This project explores how children and young people assessed as ‘high risk’ are involved in multi-agency decision-making in youth justice.
Working in partnership with youth justice services, police and other relevant partners, the research examines how child first principles – seeing children as children, building a pro-social identity, collaboration and diverting from stigma – can be meaningfully embedded in high-risk panels to improve participation, decision-making and outcomes for children.
For the next 12 months, the project focuses on youth justice-led high-risk panels and their relationship with wider statutory arrangements such as Multi‑Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) and Multi‑Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARAC). The project team will be working collaboratively with youth justice services across Greater Manchester.
Over the past decade, the number of children in the Youth Justice System has fallen sharply. As a result, services now work disproportionately with children assessed as medium or high risk of harm, often linked to serious violence, criminal exploitation or sexual harm. These cases rely heavily on multi-agency panels where decisions about risk, safeguarding and interventions are made.
Despite their importance, little is known about how children’s participation rights are enacted within these spaces. Evidence suggests that high-risk panels can be dominated by police intelligence and risk management priorities, with limited attention to children’s lived experiences, vulnerabilities and rights. Where participation is attempted, it can often be inconsistent and sometimes cause further harm.
This project addresses a critical gap by examining how risk and participation are balanced in practice, and how Child First principles can be operationalised within multi-agency decision-making without undermining safeguarding or community safety.
The project will:
- Examine how children’s participation is currently understood and operationalised in multi-agency high-risk panels
- Explore how risk is interpreted and managed across youth justice, policing and partner agencies within these panel settings
- Identify tensions between welfare, justice and community safety priorities
- Work collaboratively with practitioners to co-produce practical, child-centred guidance for multi-agency panels
- Support more inclusive, participatory and effective multi-agency decision-making with children
The research uses a mixed-methods and co-production approach, combining:
- A review of policy, guidance and existing research
- Group forums with youth justice practitioners, police and partner agencies
- Follow-up interviews to explore key themes in depth
- Creative workshops with justice involved children
- A practice advisory group to co-develop guidance and resources
The project is grounded in ethical, reflexive and child-centred research principles and has been designed in close collaboration with practice partners.
The project is led by Dr Samantha Burns, a Senior Research Associate in Youth Justice at Manchester Metropolitan University.
It is delivered in partnership with:
- Manchester Youth Justice Service
- Wigan Youth Justice Service
- Oldham Youth Justice Service
- Tameside Youth Justice Service
The project will produce:
- Co-produced policy and practice guidance for multi-agency high-risk panels
- Accessible reports and practitioner resources
- Training workshops and/or webinars for youth justice and police partners
- Policy briefings for national stakeholders
- Academic publications and conference presentations
By strengthening participatory, child-centred practice in high-risk contexts, the project aims to reduce harm, improve multi-agency working and support more just outcomes for vulnerable children.
