Prompted by Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, there is a growing number of examples of children and young people being involved in the policy process. To date this had not been matched by evaluation of the practice. This situation needs to change to ensure that existing experience provides learning for more widespread and more effective involvement. Using the development of the Irish National Children's Strategy for illustration, this article argues that the evaluation required must be more than monitoring. There is a need to get below the formal documented surface of participatory initiatives through developing analysis based in a critical perspective on both policy and evaluation.