Our vision, mission and values

Our vision

We see a world where every child enjoys a good childhood: a world where everyone accepts their responsibility for ensuring that children:

Are valued and loved in caring relationships, surrounded by friends and family;
Are respected and supported in communities that recognise all children for their unique and vital contribution;
Are free to be children, encouraged to play, explore and use their imagination.

We see a world where children have a safe place when they need one, are allowed to learn from their mistakes and where no child feels excluded, isolated or abandoned.

Our mission

We make childhood better for all children in the UK.

Our direct action stops children feeling excluded, isolated or abandoned.

We challenge injustice and influence the thinking of everyone - from the general public to politicians and decision makers - about what needs to change to improve the lives of children.

We turn children's lives around, helping them to avoid crisis, overcome hardship and live their lives with hope, optimism and confidence.

Our values

Our Christian values drive the work of The Children’s Society and are our motivation for working with children and young people.

We understand our Christian mission in terms of changing the society in which we live so that it models the values of the re-ordered world of the Kingdom of God. These values are love, justice and forgiveness. The greatest of these is love.

Love

Love is the obligation to care for the wellbeing of others, respect human dignity and put the needs of others before our own.

We have an obligation to ensure every child has a good childhood, as a person in their own right with rights
We care about our supporters, volunteers and staff and the impact that our activities have on them
We seek to build a world where every child has a place at its centre not on its margins

Justice

Justice is love in action – putting right what is wrong in personal, social and political affairs.

We listen and act upon the voice of the child helping them to find their own solutions so that a good childhood becomes a right and not a privilege
We actively seek out and embrace the richness that each person brings to our work, rejecting the things that diminish their contribution in any way
We seek to build a world where resources and power are distributed to the benefit of those denied a good childhood

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is the casting aside of the barriers to love. It is the discounting of all things that come between people, restoring and reconciling relationships.

We work to ensure that no child is disqualified from a good childhood
We do not allow our own or others’ differences of opinion, shortcomings or mistakes to come between us and those with whom we work
We seek to build a world where every child is allowed the freedom to explore, to make mistakes and to grow