Lived experience partnerships toolkit: With children and families in mind

The Lived experience partnerships toolkit was designed to support organisations and staff set up for, and implement, lived and living experience partnerships with children and families in relation to mental health and wellbeing.

‘Lived experience’ is used in this toolkit to mean lived and living experience with a child and family lens. This might could include engaging with children, parents, caregivers and other family members who may be biologically related or not.

The toolkit is designed to be a practical resource with easy-to-follow instructions, to be used in any service: adult, child or family-focused. Children and families can be made visible in all these services, making it possible to improve outcomes for all.

The Lived experience partnerships toolkit also features:

• quotes from people engaged in this work for you to consider
• reflection questions for you to think about and apply to your context or organisation
• videos which explore processes and ideas in more depth. Each video is divided into sections, making it easy to navigate to those most relevant to you.
• practice examples which demonstrate some of the different ways organisations have engaged in lived and living experience partnerships with a child and family focus.

The toolkit is structured around a process that includes the following core steps:

1. Foundational understanding
2. Organisational preparedness
3. Choosing your approach and methodology
4. Planning and connecting
5. Child voice
6. Parent and family voice
7. Engaging
8. Honouring and responding to lived experience voices
9. Review your process and outcomes

It also includes practice examples a list of recommended resources.

This toolkit can be used at any phase of a project from commissioning, scoping, planning, design, development, delivery, review and evaluation.

If lived experience work is new to you, you might follow the steps in this process closely. If you are familiar with it, you might simply refer to it as needed.

All the steps in this process are interrelated. Some might be done at the same time. Some steps might be revisited multiple times. The process is not always linear.

If you are interested in trialling this toolkit, we would love to connect with you – contact us to express your interest.

This toolkit has a step on child voice practice with some tailored guidance. However, implementation of the whole toolkit will best support meaningful, ethical and effective child voice activities.

Throughout the toolkit, where there are considerations that apply only to children and not adults, you’ll see the child pictured left/above.

This toolkit is part of a broader landscape of national and state commitment to incorporating lived experience into the design and delivery of services a structured way. As practical guide to strengthening relationships with children and families with lived experience, this toolkit can be used as a standalone resource – however, if you are interested in exploring what other information is available, we have included links to other useful resources.

In addition, significant work is underway to develop and strengthen lived experience workforces. For guidance, refer to the National Lived Experience (Peer) Workforce Development Guidelines, which includes a section on stages of development. A suite of companion documents to the guidelines offers a self-assessment tool for employers plus information specifically for:

• mental health service managers and human resource managers
• mental health organisation governance and executives
• Primary Health Networks.

Many states and territories also have local frameworks you can refer to.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lived Experience Advocates

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lived experience recognises the ongoing negative impacts of historical policies, practices and events on the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It encompasses the cultural, spiritual, physical, emotional and mental wellbeing of the individual, family and Community.

Children and families with lived and living experience

Children, parents, caregivers and families have lived and living experience. This means the wisdom gained throughout life based on a person’s, and their family’s, experience in and of the world, both past and present.

People’s experiences and knowledge are influenced by personal and family history, development, culture, identities, relationships, perspectives, choices, and interactions with services and systems.

Taking a child- and family-focused perspective involves understanding the unique needs, experiences, and contexts of both children and their families. This approach emphasises the importance of relationships, shared understanding and connectedness within and outside the family to promote mental health and wellbeing.

Lived and living experience are legitimate forms of evidence. The knowledge children, parents, caregivers and families gain through their experiences is integral to improving systems and services for others.

This definition may feel insufficient for people with lived and living experience from non-Western perspectives and may require exploration with communities from their unique cultural and historical experiences.

Lived and living experience expertise

This often requires shifting from a personal approach to a more collective leadership style, and may involve mentorship and other forms of support, particularly in order to retain a child and family focus.

Moving to expertise also involves having connection to and drawing from the lived experience movement and collective body of lived experience knowledge, centred on human rights and social justice (Hodges et al., 2023).

Lived and living experience partnerships

Lived and living experience partnerships involve the relationships and processes between children and families, and services and systems.

To be defined as a partnership, the relationship must involve multiple, interdependent, two-way engagements that share knowledge to inform and transform systems and services. They recognise, respect and value all partners’ knowledge and expertise equally. Partnerships focus on a shared vision and the achievement of a common goal.

Partnerships between people with lived and living experience, governments, services and other stakeholders, seek to understand each other’s philosophies, language, culture and context. They acknowledge and address power imbalances, and are accountable, flexible and sustainable.

Acknowledging and addressing power imbalances can include reflecting on where power sits in:

• how decisions are made
• how strategies and agendas are set
• what mental models or ways of thinking are used and why.

Jointly developed agreements and an equitable sharing of resources support partnerships.

Partnerships actively acknowledge the past harms that services and systems have caused. They dismantle entrenched power inequities, stereotypes and discrimination. Partnerships cultivate trust to enable an effective way of working together.

