PhD student, Henna Chumber shares insights from a City-REDI Social Value and Impact studentship, exploring youth engagement in Birmingham Promise.
From the Classroom to Council
Over the past year, I’ve had the privilege of diving into the world of policy through a City-REDI’s Social Value and Impact studentship. As a PhD student in Psychology with a passion for reforming mental health systems, this opportunity gave me a front-row seat to how real-world policymaking unfolds — the discussions, the data, the dilemmas.
My studentship focused on youth engagement in Birmingham — particularly how young people understand and experience the Birmingham Promise, a city initiative that aims to improve education and employment outcomes. Alongside my own research, I joined City-REDI meetings, collaborated with academics and policy teams, and conducted thematic analyses of community interviews. What I discovered was eye-opening — not just about youth participation, but about the broader challenges of embedding genuine community voices into policy, especially around mental health.
Inside the Policy Room
Attending the City-REDI quarterly meeting was a turning point. Watching how decisions were debated, adjusted, and negotiated helped me appreciate how reactive and complex policymaking can be. Policies don’t emerge from thin air — they’re shaped by evidence, politics, and competing priorities.
Seeing this process up close made me think deeply about how mental health policy fits into that mix. Who gets heard? Whose data counts? It was a powerful reminder that policymaking is as much about people and power as it is about planning.
Youth Engagement: Tokenism or Transformation?
My research on youth engagement in the Birmingham Promise revealed a worrying pattern. While the initiative aims to empower young people, many engagement activities felt surface-level — more “tick-box” than transformative. Through thematic analysis, recurring themes emerged: lack of trust, limited inclusion, and a sense of being unheard.
It’s easy to ask young people for their views; it’s harder to truly listen and act. That disconnect between policymakers and youth mirrors what I’ve seen in mental health systems — services often wait for a “crisis” before responding. As an interviewee from the INSPIRE project captured perfectly, “crisis is the catalyst for change.”
What Policy Can Learn from Mental Health — and Vice Versa
Reflecting on these findings, I couldn’t help but draw parallels with mental health care. Like public policy, the system can be fragmented, with poor coordination between services, communities, and decision-makers. Many people are left unseen until their situation becomes critical.
This studentship strengthened my conviction that participatory approaches — where those affected by policy help design it — are not just desirable, but necessary. Co-production shouldn’t be a buzzword; it should be the backbone of how we build better systems.
A Student’s Perspective on Voice and Inclusion
As someone who has spent years at the University of Birmingham, I’ve seen both sides of engagement — when it works, and when it doesn’t. The University values student voices; the wider city often doesn’t.
In a city as diverse as Birmingham — racially, socially, and economically — it’s striking that policymaking still doesn’t reflect that diversity. Communities remain marginalised, youth participation feels tokenistic, and engagement exercises risk becoming performative rather than empowering. There’s a real mismatch between those who live in Birmingham and those who shape its future.
Looking Ahead
This experience changed how I see both research and policy. It taught me that meaningful change doesn’t happen in isolation — it happens when researchers, policymakers, and communities work together.
There’s still a long road ahead before inclusivity and co-production are embedded in how we design and deliver policy. But this studentship gave me not just insights, but a mission — to help bridge the gap between policy and people, and to make mental health systems more humane, responsive, and just.
This blog was written by Henna Chumber, University of Birmingham.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this analysis post are those of the authors and not necessarily those of City-REDI or the University of Birmingham.