Running Middlesbrough’s largest ever young people survey with Young Researchers
The Brief
Middlesbrough Council wanted to find out what young people thought about the local area and hear from young people themselves about what could be improved to identify where there were opportunities to make meaningful change.
We teamed up with them to bring together Middlesbrough Young Researchers, a group of young people that would work in partnership with senior leaders as equals. The goal was to make Middlesbrough an amazing place for young people to grow up in for the next ten years, establishing young people as community leaders with an important purpose to contribute to the local community.
Through the project it was hoped that the Young Researchers would get real reward from being a part of the group, developing new skills, growing in confidence and finding fulfilment.
Solution
Through this project Participation People created Middlesbrough’s largest ever youth consultation, asking young people who live, work or study in Middlesbrough for their opinions on education, mental health services, support, employment opportunities and more.
Participation People’s key role was in upskilling the Young Researchers in how to project manage the consultations with other young people, developing their research skills to include non-leading and focused questions, creating surveys, hosting 121 interviews, running focus groups and analysing data.
The Young Researchers actively sought opinions from SEND and care-experienced young people by visiting SEND groups and leveraging partnerships with Children in Care councils. Participants in focus groups included a specialist SEND music youth group, three primary schools, and a number of youth projects.
With the resulting data, the Council could see what young people wanted from their town. As a next step, the Young Researchers – a team of 14 young people aged 12-18 – worked with senior council leaders to provide solutions to the key problems identified, including:
- A need for more accessible support and education around mental health and wellbeing, both in schools and within the community
- Needing council communication to young people to be targeted for relevant activities and events
- Young people asking for more involvement in community and school decision making
- Young people wanting to see more youth clubs available
- Safer streets in Middlesbrough needed for young people to feel more comfortable; beginning with more lighting to create safe places to socialise
- Needing cleaner environments, with a focus around litter and key areas such as the town centre being tidier
- Young people wanting more meaningful career advice
Project top tip: To get the best results from your project, ensure your young people work in partnership with senior leaders as equals.
Results
Responses were gathered from an incredible 2,600 young people, which is 11% of the young people in Middlesbrough.
As well as the 2,600 young people who live, work or study in Middlesbrough that were directly involved, the resulting changes will have an impact on many more young people in the future.
The Young Researchers themselves learned new skills, improved in confidence and got the chance to meet many important decision makers face to face. They rated themselves 92% confident by the end of the project, up from 84% at the beginning. Likewise, their time management skills increased from 82% to 88%, and the 70% of them able to adapt when things don’t go to plan, grew to 80%!
The final output from the project was a youth friendly report to read or watch on film highlighting what is working, not working and the gaps for young people today across Middlesbrough.
This was a really important piece of work for the council, which received interest from the CEO of the Council and the Mayor. It also highlighted a lot of difficulties for young people in Middlesbrough that key decision makers did not foresee.
Testimonial
Sue Butcher, Executive Director of Children’s Services Middlesborough
“The Participation People team is innovative, highly creative and brimming with enthusiasm for the work that they do with young people.
They have worked in partnership with Middlesbrough Children’s Services to strengthen how we listen to and value the voices of children and young people so that they truly influence the services they receive.
The way in which they delivered on their brief evidenced how deeply they care about young people.
Thank you Participation People. ‘Middlesbrough Children Matter.”
Impact
This project produced the largest ever Children and Young Person survey in Middlesbrough.
Participation People created innovative ways for young people of all backgrounds to have their voices heard, and the thousands of young people who answered got a unique chance to share their thoughts, opinions and suggestions of how best the council could improve their lives.
Young people who took part as Young Researchers got the chance to learn some new skills and learn what other young people thought, backed up by data. They were really excited by the chance to see change in their town and to influence decision makers!
Speak to one of our experts about Youth Led Research and how to make youth informed decisions every time.