How three ICSs are working with children and young people to influence their work

Chilypep are commissioned by the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Children and Young People’s Alliance to help coordinate and facilitate opportunities for children and young people to engage in and influence the work of the Alliance, and the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board. They work in collaboration with all South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw partners, under the umbrella of the Children and Young People’s Alliance, to improve the lives of children, young people, and their families.  

Chilypep raise and amplify the voices of children and young people so they can influence the health and wellbeing strategies and services that affect them and be empowered to challenge health inequalities. They lead on a number of activities in South Yorkshire ICS, including: 

• Engagement and participation to ensure children and young people are included in the design and shaping of services;
• Co-developing resources with children and young people; and
• Co-design of and participation in conferences.

South Yorkshire Children and Young People’s Alliance led a pilot intervention to test a new approach to developing targeted solutions that meet both local and system-wide needs.

To shape the intervention, the Children and Young People’s Alliance undertook a comprehensive engagement process across sectors, reviewing:

• Insights from young people;
• Data aligned with CHEC priorities; and
• National and local research to strengthen the evidence base.

This engagement was a key driver in the intervention’s design. The Alliance committed to building on what young people identified as mattering most to them: creating safe spaces, supporting psychological safety, and prioritising mental and emotional wellbeing. The resulting intervention was designed to be flexible, adaptable, and responsive to the needs and contexts of children and young people.

The intervention focused on supporting Year 5 children (aged 9–10) in Rotherham who were experiencing challenges with school engagement, including regular absence and difficulty participating in learning.

Key features of the intervention:

• Weekly after-school youth group in accessible community locations.
• Partnership with Rotherham United Community Trust (RUCT), a VCSE organisation with deep local roots.
• Safe physical and psychological space where children could build trusting relationships with trained youth workers.
• Co-produced activities focused on developing key life skills encouraging open conversations around emotional wellbeing.

Two small groups of children each participated over a six-month period. Recruitment was facilitated by youth workers with established relationships in local schools in deprived neighbourhoods, helping overcome initial engagement barriers and ensuring the intervention reached underserved communities.

The intervention was guided by a child-centred and creative ethos, with activities designed to be:

• Interactive and engaging, using games, creative exercises, and visual tools;
• Iterative, allowing for continuous learning and adaptation; and
• Based on a listening-first principle, where lack of engagement was seen as a prompt to adjust the approach.

This relationship-based approach sparked meaningful conversations and sustained engagement.

Delivery was treated as an ongoing learning process, using each interaction to understand what worked and what didn’t. This iterative approach allowed the team to refine both the intervention itself and the evaluation methods throughout the programme, ensuring that the work stayed rooted in young people’s voices and experiences.

Evaluation was flexible and evolved between the two groups based on real-time feedback. It included perspectives from parents, carers, and schools, which influenced delivery improvements.

Key approaches to evaluation included:

• Cultural and linguistic sensitivity, such as: 
  • Adapting tools and delivery to ensure meaningful communication, such as facilitating parent/carer involvement through relaxed “Cake and Chat” sessions, due to low number of responses to translated written materials.
• Creative child-led techniques, such as:
  • A video “press conference” format where children were interviewed in a sports media style.
  • A picture card method, adapted from Sheffield Hallam University, using visual prompts to explore key questions in a child-friendly way.

The South Yorkshire Children and Young People’s Alliance has further embedded children and young people’s voice and engagement into its ongoing work programme. Every project plan includes a dedicated section on children and young people’s involvement, underpinned by the Lundy Model of Participation, ensuring that engagement is considered from the outset. 

There is an ambition for the learning from this pilot to drive a strategic shift in commissioning services for children and young people, starting with triangulating the Child Health Equity framework, data, and insights. 

Beyond partnered with Youth Focus North West, a voluntary organisation, to deliver training across the ICS on the Lundy Model of Participation. The training was delivered to colleagues including from health, education, local authorities, and the VCSE sector. It focused on the core principles of meaningful engagement with children and young people, offering practical tools to embed participation in everyday practice.

NHS Cheshire and Merseyside’s involvement in the CHEC has provided a springboard to cementing the importance of children and young people’s voices and influence. An open call to young people was made, with participation leads across the area sharing the opportunity through their networks. Every applicant was interviewed, resulting in a highly dedicated group of young people who have been involved in the CHEC. These young people have built strong, trusted relationships with the programme team, supported with dedicated time from a programme manager. All young people were affiliated with local youth groups, which ensured that they received ongoing support in their roles as Health Equity Champions and were able to take discussion topics back to their groups and bring feedback into the programme.

Over time, our Health Equity Champions have become a trusted core group who are regularly approached to contribute to strategic conversations across the ICS. They have been key contributors to the ICB Children and Young People’s Committee, led by the ICS chair, which provides a dedicated space for driving improvement in outcomes for children and young people.

