Community & Social Justice Education & Young People 2025
Youth Focus North West

The Impact of Youth Focus North West in Greater Manchester 2017–2023

Youth Focus North West (YFNW) is a Greater Manchester youth work infrastructure organisation that since 2017 has played a pivotal role in embedding youth voice and youth leadership across the Combined Authority's health, policing and children's services. This independent qualitative impact evaluation covers 2017–2023 and draws on 21 stakeholder interviews, a focus group and survey. Key outcomes include a 60% increase in qualified youth workers through YFNW-facilitated training, adoption of the Lundy Model of Child Participation across GMCA systems, and the establishment of the Greater Manchester Youth Combined Authority — considered the strongest of its kind nationally. YFNW holds seats on major strategic boards and has shifted youth voice from a tokenistic agenda item to a core governance requirement.

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📋About

Facilitation and convening of the Greater Manchester Youth Combined Authority (GMYCA); Young Inspectors programme for health services; Bee Heard mental health youth forum; Greater Manchester Mental Health Youth Board development; Lundy Model of Child Participation training and adoption across GMCA services; workforce development bursaries; Youth Alliance Greater Manchester cross-sector partnership; advocacy on health, policing and children's boards Custom geography from upload: Greater Manchester, UK

📊Key Metrics

70% of surveyed stakeholders agreed that capacity for youth work in terms of knowledge, skills and staff had grown since YFNW increased its presence in 2017 Key Metric 1
All surveyed organisations agreed they now place greater priority on youth voice; 73% attributed this directly to their work with YFNW Key Metric 2
Qualified youth workers in Manchester increased by approximately 60% through YFNW-facilitated Level 2 and 3 training bursaries over the period Key Metric 3

✅Key Outcomes

  • Lundy Model of Child Participation adopted across Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, GMCA Children's Plan and BeeWell survey commissioning — embedding young people's rights into statutory decision-making
  • GMYCA successfully challenged the Combined Authority's proposal to make the Our Pass (16–18 free travel pass) conditional on acceptable behaviour — a direct policy win driven by young people
  • YFNW secured seats on the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Executive, Mental Health Board, Systems Change Board and GM Police Advisory Board — embedding youth voice at the highest strategic levels

📍Geography

North West

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