Beyond consultation: Kids First Youth Council leads session at the National Child Protection Forum

At the 9th National Child Protection Forum in Meanjin, Brisbane this September, young people weren't just the subject of the conversation. They led it.

 

Kaitlyn Asher, Chair of the Kids First Australia Youth Council, and Victoria Harrison, Senior Practitioner and WA State Champion for the Kids First Australia Youth Council, presented a youth-led session titled Embedding youth voice into governance and service design: Moving beyond consultation to genuine co-design and shared decision-making. The forum, held from 15 to 18 September at the Hotel Grand Chancellor, brought together more than 300 attendees from government, child protection, family services, research and community organisations. The session sat within its Child Voice, Lived Experience and Shared Decision-Making stream.

 

The session was built around a question many organisations are grappling with: how do you move from asking young people what they think to giving them real influence over what happens next?

 

It focused on four areas. The first was how Youth Councils can be established and sustained so they meaningfully contribute to organisational decision-making, service design and accountability. The second was how lived experience can be embedded into practice in ways that are safe, supported and non-extractive, including young people's participation in recruitment, policy development and service evaluation. The third was the realities of co-design, including the time, resourcing and effort it takes to keep engagement with young people authentic. The fourth was how youth voice can influence governance itself, including emerging approaches to board engagement and organisational leadership.

 

"Being asked for your opinion is a start. But young people can tell when a decision's already been made. What makes the difference is when what we say actually changes something, and when we can see that it did," said Kaitlyn Asher, Chair of the Kids First Australia Youth Council.

 

The Youth Council is Kids First Australia's own national advisory group of young people with lived and living experience. Through consultation, co-design and strategic input, members help shape programs, services and organisational decision-making. Bringing together young people from across Australia, the Council ensures diverse youth perspectives are represented in conversations that affect children, young people and families.

 

The Council is chaired by a young person and provides a structured way for young people to contribute to Kids First Australia’s work. In practice, that means young people contribute to co-design workshops, site audits, service reviews and staff recruitment, helping ensure Kids First's services remain relevant, inclusive, culturally safe and responsive to the people who use them.

 

"Non-extractive" is an important part of that. The Youth Council's approach is built around young people contributing on their own terms, with support in place, and seeing where their input goes.

 

"Co-design takes time, and it takes resourcing. It's not something you can do once and tick off. The organisations that get it right are the ones prepared to keep showing up, keep listening and be honest with young people about what they can and can't change," said Victoria Harrison, Senior Practitioner and WA State Champion for the Kids First Australia Youth Council.

 

This year’s National Child Protection Forum theme called for moving beyond crisis response towards a culture of healing and care in child protection. Youth voice is central to that shift. Services designed with young people are more likely to be ones young people will actually use, trust and stay connected to.

 

"Young people are experts in their own lives. When they have a genuine role in how services are designed, delivered and governed, those services get better. Kaitlyn and Victoria showed a national audience what that looks like in practice, not as a one-off consultation, but as part of how an organisation works," said Daniel Pisani, General Manager of Family and Youth Services Western and Southern Australia.

 

For Kids First, the session reflected a simple commitment: young people aren't recipients of services, they're partners in shaping them.

 

Kids First Australia welcomes conversations with organisations, government and funders interested in how youth voice can be embedded in governance and service design. To learn more about our Youth Services, visit Youth Services.