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In this blog post, #BeeWell Youth Co-Creation Lead, Fran, shares new youth-led responses to the #BeeWell data from across all ten local authorities in Greater Manchester, funded by Big Change.
Towards the end of 2024, I worked with teams from across Greater Manchester’s 10 local authorities to support a series of projects responding to #BeeWell data from 2023’s survey responses.
We approached this project by reaching out to existing contacts in Local Authority Youth Services and partners in the charity sector. We knew they were already doing great work with young people and hoped, with our support, they would be able to create some powerful work which demonstrates what #BeeWell data can do when in the hands of young people. We were hopeful that this would also support their ongoing work and the development of their young people – and this all proved to be true.
Beginning with an initial meeting online, I shared data from their local area which I thought might be interesting to them. Most of these teams then took the data to their young people, giving them the chance to see what mattered to them and where they would like to focus their efforts.
We have been fascinated and hugely impressed by the results that came in, with all 10 teams choosing different focuses and ways of delivering. These have been impactful and engaging pieces of work and, in many cases, we are continuing to work with the teams on next steps. It will be hard to summarise the results in a short blog post, but I’ll do my best.
Before I do, though – a big thank you to the staff at the services who were involved, to Big Change for funding the work, and, most importantly, to every single young person who gave up their time to take part.
In no particular order, here’s a brief look at each piece of work:
Wigan Youth Services
The Wigan Youth Services team worked with 15 young people from across Greater Manchester. These young people were struck by data which told them that 1 in 10 young people in Wigan feel lonely some or all of the time, and they wanted to do something about it.
They have created a fantastic video which highlights opportunities for young people in Wigan to get involved with services and projects that could help with this issue. They also talk about a host of other data points that stood out to them in the video.
One young person from the project told us this:
‘I decided to do the feedback because it was really important to me to make sure young people’s voices were heard, and that every young person has something they can do and enjoy. It’s really important that everyone can feel safe and accepted, and I loved that being able to be part of the video allowed me to share my views on this. I think as a result of our findings, the council should implement more policies and groups that can be accessed by a wider variety of people, and with more accessible transport.’
This project also led one of the young people to create a poem about Wigan, which you can hear in the videos below:
Gorse Hill – Trafford
There was another creative response from a group in Gorse Hill called ARTIVISTS.
For this project, several weekly sessions were run with the group so they could first get an understanding of the data. Later, they were commissioned as artists to create their own artistic responses which highlight data that stood out to them.
These artworks were then showcased in an exhibition.
We had some great feedback from the group, including quotes such as ‘I intended to create something that would give the sense of light within the darkness, of nature providing the solace that we need’ and ‘On the Trafford Bee Well quiz, only 54% of young people felt safe to trust the adults in their local area, when a spokesperson saw this they thought it was “good” so I decided to provide a visual on how weak that is’.
It’s really powerful to see young people responding to the data in this way, and we are excited by the opportunity to use art to inspire action.
Oldham Youth Council
Oldham Youth Council have spoken to more than 180 young people as part of a peer research project responding to the data.
Learning that less than 50% of young people in their area feel free to express their ideas and opinions was eye-opening to them, making them realise that the work they do as the Youth Council wasn’t as well known as they thought. They also learnt that while young people might feel they have someone to talk to in school, that isn’t the same as having someone who will act on their opinions.
The group now plan to build a resource pack to build awareness of what is available for young people and how they can have their voices and opinions heard.
This was some of the feedback they gave us:
‘As a youth council we must be worried that less than 50% of young people are free to express themselves.’
‘When we look into it there were 3 issues; young people can’t be bothered as nothing happens, young people don’t know who to express ideas to and young people don’t know they have a right to be heard. The youth council needs to raise awareness of this.’
Tameside Youth Services
16 young people from Tameside Youth Services got involved in two-part workshop focused on the fact that data for LGBTQ+ young people consistently showed lower scores for most areas of wellbeing.
The first session gave young people the chance to discuss the data, their feelings around it, and what they think they can learn from it. In the second session, they came together to brainstorm ways to address the issues they are seeing in the data.
Young people from Tameside told us:
‘It’s sad but I am not surprised by the data from LGBTQ+ young people.’
‘LGBTQ+ young people feel lonely in crowded space, nobody gets it.’
‘No point in having the data unless it brings something changing.’
Bolton Youth Voice, Bolton Play & Youth Services
The Bolton team delivered an exciting project in collaboration with CAMHS and the local Mental Health in Schools Team.
