Local Voices, National Change

Local Voices, National Change is a five-year project launched in June 2026 supporting children and young people with lived experience of poverty to influence decisions that affect their lives – locally and nationally. Working with communities across England and Northern Ireland, the project builds and expands on NCB’s work connecting children and young people directly to local and national decision makers, enabling young people to shape policy developments, change systems and challenge the stigma of poverty.   

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Thanks to National Lottery players, the project is supported by £3.5m of life-changing funding from The National Lottery Community Fund and is informed by the input and guidance of young people, who helped identify key priorities and refine the approach on engagement. More than 1,000 children and young people across six local authorities in England and Northern Ireland will be engaged over the course of the project, with the aim of changing national child poverty policies and strategies to ensure that fewer children from across the UK are living in poverty. 

There are currently 4.5m children growing up in households that are below the poverty line and with the government’s new Child Poverty Strategy and Anti-Poverty Strategy in Northern Ireland, there is political momentum to address this urgent issue. 

However, the experiences of young people in poverty are rarely considered by local services or national decision makers, and through this funding, NCB is committed to amplifying those voices and ensuring they play a key role in shaping strategies and policies to eradicate child poverty once and for all. 

Local Voices, National Change aims to deliver the following outcomes: 

• More children and young people are given the confidence and skills to actively participate in the decisions that affect their lives and the places they live in, 
• Policies and services to reduce and eradicate child poverty  are more effective and relevant because they are underpinned by children and young people’s lived experience. 
• A shift toward a culture where marginalised children and young people’s voices are routinely listened to and act as partners with genuine agency. 
• A replicable, high-quality model for youth voice and influencing and evaluation and learning that the wider sector can adopt. 
• Stronger links between local services, councils, and national government, creating more effective systems for children and young people. 

This project builds on and extends NCB’s existing expertise and experience engaging children and young people in the issues that affect their lives. 

Annually, NCB engages around 1,400 children and young people, with approximately 150 involved in long -term advisory groups, reflecting a diversity of ages, ethnicities, and genders from across the UK. 

This work includes national participation events and training, public campaigns on the latest issues affecting children and young people, convening government advisory boards, providing experts-by-experience support to research studies, and informing our internal strategy. 

Alongside the extensive community-based engagement, Local Voices, National Change will involve two longstanding NCB groups:  

• Young Research Advisors, who will work with the evaluation / learning team.  
• Young NCB, members of which will sit on a dedicated advisory board for the duration of the project, meeting quarterly to provide oversight.

Over five years, Local Voices, National Change will focus on: 

• Youth voice and local delivery: facilitating over 400 engagement sessions with children and young people in local and familiar venues such as youth clubs; and children and young people planning and chairing annual public meetings with local authorities. 
• National policy and public affairs: children and young people contributing to parliamentary events in Westminster and Stormont; and working alongside civil servants to shape strategies and guidance and with NCB to translate lived experience into policy influence and impact. 
• Evaluation, learning and sharing: Children and young people design how the impact is measured using the Outcomes-Based Accountability model and share their views and ideas through a variety of channels; and a new model of policy development through community-based participation is created for future generations. 

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The project will be funded by The UK Fund, one of The National Lottery Community Fund’s significant commitments as part of its 2023-2030 strategy, ‘It starts with community’, which funds projects that help children and young people thrive – one of the funder’s four key missions.   

The six local authorities participating are Lambeth, Luton, Wigan and Northumberland in England, and Antrim & Newtownabbey and Fermanagh & Omagh in Northern Ireland.  

Regular updates and learnings from the project will be shared over the five years in a variety of formats, from webinars and in-person events, to blogs, newsletters, toolkits, video and podcasts, before a final report is published in 2031. 

Discover more about NCB's work involving children and young people