Building effective youth voice in national mental health policy

ProMo Cymru is leading the development of a new national youth advisory group for NHS Wales, designed to embed young people’s voices into the implementation of the Welsh Government’s 10-year mental health and wellbeing strategy.

Background

The Welsh Government’s new strategy sets out bold changes and ambitions that will affect young people across Wales. NHS Performance and Improvement recognised that young people need to be involved throughout this process, not consulted after decisions are made.

Through ProMo’s work on the Mind Our Future programme, we were connected with Charlotte Thomas from NHS Performance and Improvement. She attended a National Lottery Community Fund learning network meeting where grantees working with young people on mental health were present. She invited organisations interested in supporting the development of a youth advisory group to continue the conversation.

ProMo Cymru is now leading this work in partnership with Platfform and NHS Wales Performance and Improvement. The project runs until September 2026.

Our approach

We have recruited 10 young people from across Wales to form the core group. They represent four health board areas, with work ongoing to extend reach to the remaining three. Each young person receives the Real Living Wage for their involvement.

The group has completed a four-week onboarding and training programme covering: project outcomes and aims; service design methodology; mental health awareness and trauma-informed approaches; and safeguarding and boundaries.

Three mentors from ProMo and Platfform provide light-touch supervision, checking in every four to six weeks to ensure young people have the support they need.

Discovery

The group is now building a Knowledge Board to map what we know, what we think we know, and what we don’t know about effective youth advisory structures. Key questions are emerging: what stops young people from joining advisory boards? For those who do join, what makes them stay engaged? What formats and structures actually work?

January will be spent developing research methods: who to interview, how to approach them, what questions to ask, and how to collect and analyse the information. In February, the young people will conduct the research themselves, interviewing peers and professionals across Wales. In March, we come together to analyse findings, culminating in an all-day in-person event on 31 March in Cardiff where the group will meet face-to-face for the first time.

Outcomes

By spring, we will produce a discovery report setting out what we’ve learned about effective youth advisory structures. The group will then move into developing and testing ideas. What format does this group need to take? How does it feed into NHS and health board decision-making effectively?

We will work with NHS Wales to identify opportunities where the group can test their approaches in practice. Some ideas will need refinement. We’ll iterate, test again, and learn what works.

By September, we will have tried and tested models for how a youth advisory group can effectively feed into national mental health policy and the design of services. The project will deliver clear recommendations on structure, format, terms of reference, and ways of working that actually engage young people and lead to meaningful influence.

Ciara Rogers, National Director – Mental Health, Learning Disability and Neurodiversity at NHS Wales Performance and Improvement, said: 

“Our collaboration with ProMo Cymru and Platfform, supported through the National Lottery Community Fund, has given the Strategic Programme for Mental Health a real gift. Their involvement allows us to bring the voices of children and young people into the heart of strategic planning in a way that feels genuine, safe, and grounded in trust.

“Both organisations bring such warmth, skill, and a deep commitment to creating spaces where young people feel heard and valued. Their support is a true catalyst for us – creating a huge opportunity not just to listen to children and young people, but to work alongside them as partners in shaping the future of mental health services in Wales. 

“Their work to establish the National Mental Health Children and Young People’s Advisory Panel has brought real hope and excitement for what the future holds when children and young people are helping to lead the way.”

Why this matters

Traditional advisory structures often fail to engage young people meaningfully. Meetings that feel like meetings, consultations that happen after decisions are made, and tokenistic involvement that doesn’t lead to change, all contribute to disengagement.

Rather than assuming we know what an advisory group should look like, we’re asking young people to examine, design, and test what actually works. The young people leading this work have direct experience of mental health services and understand what meaningful involvement looks like.

Manon Roberts, 24, from Caernarfon said:

“I’ve enjoyed and benefited greatly from being a NHS Youth Consultant (Mental Health) so far! It has been great to meet other like minded young people from all over Wales, who are also passionate about the importance of youth voice and wellbeing. It gives us the opportunity to discuss important topics and share our thoughts, experiences and ideas, to shape and conduct an effective research project. I’ve already learned a lot from others, and I’m looking forward to the next stages of this project.”

The ambition extends beyond this individual group. If we can demonstrate effective models for youth involvement in mental health policy, these approaches can be replicated across health boards and other policy areas. The learning from this project has the potential to transform how young people’s voices are heard in Welsh public services.

The NHS Wales Youth Mental Health Advisory Group is supported by The National Lottery Community Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we are able to pay young people from across Wales to design and test new approaches to embedding youth voice in national mental health policy and mental health services.

If you would like further information about our work, email cindy@promo.cymru