Ten ways youth studies programme influenced policy and practice

Founded in 2014 by Professor Hannah Smithson, the MCYS at Manchester Metropolitan University has grown into an internationally renowned research centre. Its strengths lie in its inter-disciplinary focus, it specialises in young people’s experiences of the youth justice system, the education system, climate activism, seeking asylum, language discrimination, hate crimes, Islamophobia, and criminal exploitation. The centre’s genuine and meaningful participatory and co-production research methods ensure that young people are worked with and not on.

10 ways in which the MCYS has influenced policy and practice:

1. Co-creating Participatory Youth Practice (PYP) with justice-involved children.

Through a ground-breaking knowledge transfer partnership between the MCYS and the Greater Manchester Youth Justice Services, the internationally recognised and award winning PYP framework has transformed youth justice national and international practice and policy. Led by Professor Hannah Smithson, over 400 practitioners have benefited from PYP training, resulting in improved professional practice. PYP has informed strategy changes for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority – the framework underpins its entire youth justice transformation strategy, Comic Relief, the youth custody service, and youth agencies in Australia and South America. It has doubled young people’s engagement rates with service provision in practice where it has been implemented. It has been central to the YJB’s Case Management Guidance focusing on How to support Children’s Participation and Co-Creation. It won the Times Higher Award in 2019 for Knowledge Transfer Partnership of the year.  PYP was central to a parliamentary roundtable hosted in 2024, discussing ‘Developing a child focused youth justice system’ chaired by Janet Daby MP.