The engagement activity seeking to find out what matters to children and young people, led through the CHEC, has enabled young people’s voices to be heard across a range of strategic issues in the ICB: 

• Consultation on the 10-year plan in Cheshire and Merseyside included the views of 73 young people, including the Health Equity Champions. Young people’s views were gathered and their views were submitted to NHS England.
• Young people have played a visible and influential role in the delivery of regional CYP conferences and events. They have been keynote speakers, shared the findings from the consultation with young people for the CHEC, co-produced animations and poetry based on their lived experience, facilitated workshops, chaired meetings with NHSE showcasing the work of Cheshire and Merseyside and created visual minutes of events. 

Key to the focus on children and young people’s views within the ICB has been strong leadership and commitment at the strategic level. The Children’s Committee has been clear in the need for children, young people and families to be heard and this provides a golden thread to meetings. This sets the tone and expectations within the system.

In addition, dedicated resource is needed to ensure this engagement is meaningful for the young people, parents, carers, and professionals alike. Attendance at meetings is the product of a range of preparatory work, to support the Champions to feel confident within the settings and relationships. Time is also needed to de-brief afterwards and follow up on actions. Beyond has allocated dedicated project manager time for engagement. They have played a pivotal role in establishing and sustaining strong relationships with the Health Equity Champions. Each young person is carefully prepared ahead of participation events, with meeting information shared ahead of time to allow each young person to feel fully prepared, confident and included in the process. The project manager work with the young people to provide the space to reflect afterwards. 

This approach ensures they feel confident and informed when contributing. This ongoing cycle of preparation, support, feedback, and improvement has been key to maintaining engagement and continually strengthening the participation process. 

Looking ahead

To ensure an ongoing commitment to giving all children and young people equitable opportunities to have their voices heard, a co-produced participation framework has been developed. This draws on learning from the CHEC and best practice across the system and will support professionals to embed engagement. It will promote consistency, build shared understanding, and raise the quality of participation practice across the region.

To ensure an ongoing commitment to giving all children and young people equitable opportunities to have their voices heard, a co-produced participation framework has been developed. This draws on learning from the CHEC and best practice across the system and will support professionals to embed engagement. It will promote consistency, build shared understanding, and raise the quality of participation practice across the region.

Initial recruitment efforts, led by a dedicated engagement lead, targeted local youth clubs, but progress was limited due to the need to build trust with young people. Building on this experience, recruitment expanded to develop a prepared group of young people ready for meaningful engagement. This included collaboration with more than 30 careers advisors across secondary schools, creating trusted relationships in education to reach young people motivated to contribute and take on leadership roles. 

The dedicated engagement lead has been a key enabler in Birmingham and Solihull. This role has evolved into a central point of contact for professionals and schools seeking youth input, providing clarity and consistency that have been instrumental in establishing effective routes for youth involvement across the ICS. 

The approach taken focuses on: 

• Workshops and events where young people identify issues that matter to them.  

• Leadership opportunities, including presenting ideas, hosting events, and taking on ambassador roles. 

• Confidence-building through applied improvisation, drawing on performance principles such as active listening, adaptability, and co-creation. 

• Monthly meetings with senior decision-makers, such as the Head of Safeguarding at Birmingham City Council, which led to the creation of Birmingham Youth Scrutinisers - a leadership group of young people who have experience of multiple services. These activities ensured young people see the impact of their contributions. 

• A light-touch, inclusive model: young people are invited to participate regularly, but their involvement is not over-managed. Attendance is flexible, which has helped cultivate a committed, self-sustaining group. 

This model empowers young people with agency, striking a balance between structure and freedom that feels manageable and supportive. 

The CHEC programme has created a diverse, confident network of young people who are shaping health conversations across Birmingham and Solihull. Outcomes include: 

• A growth in personal confidence: young people report developing communication and leadership skills, particularly through becoming aware and proficient in an area of health and demonstrating their awareness through opportunities for public speaking and presenting.

• Real-world influence: their priorities have informed their opportunities.

• Sustainable networks: the ambition is for existing champions to support new champions to carry the work forward. 

• Good representation across communities. 

The success lies in cultivating relationships, providing regular touchpoints, and creating authentic opportunities for leadership. 

The journey to meaningful engagement with children and young people has created valuable insights, highlighting both challenges encountered, and the learning gained through practice.

• Time investment was significant in the early stages, as networks had to be built from the ground up. 
• The work remains heavily reliant on one dedicated individual, which can limit the scope and scale of the engagement work.  
• Engagement, depending on its nature, can require a baseline level of confidence, which can unintentionally exclude some young people. Inclusivity should be an ongoing consideration. 
• The progress in Birmingham and Solihull demonstrates that when young people are given space to lead and real opportunities to contribute, engagement flourishes. 
• By embedding relationships with schools, introducing creative methods of confidence-building, and creating a light-touch but consistent structure, a new generation of young leaders has been cultivated. 

The programme shows that meaningful youth engagement is achievable and sustainable when it is: 

• Rooted in strong networks; 

• Supported by a clear point of contact; 

• Iterative and responsive to young people’s ideas; and

• Committed to handing over genuine responsibility. 

Efforts are being made to secure the long-term sustainability of children and young people’s involvement beyond 2025, ensuring a lasting impact on health equity and enabling young people to continue influencing policies and interventions that affect their lives.