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A Good Adult

We asked children and young people ‘What makes a good adult’?

Qualities & Values of a 'Good Adult'

  • Being kind, loving and caring
  • Showing maturity and consistency
  • Being supportive, nurturing and safe
  • Someone to trust who is empowering, believing, shows empathy and recognises strengths
  • Being responsible
  • Being fun, happy and positive

Actions of a 'Good Adult': 

  • The ability to support learning by explaining and breaking down information
  • Showing and being respectful
  • Listening
  • Supporting basic needs

Things that matter:

  • Children and young people want to feel safe around the adults they connect with. This involves aspects of trust however also a level of maturity and responsibility to support their needs.
  • Children and young people describe trust as the actions adults take to show they are reliable, safe and responsible. This involves all of the aspects of nurturing, empowerment and safety but also how we listen and engage with them as trusted adults.
  • Children and young people want adults to be kind, loving and caring with a special emphasis on believing them, recognising them and showing empathy.
  • Empowering
  • Children and young people described a good adult as someone who supports them and nurtures their individuality and respects differences as strengths.
  • Children and young people clearly define what their expectations of a good adult are and they use this in a way to explain how relationships become reciprocal. If adults demonstrate then children and young people will mimic this behaviour.

Things that made us think: Children and young people spoke so positively about adults who were able to be fun and enthusiastic and of those who demonstrate positive physical interactions through a hug or a fist pump. It made us think how easy is it as a professional to do this? Do we always bring this side of ourselves to work?