CRAE is a founding partner of Participation Works, the online gateway to children and young people's participation, which enhances access to law, policy and practice, as well as regional and national networks.

We supported children and young people to run a major children's rights investigation and to report their views and experiences direct to the United Nations. Our three-year Get ready for Geneva project, supported by the Big Lottery Fund, makes sure children and young people not only share their views and experiences, but also get to run their own campaigns.

For several years, we have lobbied for consultation rights for school students, to bring English education law and practice in line with Scotland and Wales and the rest of Europe.

Following our successful lobbying in 2004 for extra rights for children in contact with social workers, we have been pushing for statutory Children in Care Councils. First promoted by the Government in 2006, the Councils were not included in the Children and Young Persons Bill. After lobbying by CRAE, the Children's Minister Kevin Brennan has confirmed that every local authority will be expected to establish a Children in Care Council, and that Ofsted will monitor them from 2009.

We are trying to persuade the Government to enable young people to continue as Trustees of third sector organisations. Changes in the law due in October 2008 will prohibit under 16s from being company directors, including of incorporated charities, but regulations could exempt charities.

Our national co-ordinator has prepared a paper for the Council of Europe to increase the action taken by member states to promote and protect the participation rights of children and young people. Later this year, she will be speaking at a major conference on participation organised by the Council of Europe and the Swedish Government.

In July 2005, we launched our comprehensive participation training materials, called Ready Steady Change. Last year we published an overview of the impact the training materials have made in a variety of settings. The report is called ‘Training for change’ and can be downloaded from our publications section.