The children have their say (2nd edition)

The main objective of the programme “The Children Have Their Say” is to generate knowledge about the wellbeing of children, linked to the public agenda, in order to contribute towards improving local policies and enriching social debates. It is a commission from Barcelona City Council designed to guarantee the right of children to be adequately listened to in the social sphere and to favour their active citizenship.

Following guidelines on ethical research with children, first of all they respond to a subjective wellbeing survey, continue by putting forward proposals for improvement (participatory workshops) and, finally, a Spokeskids Group is tasked with explaining the Children’s Agenda.

What’s new in the second edition:

With respect to the first edition 2016-2020, “The Children Have Their Say 2021-2025” begins with two important new features:

  • We are widening the age range of children participating in it. While in the first edition the survey was answered by 4,000 children aged between 10 and 12 years (in Years 5 and 6 of primary education), in the second edition it will be answered by children aged from 8 years upwards (there will be an enlargement of the sample with 1,000 children from Years 3 and 4).
  • Those schools who want to can voluntarily participate in the project. In order to guarantee the right to be heard and to favour active citizenship to the maximum, apart from the representative samples from the city of Barcelona, which will be randomly chosen, schools can voluntarily register for the programme “The Children Have Their Say” and from the Barcelona Institute of Childhood and Adolescence we will provide them with all the materials necessary so that, autonomously, their teaching staff can support children through the three phases of the programme.

First results:

In the summer of 2022 we presented the report with the first results of the survey. You can access the documents (in catalan) from the ‘Media library’ section or through these links:

Project Team: 

Laia Pineda (management)
Mari Corominas (coordination and research)
Emma Cortés (Spokeskids Group)
Laia Curcoll (communication)

Project commissioned by:

Barcelona City Council Area of Social Rights, Global Justice, Feminism and LGTBI Affairs

In collaboration with:

Barcelona Education Consortium

The Project on Twitter:

To follow the latest news on the project:
#ParlenNensiNenes
#AgendaInfants
#BenestarInfància