Empowering Me for My Future (VOYC)

Exploring how services and professionals support children and young people to understand and feel safe with the decisions made about their future lives.

Empowering Me for a Better Future

The conference is framed around children’s understanding, their safety, and their future—not just legal outcomes. This has been shaped by the voices of young people with lived experience of family proceedings, ensuring the issues that matter most to them are front and centre.

Agenda Highlights:

• Welcome Address from CEO of Cafcass, Jacky Tiotto: How Cafcass supports children and young people to feel safe and stay at the centre—now and in the future

• Interactive Presentations on understanding, identity, and safety: exploring how children experience court decisions, cultural identity, and what it truly means to feel protected directly from the children and young people of the FJYPB

• In My Shoes: Readings by FJYPB members reflecting on the impact of being (or not being) the focus during proceedings

• Speaker Presentation: “It’s Silent” – Race, Racism and Safeguarding Children: Featuring Uk’s leading expert in Adultification Bias and National Kinship Care Ambassador, Jahnine Davis, this powerful session will explore how racial identity and systemic bias impact safeguarding decisions and children’s lived experiences in the family justice system.

Who Should Attend?

• Family Court Advisers (FCAs)

• Children’s Guardians

• Social Workers

• Legal Professionals

• Foster Carers

• Teachers

• Youth Advocates

• Everyone

What You’ll Learn:

• Clarifying the Concept: Understand how children experience the advice given to the court and why clarity is essential.

• The Need for Change: Learn why it’s vital to ensure children understand the decisions being made about them and why they were made and what they mean for their future—and how this supports long-term safety and trust.

• Lived Experience expertise: Hear directly from young people and professionals about what happens when children are (or aren’t) kept at the centre of proceedings.

• Practical Applications: Walk away with strategies to improve how you explain, engage, and support children through the family justice process.

Why This Matters:

This session supports the FJYPB’s mission to ensure that children are not just part of the process—but at the heart of it. Understanding children’s experiences sits within a wider learning journey that also explores how communication and culture shape children’s understanding, safety, and sense of belonging throughout family justice proceedings.

How to Register:

Secure your place now by clicking the registration link below. Be part of a vital conversation that puts children’s voices, safety, and futures at the centre of family justice.

We look forward to you joining us. If you have any accessibility requirements or questions, please contact us at FJYPB@cafcass.gov.uk

[Register Here – Voice of the Child Conference 2025 ]