A Place in Childhood

Name

A Place in Childhood

Legal name

A Place in Childhood CIC

Website

https://aplaceinchildhood.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Urban Planning & Youth Participation Consultancy

NAICS

Educational Services (611), Child and Youth Services (62411)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

In-Service Professional Development (Workshops/Institutes/Short Courses) (EDACAIAB)

Keywords

• Child-friendly urban planning
• Youth participation research
• Participatory action research
• Co-design consultancy
• Placemaking advisory services

Headquarters

HQ city

Edinburgh

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Research & Evaluation Services: Commissioned research projects assessing child-friendliness of planning policy, COVID-19 impact studies, and other research initiatives for government bodies and institutions.
2. Training & Consultancy: Training courses, coaching, and consultancy services for organizations working with children and young people on placemaking, planning, and participation.
3. Placemaking & Planning Services: Consultancy services helping local authorities and organizations create youth-friendly places, policy, services and environments through co-design and youth panels.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

A Place in Childhood is a Scotland-based social enterprise (CIC) that delivers commissioned research, evaluation, placemaking, co-design and training services to help public-sector and third-sector clients embed the voices of children and young people in planning policy, place design, and services. Its work spans participatory action research projects (such as #ScotYouthandCOVID and the RTPI Child Friendly Planning in the UK report), co-design and youth panel facilitation, and capacity-building training and consultancy.

Product overview

A Place in Childhood (APiC) is a consultancy and research organization (CIC) offering four core service lines: Research & Evaluation, Placemaking & Planning, Co-Design & Youth Panels, and Training & Consultancy. These services are delivered through projects including the landmark Child Friendly Planning Report (commissioned by the RTPI), the #ScotYouthandCOVID longitudinal participatory action research project, the Place Standard Tool for Children and Young People (co-created with Play Scotland), play research with Starlight Children's Foundation, the National Children's Charter for School Age Childcare (with Scottish Government), and the Playful Pedagogy Toolkit. APiC does not offer a software product or platform; all offerings are professional services, research publications, and tools produced through participatory engagement with children and young people.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Research & Evaluation Social research and evaluation services focused on children and young people, including participatory action research, ethnographic studies and policy-focused research on topics such as COVID-19 impacts and play environments. Delivered for government bodies, charities and institutions.
• Placemaking & Planning Urban planning and placemaking consultancy that embeds children's voices in the design and planning of child-friendly places, including Local Place Plans and development frameworks for local authorities and organisations.
• Co-Design & Youth Panels Facilitation of youth panels and co-design processes that enable children and young people to meaningfully participate in shaping policies, services and environments that affect them.
• Training & Consultancy Professional development and advisory services that build organisational capacity for rights-based practice with children and young people, including coaching, workshops and training courses for organisations and practitioners.
• Place Standard Tool for Children and Young People A licensed/co-created instrument enabling children and young people to assess and shape the quality of their local environments, used by local authorities and planning bodies across Scotland.