Working with 27 young people, the focus was on why mental health referrals in the area did not match the diversity data available. They worked together to design a set of tools that will now be used in schools and the community, hopefully sparking conversation about why young people from diverse backgrounds seem to be less likely to speak out about their mental health,
They told us:
‘I think it’s a prominent issue that needs to be tackled.’
‘I feel disappointed that so few young people feel heard. There needs to be more routes for the young people to express themselves.’
‘This should provide more action and work towards this issue of mental health struggling.’
R-Time (Stockport Council)
Workers from the R-Time project in Stockport took an interesting approach, deciding from the start that they wanted to take the #BeeWell data into pupils attending Pupil Referral Units (PRUs). This is an audience we hear from less than we would like, so I was lucky enough to go along and support one of the sessions and it was a great learning experience with amazing young people.
The team ran two sessions in one PRU and two in another, giving pupils the chance to respond to data on the first day before creating an artistic mood board of their responses on the next. One group ended up focusing on data around good places to go in their local area while the other group talked about how being excluded from mainstream education impacts your emotional wellbeing and mental health.
Their feedback has already been given to strategic leads within Stockport Council.
These groups told us:
‘I can’t see into my future as I feel that I don’t have a say – I’m scared I will end up with a job I hate.’
‘Young people feel like we are not including in the decisions to exclude us or what will happen afterwards.’
‘There might be good places to go in my area, like a cinema, but it’s no good if I can’t afford to go there.’
42nd Street and Cedar Mount Academy (Manchester)
42nd Street run a creative drop in for a group of young people at Cedar Mount High School in Gorton. Many of these young people have faced difficulties in their personal lives, were finding school attendance difficult, and had not felt like they had a place to talk about their worries.
It was fantastic to get this group to work on this project, as they bring a unique perspective to the work.
They were troubled by the fact that only 33.9% of young people in their local area felt they could trust the adults around them, compared to a Greater Manchester average of 46.3%.
Their response was to create a Zine which combines their amazing artwork with their views on what trust means to them, why it is important, and what adults need to do to show that young people can trust them. You can read the full zine here: How to be a trusted adult.
Here is what some of these young people had to tell us:
‘Why is always about us needing to be trusted, why don’t adults have to learn how to be trusted?’
‘It’s hard to believe that someone is good and honest and will not harm you or that someone is safe and reliable.’
‘I love doing this task, it feel really freeing.’
Salford Youth Services
We loved the direction that a young women’s group from Little Hulton in Salford took with this project.
After being saddened to see that data showed young women in Little Hulton were less physically active that in other areas of Salford, and that girls were less physically active than boys overall, they decided to organise a danceathon in their local area.
After commissioning 2 dance tutors and hiring a hall, 20 young women came to join in with the dancing.
This felt like such a positive response to the data and it is great to know that results of the #BeeWell survey have led to these young people getting out to do something so good for their wellbeing.
This was the feedback we received:
‘This was the best night of my life.’
‘I would come to more things like this – I love dancing.’
‘I didn’t think I’d like street dance, but I really enjoyed it.’
Rochdale Council
Rochdale’s contribution to this project was a continuation of the work they did on our previous #BeeWell Champions project.
They have been working with young people across Rochdale schools, training them to be Young Health Activists.
You can find out more about this work so far here: #BeeWell Champions in Rochdale celebrate their accomplishments – #BeeWell.
Bury Youth Services
For the final project on this list, we look at the work of Bury Youth Cabinet. They used this project to put #BeeWell data in front of young people, staff, and decision makers at their annual Circles of Influence conference.
Breaking the data down into themes such as mental health, safety, and transport, they used the data to drive discussions on the day. From this, they created a report with has been presented to Bury Children’s Strategic Board. The Bury Youth Cabinet plan to monitor progress on the recommendations they made.
The really exciting thing about this project is that they felt it worked so effectively, that they now plan to make it an annual part of their conference and extend it to the SEND conference they hold as well.
Young people said:
‘#BeeWell helps us feel heard.’
‘I enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate and work together.’
‘I enjoyed giving professionals a reality check.’
And that covers all ten amazing projects – thanks for reading and I hope you were as impressed by the work as we at the #BeeWell team are.
Thanks again, also, must go to Big Change, to all staff involved, and to every young person that took part.
It’s also important to say that almost none of these projects have ended at this stage – we continue to talk to all of the teams about how we can support them to work with what they found and continue work that help’s young people’s wellbeing.
If you want to hear more about any of the individual projects, or if you have been doing similar work that you would like to discuss with us, then please get in touch with fran.slater@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk
