Cardiff has proudly secured reaccreditation as a UNICEF Child Friendly City for a further three years, recognising the city’s continued progress in embedding children’s rights across services and decision-making, and its commitment to ensuring every child can thrive.
The reaccreditation, covering 2026–2029, reflects the sustained efforts of Cardiff Council and its partners to place children’s rights at the heart of policy, services and delivery across the city.
Cardiff was first awarded Child Friendly City status in 2023, the first city in the UK to achieve the prestigious international recognition, following several years of work through UNICEF UK’s Child Friendly Cities and Communities programme.
Since then, the council and its partners have continued to build on that foundation, embedding a child-rights-based approach across how the council operates, ensuring children’s voices are increasingly shaping decisions, and delivering tangible improvements in communities.
Progress to date
Over the past three years, significant achievements have been made, including:
- Embedding children’s rights into policy, services and decision-making — becoming “how the council does business.”
- Strengthening the voice and influence of children and young people, with active participation in governance, planning and key strategies.
- Expanding children’s rights education across the city, including strong engagement with the Rights Respecting Schools Award and workforce training.
- Creating more child-friendly neighbourhoods, with children’s views shaping improvements such as safer routes, parks and crossings.
- Increasing the use of evidence and Child Rights Impact Assessments to inform decision-making.
- Delivering innovative work to address inequality, including programmes focused on gender inclusion.
Top line stats:
- Over 84% of schools now engaged in rights-based education
- 82.5% of Council staff trained in children’s rights
- 2,000+ children engaged in shaping policies and services
- Thousands of participation hours contributed by young people including delivery of 286 high-quality
- participation opportunities and more than 6000 hours volunteered by young people
- Children influencing real change in planning, policy and services with over 1,000 children engaged through community mapping tools
Cardiff Council’s Leader Chris Weaver said:
“We are incredibly proud that Cardiff has been reaccredited as a UNICEF Child Friendly City. This achievement reflects years of commitment from the council, our partners and, most importantly, the children and young people who have helped shape our work.
“Being a Child Friendly City means putting children’s rights at the centre of everything we do – from how we design our services to how we plan our communities. Over the past three years we have made real progress, but this reaccreditation is also a call to go further.
“Our focus now is on ensuring that every child in Cardiff can see and feel the difference this work makes in their daily lives, and that their voices continue to lead the change we deliver as a city.”
Looking ahead
Over the next three years, Cardiff will focus on strengthening the impact of its work and ensuring that progress is clearly felt in children’s lived experiences with key priorities to include:
- Moving from activity to measurable outcomes, with stronger evaluation of impact.
- Strengthening youth influence by improving governance structures and demonstrating how young people’s input leads to real change.
- Tackling inequalities and disproportionality, particularly in areas such as youth justice and racial equity.
- Embedding children’s rights across leadership, including elected members and senior decision-makers.
- Delivering visible improvements in neighbourhoods that children can experience directly.
- Improving data, insight and transparency to better understand and address unequal experiences.
Cardiff’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Education, Cllr Sarah Merry recently visited Windsor Clive Primary School to congratulate them on their recent Gold Award Rights Respecting Schools award. She said,
“securing reaccreditation as a Child Friendly City is a significant milestone for Cardiff, but more importantly it reflects the real progress being made to improve children’s everyday experiences, “This work is about listening to children, understanding what matters to them, and making sure their rights are actively shaping the decisions we take across the council and with our partners.
As we move into the next phase, we are committed to strengthening that impact, ensuring that every child, in every community, benefits from a city that truly puts their needs, voices and rights first.”
Frances Bestley, Director of Programmes, UNICEF UK said:
“Cardiff’s renewed UNICEF Child Friendly City recognition is a fantastic achievement and reflects years of hard work across the city. It’s great to see children and young people helping shape local decisions and having a stronger voice in the decisions that affect their lives. This recognition is also a promise to keep listening to children and making sure every child – especially those facing the biggest challenges – is supported, valued and able to enjoy their rights.”