This paper considers children’s participation in CP legislative and policy frameworks of Bulgaria, Ireland, Malta, Norway and Serbia. It proceeds by detailing the extent to which children are heard and facilitated with access to participate in practice. These five countries have been selected given the varying historical and current legislation in place and the related policies and practices in which CP frameworks and child participation are embedded in the different contexts. Whilst bearing in mind the limitations that arise when comparing cross national data, the paper addresses a gap in the literature by bringing to the fore the various trends related to child participation in the context of child protection across different European countries. This gap between the policies and practice demands our attention, since the meaningful participation of children in CPS has been linked to positive outcomes and a protective factor for children (Kosher et al., 2020, Woodman et al., 2023).