November Children’s Rights Month 2026

We want Cheshire East to be a great place to be young, a place that respects and champions the rights of all children and young people, encouraging them to express their views and be actively involved in decisions that affect their lives.

So we dedicate the whole month of November to raising awareness of children’s rights and making it clear to children and young people that we value their opinions.

For November Children’s Rights Month (NCRM) 2026, young people from across Cheshire East have chosen the overarching theme of Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which states that “governments must do all they can to ensure that children are protected from all forms of violence, abuse, neglect and bad treatment by their parents or anyone else who looks after them.” Cheshire East Youth Council’s focus will be an extension of the Hate Stops Here and Safe Space Reminders launched over the last couple of years and will work together to focus on developing resources on this topic from July to September 2026. 

Young people from across Cheshire East have chosen to focus on Article 19 of the UNCRC because it has clear links to 'Crime and Safety'. In February 2024 around 7500 11 to 18 year-olds in Cheshire East took part in a ballot called Make Your Mark and voted for Crime and Safety as the most important topic. Crime and Safety and Article 19 have clear links to the areas that young people are passionate about including the priority of developing safe spaces for children and young people to be children and young people.

The aims of the campaign are to do the following:

• Raise awareness of children’s rights – provide opportunities for children and young people to engage and have their voices heard.
• Support professionals from across our partnerships (senior managers, teachers, youth workers, health professionals etc) to have resources and skills to support children and young people to share their voices and experiences in order to create positive change.
• Build and extend on Hate Stops Here and the Safe Space Reminders campaign from 2024 to 2025 so that young people can develop resources based on Article 19 for professionals to use in their practice.
• Provide further opportunities for professionals to work TOGETHER with children and young people.
• Use as a platform to promote the new Children and Young People’s Participation Strategy (PDF, 4.5MB) for Children’s Services.
• Raise awareness and embed the Lundy Model of Participation – for frontline practitioners and senior managers. 

Opportunities you could take to recognise and celebrate children’s rights

You can support NCRM by selecting one or more of the opportunities set out below. These have been put together to enable children and young people to influence the decisions that affect their lives.

Opportunity 1 - Takeover Day
 

Offer an opportunity to put a child or young person into a decision-making position for the day. Give children and young people the chance to experience the world of work and allow them to influence the way your team or organisation delivers the services they receive. 

Opportunity 2 - Receive and use the Article 19 Scenario Card Resources in your setting
 

Cheshire East Youth Council invite you to receive and use their scenario card resources in your setting. The cards will include various topics to help navigate safe conversation with young people including healthy relationships, neglect, exploitation, grooming, substance misuse and violence against women and girls.

Opportunity 3 – Attend an informal online learning session
 

Please attend one of the three informal online learning session delivered by the Participation Team. The dates and times are: 

• 3rd November: 12pm to 1pm 
• 18th November: 12pm to 1pm
• 24th November: 12pm to 1pm 

The training will be part of the Cheshire East Safeguarding Children’s Partnership training programme. 

During this session you will:

• Hear what is important to our children and young people around having their views heard.
• Develop awareness and understanding of the Lundy Model of Participation.
• Find out about the new Participation Strategy and how you can be involved.
• Learn about Cheshire East Youth Council’s toolkit to have safe conversations with young people in your settings.

It’s really simple to take part in NCRM:

Complete the NCRM online form and the participation team will send you all of the information you need.

At the end of November the Participation Team will contact you and ask you to complete a short feedback form to develop future campaigns.

Please also show your support for the campaign by adding the NCRM logo (JPG, 189KB) to your email signature.

Other events taking place during NCRM 2026

Here is a timeline of some of the proposed events and opportunities for children and young people during NCRM:

• National Care Leaver Month #NCLM26 (various dates across the month) – celebration opportunities for Care Leavers, Participation Team will take a lead on the supporting Care Leavers to lead the Local Offer review event. This year’s theme is Leading the Way: From Experience to Empowerment. National Care Leavers' Month - Become
• Article 19 Campaign Resource Launch – young people wish to launch their campaign resources across the month of November, in the form of informal sessions and interactive activities.
• Take Over Day (across November) – our ask is that all teams and services that work with children and young people in Cheshire East offer a Take Over Day opportunity to the children and young people that access their service. The Take Over Day must include opportunities to shadow and make recommendations/meaningful change to the services they receive. Traditionally a National Take Over Day was on the last Friday of the month however young people have asked for opportunities across the month to make it more flexible. The Participation Team proposes that in preparation for Takeover day we will work with services across local authority to prioritise Care Experienced Young People for Takeover day as an opportunity to experience employment within the council – this has clear links to the theme of this year’s National Care Leaver Month.
• Youth Work Week (2nd to 8th November) – a week to celebrate the impact and value of Youth Work, this year’s theme is 'Where Futures Begin'. Youth Work Week 2026: Where Futures Begin - National Youth Agency
• Universal Children’s Day 20th November
• Star Celebration Day 22nd November – a day to celebrate the achievements of our cared for children over the last 12 months.

Events that took place in 2025

In 2025 the theme was based on Article 31 of the UNCRC, which states that “every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.” Cheshire East Youth Council’s focus was on safe spaces for young people with an aim to develop artwork which depicts what a safe space is or means for young people. The campaign was an extension of the 'Hate Stops Here' campaign which was developed by young people in 2024 to educate and raise awareness of Hate Crime and Discrimination after young people in Cheshire East said that 'Crime and Safety' was the most important topic to them in Make Your Mark back in February 2024.

Opportunities: Opportunities that young people designed for professionals and young people to take part in were Takeover Day, Voice of the Child Conference, create artwork on what safe means to them and embedding a new Safe Space Reminders which was developed by the youth council.

Events that took place in 2024

In 2024 the opportunities were based on Article 29 of the UNCRC which states that “Children’s education should help them fully develop their personalities, talents and abilities. It should teach them to understand their own rights, and to respect other people’s rights, cultures and differences. It should help them to live peacefully and protect the environment.”

2024’s focus was on education connected to hate crime and discrimination after young people in Cheshire East said that 'Crime and Safety' was the most important topic to them in the 11 to 18 year old youth ballot Make Your Mark back in February 2024.

Some of the events and opportunities included: Cheshire East Youth Council launched the Hate Stops Here Campaign, professionals from across the borough took part in participation training to further embed our rights-based approach and Senior Managers offered Takeover Days to our children and young people. 

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