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AbstractChildren and young people's right to participate in decisions affecting their lives has received considerable attention in recent years; however, there is no fixed definition of what their involvement means in practice and there is no consensus regarding how to determine the level of involvement. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively investigate the involvement of vulnerable young people in their own case processing. Based on quantitative measures of young people's relationships to their caseworkers, how well informed they feel and how much influence they seem to have, we analysed how involved young people feel in their own case processing and we show significant differences in involvement using a combination of survey and administrative data. We found considerable co‐existence of poor well‐being and poor involvement. By sampling a large proportion of the total group, and by receiving answers from 2334 young people, corresponding to one in five of all vulnerable young people in either out‐of‐home care or receiving in‐home preventive care, we are able to show significant differences in involvement. Consequently, we argue that questionnaire‐based surveys can help nuance the understanding of involvement challenges.