Protocol- seeing through children’s eyes: children’s experiences of participation in the oversight of foster care and kinship care services - a qualitative systematic review

Foster and Kinship care settings serve globally as critical environments for children and young people who are unable to reside with their biological families due to various child welfare reasons. Despite UNCRC (1989) article 12 promotion internationally, evidence suggests that child participation, in processes such as inspection, evaluation and oversight within foster care and kinship care, is often tokenistic, or in some cases, absent.

This review will adopt Lundy’s (2007) model of participation as a lens, applying the four key elements of space, voice, audience and influence to guide the analysis of the included literature, and the interpretation of children’s lived experiences of rights, voice and participation in foster care and kinship care care oversight processes.

The review hopes to generate a clearer and more child‑centred understanding of how oversight processes are experienced by children themselves, illuminating the extent to which their rights, voices and perspectives are recognised, heard and acted upon. By reviewing and analysing this evidence, the review aims to inform more equitable, responsive and rights‑respecting oversight practices, supporting the broader policy shift toward embedding children’s lived experiences at the heart of foster care and kinship care oversight.

The review is conducted parallel to a separate review for Residential care settings