Doncaster Council: Giving young people a voice in Stainforth

Stainforth is a small town in South Yorkshire. This former mining community is located within the City of Doncaster local authority area and has a population of around 6,000. The Shaping Stainforth SPHL programme aims to take a complex system approach to improving the determinants of mental health in Stainforth by building on community strengths and assets.

The program initially aimed to improve mental health by focusing on how people relate to one another, how decisions are made, and how resources are shared. Key principles guiding the project included taking a hyperlocal focus, embedding local figures in the project team and looking at intergenerational relations. Early on, it became clear that amplifying residents' voices, especially those of young people, could significantly impact decisions affecting Stainforth. This led the team to focus on increasing and diversifying youth participation in the town's decision-making processes.

This case study focuses on Shaping Stainforth’s work with improving representation on the Doncaster Youth Council and is one of multiple project activities. It highlights system-wide changes and impacts, lessons learned, and future steps.

Stainforth is home to a vibrant community. The Shaping Stainforth team, being closely connected with the community, had a deep understanding of their challenges and the broader factors affecting residents’ mental health. Initially, the team focused on elevating the “community spirit” through multiple activities aimed at improving mental health across a diverse group of residents. One such project was ‘Andy’s Man Club,’ a mental health charity for men that began offering weekly support sessions in the town.

This multifaceted, open approach allowed the team to assess residents' needs, explore opportunities for creating positive impact, and prototype approaches for systemic change. However, this approach also brought challenges. Balancing immediate community needs with long-term goals for systems change and sustainability created tensions, and was difficult at times. As the project progressed the team decided that focusing efforts and resources on amplifying and diversifying the youth voice had the biggest potential for long term change.

The team also discovered that the language used around systems change could be off-putting to some local residents and partners, especially those unfamiliar with the methodology. This required careful consideration of how, when, and what language to use when communicating with the community.

Taking a systems change approach, the Shaping Stainforth team engaged local communities to understand their hopes, dreams and aspirations for the longer term. This longtime thinking asked residents to reflect on their hopes for Stainforth for future generations to come, as well as for young people already living in Stainforth. Through these activities, Shaping Stainforth identified two key opportunities: firstly, diversifying and improving representation on the Doncaster Youth Council; secondly, using this and other engagement methods for building aspirations, resilience, and social capital for young people.

Previously, the Doncaster Youth Council didn't fully represent the voices of all young people in the community due to social, economic, and practical barriers that prevented some from applying and participating. Shaping Stainforth discovered that seemingly simple factors, like the application process or the location of Youth Council meetings in the Council Chamber, discouraged some young people from getting involved. They heard and observed that some young people found it challenging to get to the meeting locations without transport or money for a taxi and when they got there, it was intimidating to enter such a venue. The team worked to secure funding for travel and provided support for young people attending their first meetings. These small, practical changes demonstrated how minor adjustments can ripple out to create broader cultural and systemic shifts. The team is now advocating for further changes, such as holding Youth Council meetings in different community settings to improve equitable access and foster a shift in culture and power dynamics.

Experiences such as these for young people in Stainforth help young people feel heard and valued. Contributing directly to local changes helps them gain new skills and creates an environment where they are happy and excited to work, live and play: factors that directly impact health and wellbeing.

The work of Shaping Stainforth has seen impacts across the community and project stakeholders. Positive impacts include:

• Foundations in place which are paving the way for a more diverse, accessible and inclusive Youth Council in the future. Examples include a simpler and more open application process, and a push for easy-access funding for young people who don’t have access to transport to be able to attend meetings.
• More young people feel listened to and are feeding into decisions about local services that better meet their needs. They are actively suggesting ideas for wider systems change and participating in prototypes that test and showcase how this can be done. One example of this is the Children and Young People community profile, which offers information on community action plans that young people have created and contributed to. This is being shared with partners and ward members to shape needs-led local services.
• More young people feel part of the community - 82% of school children in Stainforth surveyed reported that they feel able to get involved in the wider community. This has increased compared to previous Stainforth data which showed 68% (2022), and is higher than Doncaster (61%)* (* Source: Doncaster Pupil Lifestyle Survey 2023).
• More local jobs,volunteering and social opportunities. By linking Doncaster City Council, Unity Academy and S4ALL, there will be a hyper local approach for residents to access job search support. Another example of this is the creation and launch of the NSPCC Online Safety Tool Kit in Doncaster Chamber supporting increased confidence, higher aspirations and new skills amongst young people across Stainforth.
• Local schools improved - one was recently graded ‘Outstanding’ in a recent Ofsted inspection, in part due to the engagement work with young people to shape community action plans.

Shaping Stainforth is developing a multi-faceted approach to embedding systems change and creating a legacy for this work.

• Youth provision: funding has been allocated for the recruitment of two youth workers to continue delivering youth activities for a year after the project ends. The youth workers will continue to facilitate the Steering group, engage with schools and young people to gain voices to create community action plans which in turn will support wider community plans. This will create opportunities and aspirations for young people. Stainforth Parish Council have agreed to support these positions post 2025.
• Services and partnerships: project partners and stakeholders from across youth and wider project activities are actively exploring how they can keep the local services and partnerships introduced through Shaping Stainforth going. As part of these activities community groups have been trained to hold Community Conversations with residents.
• Championing Shaping Stainforth approach: Shaping Stainforth is one of four local areas in Doncaster. Building on tried and tested methods in Stainforth, the team are working to influence future regenerative practices and sustain community-led ways of working across the three other areas. Lessons learned will be built into strategies to support and engage residents, youths and their communities in a further six other future regenerative areas in Doncaster that have been identified.
• Community pride: an events committee, set up by Shaping Stainforth to encourage resident engagement and decision making will continue applying for grants to support community events beyond the end of the project. Shaping Stainforth will continue to develop links with Stainforth Town Council to support events in the future.

Three lessons that may apply to other local areas or councils planning a similar approach:

• Strong local connections are vital to a community-led approach: The Shaping Stainforth team are intimately connected with their community: they live, breathe and work locally and understand the cultural nuances. These existing, trusted relationships meant they hit the ground running, but also meant they had to work hard to encourage residents to think differently and contribute towards the future they want for themselves and others living in Stainforth. Shaping Stainforth are also connected into and understand the workings of the Local Authority and other community stakeholders, meaning they can influence and shift the system from within.
• Encouraging others to think and work systemically can be a challenge: This requires challenging pre-held beliefs and developing systems and processes around emerging needs and a longer-term vision. Working to shift existing power dynamics can be tough. The language around systems change can be confusing, so finding ways to encourage shifts, without off putting jargon is key.
• Prioritise long-term systems change from the start: In systems change programmes, tensions can occur between addressing the immediate needs of residents and focusing on longer-term goals. While genuine community-led engagement is essential, there must also be a balance between these tensions. Limited resources means difficult decisions must sometimes be made about whether to prioritise short-term needs or invest in long-term change. Misalignment between the team, community, funders, and other decision-makers on these priorities can lead to mistrust. Clear communication and consensus are crucial to ensure everyone remains aligned and trust is maintained.

While genuine community-led engagement is essential, it requires balance. Limited resources mean difficult decisions must sometimes be made about whether to prioritize short-term needs or invest in long-term change. Misalignment between the team, community, funders, and other decision-makers on these priorities can lead to mistrust. Clear communication and consensus are crucial to ensure everyone remains aligned and trust is maintained.

For further information email [email protected]

• Doncaster Council: Shaping Stainforth 
• Well Doncaster 
• About Shaping Places for Healthier Lives