This article is based on a study of children's participation in decisions when they are looked after by local authorities in England and Wales, which included individual and group interviews with 47 children. In the course of the research, children and their carers talked about their very varied experiences of involvement in decision-making, not just in the care system but in everyday life. The article recounts some of these experiences using children's own words, and explores some ways in which such rich and diverse material can be understood using provisional typologies.
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