Quantifiable outcome

• 125 children aged 4-12 from 6 locations across Scotland co-created local children's charters, leading to a National Charter for School Age Childcare
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerRTPI commissioned APiC to lead a research report assessing the child-friendliness of planning policy across the UK. The report was launched at the 'Toward the Child-Friendly City' international conference in November 2019 and published as a report and practice note.
• ZCD ArchitectscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with Dinah Bornat, co-director at ZCD Architects and Design Advocate of the Mayor of London, for the Child Friendly Planning in the UK research report. The project was led jointly by Dr Jenny Wood (APiC) and Dinah Bornat (ZCD Architects).
• Play ScotlandcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to co-create new versions of the Place Standard Tool for children and young people across Scotland in 2019-20. Also partnered for National Children's Charter for School Age Childcare project involving 125 children.
• Starlight Children's FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerConducted ethnographic research across 2022-2023 with Starlight Children's Foundation to understand the power of play for children who are unwell in hospitals. Worked with hospital play teams, children, families, and staff.
• Shetland Islands CouncilcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership on the Children and Teenagers' Westside Plan 2025, transforming community planning by centring voices of children and teenagers through experiential mapping, creative workshops, and inclusive dialogue.
• Scottish GovernmentcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnered with Scottish Government to visit schools and young carers groups to co-create local children's charters for school age childcare. 125 children aged 4-12 participated across six locations.
• Children and Young People's Commissioner ScotlandcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSupported APiC's COVID-19 project with Scottish children and young people, commissioning reassembly of project teams for workshops on pandemic experiences. Resulted in 34 Asks to Scottish Government.
• Scottish Government (Place Standard Implementation Partnership)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPlace Standard Implementation Partnership includes NHS Health Scotland, Architecture & Design Scotland, and Scottish Government. APiC and Play Scotland led development of Children's and Young People's Place Standard Tools.
• Sustrans ScotlandminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for urban design sessions at Tynecastle High School using Cities: Skylines game, and Minecraft pilot placemaking project in north-east Glasgow.
• Children's ParliamentminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerBuilds on relationships formed with children through Children's Parliament Imagining Aberdeen programme for COVID-19 research recruitment.
• Leith Community Crops in PotsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommunity organization that helped with recruitment for Team Edinburgh in the COVID-19 project with Scottish children and young people.
• HarrisonStevensminorOthersLandscape architecture firm where Board Director Daniela Miler works as a project landscape architect, involved in public realm, active travel, and community-led design schemes.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Regional players

• Children's Neighbourhoods Scotland: Scottish initiative supporting place-based approaches to improving children's outcomes. Operates in the same Scotland-only geography as APiC and shares an interest in child-rights-based place-making, but is more focused on service-system integration than research and consultancy.

Emerging players

• Kids Code Jeunesse: Canadian non-profit combining research, advocacy, and participatory practice for children's wellbeing and digital inclusion. Compares to APiC as a small, mission-driven children-and-youth research and advocacy organisation, though focused on different thematic areas.

Broad incumbents

• Bernard van Leer Foundation: International foundation funding urban initiatives for young children. While operating as a funder rather than consultancy, its publications (Urban95, Early Childhood Matters) shape the same child-friendly cities discourse that APiC's Child Friendly Planning report contributes to.
• Mott MacDonald: Large UK-headquartered engineering, management, and development consultancy with public-sector planning and social-research capabilities. Competes for similar local-authority consultancy budgets though children's participation is not its core focus.
• Arup: Global engineering and design consultancy with a sizeable social-impact and urban-planning practice. Overlaps with APiC in child-inclusive placemaking and participatory design, but as a small slice of a much broader portfolio of services.

Direct peers

• Project for Public Spaces: US-based non-profit placemaking organisation that works with communities to improve public spaces. Comparable to APiC's Placemaking & Planning service line, with similar participatory methodology and a focus on under-served users of public space, though operating at much larger scale.
• Play England: England-focused charity advocating for children's right to play and supporting child-friendly environments. Closest peer within the four UK nations to APiC, addressing similar policy, planning, and participation issues but in a different national jurisdiction.
• The Young Foundation: UK-based social research and innovation organisation that runs participatory research with communities and develops social-ventures. Comparable to APiC's Research & Evaluation and Co-Design service lines, with a similarly small core team and project-based model serving government and charitable clients.
• Involve: UK public participation specialist that designs and delivers participatory processes for policy-making. Directly comparable to APiC's Co-Design & Youth Panels practice, with shared customer base in UK government and local authorities seeking citizen voice methodologies.
• Gehl: Urban planning and design consultancy focused on people-centred, human-scale cities. Gehl's mission of making cities more liveable for all residents — including children — directly parallels APiC's child-friendly placemaking practice, though Gehl operates at significantly larger scale across global markets.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/PlaceChildhood
• Facebookfacebook.com/aplaceinchildhood
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/a-place-in-childhood
• Instagraminstagram.com/apic_aplaceinchildhood

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about A Place in Childhood