Bringing you the Leeds 12 Wishes for a Child Friendly City
Click the wishes to be taken to the page for that wish, or find the page using the drop-down menu along the navigation bar.
The background…
Back in 2012, when the ‘Child Friendly Leeds’ initiative was launched by the late Queen Elizabeth II, being the first city in the UK to begin the Child Friendly City journey. In undertaking this journey, we had a focus on one question: ‘what is it like to be a child growing up in Leeds & how do we make it better?’ We consulted children and young people to find out what would make Leeds a more child friendly city, which formed the wishes. The voices and these wishes of children and young people are at the heart of, and guide, our work. After a decade of building partnerships with hundreds of ambassadors across the city and sharing this vision and work, in 2022, it was time to give these wishes a refresh.
Celebrating its 10th birthday in 2022, Child Friendly Leeds reviewed the feedback from consultations, surveys, and ballots over a three year period, capturing the views of 80,000 children and young people in the city to identify the current top issues and priorities. The Child Friendly Leeds team and Voice Influence and Change team then worked in partnership with children and young people from Leeds Youth Council, BARCA, SEND Youth Forum, Youth Service, as well as Swillington Primary and Parklands Primary School..
Once they were ready to go, the new and improved 12 wishes were launched in a special two-week exhibition taking place at Leeds City Museum. Following the anniversary celebrations, we were honoured to have HM King Charles visit Leeds to meet some of our young people, schools and ambassadors and understand more about the work in Child Friendly Leeds and hear about the refreshed wishes.
As a team we are raising awareness by prioritising these wishes in all our work. We believe everyone can use these to think about how they can make a difference. In order to champion the wishes, we asked experts from across different council departments to lead the work. For each wish, goals have been developed by the lead officers in partnership with relevant teams, services and in some cases strategic boards.
The action plan…
The voices and views of children and young people are at the heart of making Leeds a child friendly city. As a team we are raising awareness by prioritising these wishes in all our work. We believe everyone can use these to think about how they can make a difference. In order to champion the wishes, we asked experts from across different council departments to lead the work. Over several meetings with the leads, an action plan was developed to begin our journey to making these wishes come true…
The CFL 12 wishes action plan outlines the lead officers and teams for each wish along with the short and long-term goals, which will help address the 12 wishes and raise awareness of the importance of them and how we plan on measuring impact.
Click the image to view the full action plan:
Measuring impact…
The 12 Wishes shape the work we do here in Child Friendly Leeds and we will be looking at measuring impact annually by looking at the following:
- Achieving Goals: Regular progress updates by leads against their goals for each of the 12 wishes
- Strategic Commitment: Embedding the 12 wishes into city-wide strategies and plans
- Greater Awareness: Sharing & championing the 12 wishes & children and young people’s voice through a digital campaign and city-wide communication
- University Research: Working with local Universities on data, research and projects and reduce gap of engagement between sectors
- Annual survey data: Mapping against children, young people & families data sets i.e.‘My Health My School’ survey
My Health My School Annual Survey
The wishes can be mapped against any data available to the leads and have already been mapped out against questions in the ‘My Health My School’ survey – a citywide pupil perception survey completed anonymously in learning settings annually. This will provide a data source that can help track how children and young people’s perceptions and behaviours change over time. Following the academic year, new questions were introduced to ensure there was data around all 12 wishes that can be mapped annually to measure progress.
University Research
The Public Engagement team at the University of Leeds holds and coordinates the partnership between Child Friendly Leeds and the University of Leeds. Since 2023, we have built a stronger partnership to better connect the Child Friendly Leeds 12 Wishes with the work happening across the University, and to champion the 12 Wishes in everything we do.
This report shares research and projects from across the University that support the Child Friendly Leeds 12 Wishes, as well as wider work focused on children and young people. Its aim is simple: to share what we are learning with our community so they can use these ideas in their own work or start conversations about how the data and insights can help them. This edition covers projects from 2020 to September 2025
So many people, places and organisations across Leeds are already working hard to improve outcomes relating to the 12 wishes. Please click on the above tab to view information, support, good practice and projects taking place around each wish.
If you want to find out more or get involved please contact us: childfriendlyleeds@leeds.gov.uk
