The Children's Panel, consisting of between 10 to 20 children, plays an important and active role in shaping and facilitating the activities of the Platform.
Who is on the Panel?
Children were nominated and/or selected from Save the Children and SOS Children's Villages’ existing child participation networks and groups in 14 Member States.
16 children, aged 14-17 years old, from Spain, Sweden, Lithuania, Denmark, Romania, Netherlands, Germany, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Latvia make up the current Panel.
What does the Panel do?
The Children's Panel has a consultative, co-creation and validation role.
- Contributes to and provides consultation on the organisation of the Platform’s activities;
- Provides input to the Platform's Work Plan;
- Helps to scope the approach, format and thematic priorities of Platform consultations;
- Helps to co-create child-friendly documents for the Platform;
- Reviews and helps scope child-friendly legal and policy documents;
- Provides input on aspects of the Platform's communications and messaging.
As the Panel plays a crucial role in shaping the Platform, their voices need to be heard and documented clearly, and to be shared with other people in the Platform Secretariat and the European Commission.
To do this, their monthly online meetings are facilitated by the Child Protection Officers. The Panel also has in-person sessions to work together with adults on the co-facilitation of major meetings.