What matters to us - prioritising children’s voices when we plan services
Children from The Weatheralls writing their prescriptions for being well
How can we hear from younger children about ‘what matters to them’? This was the question the Integrated Neighbourhood Team in East Cambridgeshire were interested in working with Fullscope to explore. This work is ongoing; a huge amount of information has been gathered to date and together we want to think about priorities and co-produce solutions. Shared here are some insights from our experiences to date.
Our purpose at the start was to identify a community in East Cambs interested in testing out new ways to involve primary aged children - an overlooked age group in consultation and co-design initiatives - and weave connections across the education, health and voluntary sectors. The three Soham Primary Schools all quickly committed to working with us, stipulating from the outset that every children should have the opportunity and offering to dedicate a whole school day to the initiative. The social prescribers working at Staploe Medical Clinic, the town’s medical practice, and family therapy charity Cambridge Acorn Project also joined us. Together with artist Hilary Cox Condron we began our ‘Mapping Soham Stories’ project and formed a working group of organisations and colleagues interested in using Fullscope’s model for co-production to test out creative ways to listen to and learn from younger children.
A Vision Rooted in Connection and Co-Production
Knowing we had to involve over 1,100 children was daunting at first. We actively embraced the principles of the ‘companionship compass’ developed by Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination a Fullscope member, as we planned and thought about how to communicate the key values of the work to everyone: children, educators, families, and other professionals working with children. Every child needed to feel they were being offered the space and time to express their own ideas. Every adult needed to feel comfortable and confident with the process we were proposing.
The Creative Engagement Days
By dedicating an entire school day to the question, “What matters to me?”, every child had an opportunity to engage in a series of creative invitations. The process was deliberately inclusive starting with whole school assemblies, then working with smaller groups of older children (7 – 11 year olds) to introduce them to the offers and think together how they could then help other classes in the school. These children— 116 in total – were not only participants but also catalysts, helped cascade the creative opportunities throughout their school communities during these days.
In total, more than 700 individual maps and creative prescriptions and some collective maps that described what ‘matters to me’ were completed, all striking in their individuality and creativity. Each school hosted an end of day celebration—a pop-up exhibition where families and community members gathered to see the children’s work. Approximately 400 people of all ages attended these exhibitions at each school, enabling thoughtful conversations about wellbeing and community.
“The children's maps far exceeded my expectations, they were truly amazing and so detailed! Watching and listening to children with parents was another opportunity for shared language and communication and for some parents it was a real eye opener too.”
Jane Segust, Headteacher, The Shade Primary School
Each child contributed a word or phrase to describe their experience of the day and this word cloud captures the sense of joy and fun these conveyed. ‘Fields of magic’ was a personal favourite for the team:
Sharing with the community
Colleagues familiar with appreciative enquiry or the most significant change methods of analysis would recognise the sense-making approach we then undertook, carefully ‘reading’ each map and prescriptions and looking for common themes and priorities. Through a process of continual refining we arrived at six ‘big ideas’ that most clearly describe how the children conceptualised what mattered to them:
Moving my body
Connecting to nature
Nourishing my imagination
Being with family and friends and animals
Places that matter
Making memories
Their drawings and words have been collaged into a series of colourful play-hoops, symbolically reflecting the imagery of the solar system used by some in their maps and the interconnected nature of their ideas. These have been exhibited in Soham Library during May.
Community event at Soham Library
In the opening event, 65 visitors—from educators and health providers to local families—experienced first-hand how the voices of young children can spark meaningful, collective reflections. Storyteller Marion Leeper was invited to create a new “Soham Story” - The What Matters Pharmacy – which she performed for families across the afternoon. This beautifully captures the children’s wisdom and generosity, and we are exploring how this can be published and shared widely with more families and carers.
Impacting Perspectives and Shaping Future Support
We are already seeing how far the ripple effects of Mapping Soham Stories can extend. Educators have been deeply moved by the honest and imaginative expressions of their pupils and observed that when children feel safe to share their inner thoughts, whether about friendship, nature, or personal memories, it can enrich all of our understanding of care, community and connection.
I loved having the chance to really get to know my children and find out what matters to them! I saw a different side to the pupils. It was good for the children to have this time to release their inner thoughts and feelings. I particularly noticed how three of the boys worked together as a team. They were writing from their hearts. It was just amazing to see them being safe and sensible and to hear and see what they wrote about friendship and sad memories.
Such insights have already prompted schools to consider integrating these learnings into further PSHE sessions and establishing annual days to revisit the explored themes.
What next?
We plan to learn together how this rich repository of children’s expressions can influence the way local services are being designed, ensuring that support for young people is both relevant and attuned to their needs.
With thanks to the Raspberry Pi Foundation for sharing a space to prepare the exhibition and to D S Smith (Fordham) for the large paper and packaging sheets used on the workshop days.
Download our Framework for Involving Children, Young People and Families
Read more about our collaborative, innovative projects