About the standards
The engagement standards are produced by RCPCH and its Engagement Committee, Association for Young People's Health and children, young people and parents/carers, with the support of a multidisciplinary working group. They are part of the RCPCH Engagement Academy, which keeps children and young people at the heart of health services by providing information, advice, guidance, tools and frameworks to support rights-based approaches to meaningful engagement.
The engagement standards support the rights of children and young people to be listened to, respected and involved in decisions that affect them and in having the best health services possible, as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
Read or download our standards below
Five standards
You can use the five standards to help you develop engagement plans and work in partnership with children and young people in your ward, unit or trust, or on your project or initiative. Each standard has three areas of activity - select a heading below to see more.
- Trust and rights
-
Create a safe and trusted environment for children and young people to get involved and have a say in shaping health services using a rights based approach
- Children's rights, confidentiality, respect and empowerment
- Strategic engagement plan with trust, personal development, learning and sharing power at the centre
- Capturing and documenting children and young people's views and ensuring these are shared to influence decision making
- Inclusive
-
Plan inclusive and accessible engagement adjusting your methods and approach for those with different health needs, from different communities and of different ages and stages of development
- Engage a diverse range of children and young people that reflect the population of the area
- Collect and analyse anonymous data on the diversity of participants
- Understand and respond to the needs of the children and young people we work with
- Practical arrangements
-
Have the right processes in place to support meaningful engagement
- Clear activity plan in place for engagement sessions
- Incentive, reward, renumeration and recognition approaches
- Procedures for engaging children and young people including safeguarding, wellbeing and accessibility considerations
- Community reach
-
Strengthen local connections to amplify children and young people’s voice and engagement
- Build and sustained partnerships with organisations in our area
- Proactively reach out to community organisations to ensure the voices of under-represented children and young people are included
- Provide opportunities for engagement with children and young people alongside wider stakeholders
- Take action
-
Listen and act on what matters to children and young people
- Actively use insights and engagement to inform planning and improvement
- Ensure engagement leads to meaningful change and where change is not possible, explain why
- Evaluate the process with children and young people, providing feedback on how their contributions have influenced outcomes
Next steps
We launched the engagement standards on World Children's Day on 20 November 2025. This marks our commitment to children's rights and a rights-based approach
Our focus is wider than one day and we hope the standards become part of the day-to-day for paediatric services across the UK, embedding children and young people's engagement into service improvements and planning, under Article 12 of the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Throughout 2026, we'll launch more resources, case studies, guidance, cross reference guides to use alongside other standards/regulatory frameworks, learning and support for paediatric services and wider stakeholders to help with increasing knowledge, confidence and skills in engagement and how to use the standards for change.
Explore our upcoming courses with the RCPCH Engagement Academy, and sign up to our bulletin or contact the team via and_us@rcpch.ac.uk
Please share the standards with your peers and colleagues. To do this you can download the social media card below and share your commitment to children's rights, active engagement and working in partnership with children and young people.
Thank you
We want to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported this project from the children, young people, families, paediatricians working group, Engagement Committee and RCPCH staff who have given their time and energy to creating the standards. Thank you to:
RCPCH Children and young people’s group: Aiden, Ahmed, Demi, Nathaniel, Jack, Jamie, Hanin, Toby, X1 with parents/carers Andrea, Gail, Joanne.
Working Group members
- Children and young people, parents, carers representatives: Demi, Aiden, Gail
- Clare, Senior Youth Worker, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
- Jill, Clinical Nurse Specialist - Children's Epilepsy, East and North Herts NHS Trust
- Carol, Trustee, Youth Focus North West
- Donna, Youth Service Manager, Nottingham Hospital Youth Service
- Sarah, Deputy CEO, Youth Focus North West
- Emma, CEO, The Association for Young People's Health (AYPH)
- Louise, NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care, Associate Programme Director Children & Young People
- Tim, Improvement Advisor, SPSP Paediatric Programme, Healthcare Improvement Scotland
- Bhanu, Consultant Paediatrician (Specialist in Paediatric Infectious Diseases), London North West Healthcare University NHS Trust, Assistant Registrar and Chair of Engagement Committee, RCPCH
- Nicki, Director, KZP
RCPCH Engagement Committee members: Young people: Aiden, Ali, Bryn, Demi, Lowenna. Parents/Carers: Gail, Joan, Kim, Nicola. Paediatricians: Bhanu (chair), Kate, Karl, Mo, Naomi, Sahana, Will, Sector reps: Amber, Beth, Osas, Verity
RCPCH staff: Melanie, Abi, Alli, Ella, Emma S, Emma V, Karina, Megan, Stella and Tony