Community of Practice

Highland C&YP Participation Strategy - Community of Practice Sessions

Community of Practice Session One - 03/03/2026

In our first Community of Practice session we welcomed Dr Bernadette Cairns (Principal Educational Psychologist and Chair of the Children's Rights and Participation Group), who shared why it is so important that we put participation in to practice in Highland, setting the local and national scene. Whilst also sharing the journey Highland has been on so far, and where we hope to go next.
Dr Cairns is joined by Lou Kinnear (Lead for Highland's Education Military Liaison Group for Armed Forces Families), who shared how she has been co-producing resources for these families with children with lived experience. A big thank you to pupils from Drakies Primary School who shared their involvement with us too.

Community of Practice Session Two - 30/03/2026

In our second Community of Practice session, we hear from Dr James McTaggart (Early Years Educational Psychologist) and Jo Chamberlain (Improvement Project Coordinator - Children's Rights and Participation). They share the research they undertook with children and young people, relating to the myths that adults sometimes hold about children's capacity.
In this session we hear how the Participation ROCCS tool has been co-designed with the children and how it supports practitioners and policy-makers to explore common adult myths about children's capacity, and how these myths can unintentionally block participation under the UNCRC. 

Through the voices of children and the fictional duo Callum and Mungo, the tool offers a safe, playful way to examine our assumptions, spark meaningful discussion, and strengthen rights-based practice. It's not about blame. It's about curiosity, care and ensuring effect for all voices 

Community of Practice Session Three - 30/04/2026

Our latest Community of Practice session welcomed Karen Gebbie-Smith (Aberdeen City Council Central ASN Team Support and Development) and Dr Maggie MacAskill (Strathclyde University) to share the development and learning behind the Visible Voices resource. Karen and Maggie speak about their work to support practitioners, services and organisations to better hear and understand the voices of children and young people whose communication, experiences or needs can sometimes be viewed as a barrier to their participation.

The session explores the importance of moving beyond tokenistic approaches to participation and instead creating inclusive, relationship-based opportunities for all children and young people to express their views in ways that work for them. Karen and Maggie highlight practical approaches, reflective practice and the responsibility of adults to adapt environments, communication and processes to ensure every child's voice can be recognised, valued and acted upon.

As well as the Visible Voices case study videos, there is a Padlet full of useful supporting information.