‘Realising genuine partnerships takes time and commitment.’

Lived experience recognition

A verbal lived experience recognition can be done in every meeting. The recognition can be said in a person’s own words to enhance authenticity. Acknowledgement of Country is always first, followed by housekeeping and introductions, followed by the lived experience recognition. Referring to it as a ‘recognition’ (not an acknowledgement) and not speaking it immediately after the Acknowledgment of Country ensures we respect the cultural specificity of the Acknowledgment of Country.

Version for meetings with people who have lived experience

We recognise the children, young people and adults within families and diverse communities with many and varied lived experiences who have come before us and led the way for this group to be here working today. And we thank everyone here today bringing their unique lived experience and contributing their expertise, for which we are grateful.

We appreciate the experiences of people whose pain, trauma and heartache, including harmful systemic practices, require recognition and compassion. We recognise the strengths and know-how that children and families have drawn on to navigate difficult times. And we respect the skills people have developed to contribute their lived experience. We are committed to deeply listening and responding with integrity to their voices and expertise.

Version for adapting and use at a variety of meetings

We invite one another to recognise the children, young people and adults within families and diverse communities with many and varied lived experiences who have come before us. We appreciate the experiences of people whose pain, trauma and heartache, including harmful systemic practices, require recognition and compassion. We recognise the strengths and know-how that children and families have drawn on to navigate difficult times. And we respect the skills people have developed to contribute their lived experience. We are committed to deeply listening and responding with integrity to their voices and expertise.

Parents and families

We acknowledge that families come in many forms and reflect a wide diversity of structures, relationships and cultures. Children are raised within a range of caregiving relationships, which may include biological, adoptive, foster and kinship parents and carers, grandparents, siblings, extended family, and other significant people who share in raising a child. When we use the term ‘parent’ we mean it inclusively, to reflect anyone who has taken up primary or shared responsibility for a child.

We also acknowledge that every child and every family is unique, with their own strengths, relationships, cultures and experiences that shape health, wellbeing and development.

Family

Family is a dynamic and evolving unit that provides emotional, physical, social and financial support, regardless of biological or legal ties. Families under stress might not always look ‘good’ to others from the outside, but even under stress, families can be a source of strength and resilience, where every member, including children, is contributing in unique ways.

Childhood

Childhood is characterised by significant growth, learning and exploration, with play and imagination playing central roles. It is a period marked by reliance on caregivers, which fosters bonds, trust and establishes the foundation for future development.

During this time, children experience intense physical, social and emotional development. Initially, their world is small and they are at its centre; this gradually expands to include a broader circle of reference and interdependence. Play serves as the primary activity of a child, acting as the means through which they understand and interpret their world.

Safe enough and accountable spaces

Due to past experiences of harm, some people feel unsafe regardless of the setting they’re in. Additionally, completely safe spaces are impossible to create because we can’t predict other people’s thoughts and behaviours. Therefore, creating an environment in which individuals feel ‘safe enough’ becomes the aim of those trying to create positive, meaningful environments that allow for vulnerability and authenticity (Hodges et al., 2023).

In lived experience partnerships, power imbalances are inevitable. Staff in an organisation will always hold positions of power. And in a group of people with lived experience, there will also be dynamic but unequal power relations, which staff have a responsibility to attend to. Having accountable spaces starts with being clear and transparent about these realities and remaining vigilant for inadvertent abuses of power and ways to redistribute power.

The article Safe and brave spaces don’t work (and what you can do instead) provides some additional reflections and a practical checklist.

Non-judgemental spaces

A non-judgemental space is an environment where individuals can express themselves freely without fear of criticism, assumptions or negative evaluation. This type of space is characterised by empathy, active listening, acceptance, and allowing people to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences openly.

This toolkit was developed in partnership with children, families, lived experience leaders and practitioners from the Children of Parents with a Mental Illness (COPMI) national initiative (2008–2016) and the Emerging Minds: National Workforce Centre for Child Mental Health (2017 onwards).

The voices and experiences of children and families heavily inform all aspects of this toolkit. It has been built on many years of working in this space and we thank all those who have generously contributed their time and knowledge. Yours are the shoulders upon which future generations of lived experience leaders will stand.

We would also like to thank the stakeholders and reviewers of this toolkit for their generous contributions of time and knowledge, especially Becca Allchin from Monash University.

References

1. Black Dog Institute & Better Mental Health. (n.d.). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lived Experience Centre [Web page]. Accessed 7 April 2025.
2. Hodges, E., Leditschke, A., & Solonsch, L. (2023). The Lived Experience Governance Framework: Centring people, identity and human rights for the benefit of all. LELAN (SA Lived Experience Leadership & Advocacy Network) for the National Mental Health Consumer and Carer Forum and the National PHN Mental Health Lived Experience Engagement Network, Mental Health Australia.