, participants will explore why barriers to participation persist, interrogate their own leadership responsibilities, and identify opportunities to redesign the conditions that shape everyday practice. The emphasis will be on moving beyond diagnosing problems to identifying meaningful opportunities for systemic change, ensuring children's views are not only heard but can genuinely influence decisions.
The workshop will provide the foundation for a London Participation Systems Leadership Collaborative, bringing together leaders from across London's boroughs and organisations in a facilitated community of practice. Rather than operating as a conventional network for sharing good practice, the Collaborative will provide an ongoing space for collective inquiry, critical reflection, peer challenge, and action learning.
Leaders will bring real organisational challenges, investigate the systemic conditions sustaining them, identify and test changes within their own spheres of influence, and return to reflect on what they are learning. Through a series of structured sessions, the Collaborative will support leaders to learn across organisational boundaries, identify common systemic barriers, and develop practical approaches to embedding children's participation rights within organisational culture, governance, and decision-making. The ambition is to build a community of leaders who are not simply advocating for better participation but actively reshaping the systems they lead so that meaningful participation becomes routine, influential, and sustainable.
The programme is specifically designed for senior leaders with the authority and responsibility to shape organisational culture, governance, strategic priorities, resource allocation, and decision making. Its focus is not on managing participation activity, but on exercising the leadership required to create systems in which children’s participation rights are routinely realised. Bringing together senior decision makers through the London Participation Systems Leadership Collaborative will create a distinctive opportunity for collective leadership, peer challenge, and cross organisational learning, with the potential to influence systemic change beyond individual organisation
Access: live captions on Zoom. Sessions are recorded and the recording goes on this page afterwards. Tell us about any access needs when you book, or email [email protected].
