Cardiff revealed as UK's first UNICEF Child Friendly City

Date: 17th November 2023
Category: General measures of implementation

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The globally recognised UNICEF status aims to celebrate communities where children's rights are embedded in policies and services. According to UNICEF UK, Cardiff Council has worked with organisations across the city to implement sustainable projects and strategies to support children and young people to make the most of their rights.

As part of Cardiff Council's work on children's rights, according to UNICEF, more than 5,500 council and partner staff have completed child rights training and a total of 3,595 children and young people have also received participation and rights training.

73% of Cardiff schools are working to embed children's rights as part of the UNICEF UK Rights Respecting Schools Award, there have been more than 700 opportunities for children and young people to participate in real decision making at Cardiff Council and 50 teams of children helped design new areas of the city using Minecraft Education.

Chief executive of the UK committee for UNICEF, Jon Sparkes, said becoming the first UNICEF child-friendly city in the UK “marks a promise to Cardiff's children and young people - that the council will continue to make sure children's voices are at the heart of local decisions.”

Leader of Cardiff Council, Councillor Huw Thomas, said the council's aim was that all children "feel safe, heard, nurtured and able to thrive".

"The foundation of this change has been the development of a rights-respecting culture across the council and city-wide partners to ensure our staff are knowledgeable and confident regarding rights and their practice.

"This has been supported by policy which has empowered children and young people to be meaningfully involved in decisions that matter to them."

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