Young People’s Risk-Taking Behaviours and Enablers/Barriers to Accessing Support and Services
To support the development of Wirral’s offer for children and young people around ‘risk and resilience’, the Qualitative Insight Team gathered insights on young people’s risk-taking behaviours and how the pressures around them are managed by young people and families. The insights also show what helps/stops young people and families getting support, whether at home, at school, or in the community.
October 2022 - March 2024
Insights gathered by
Qualitative Insight Team, Public Health, Wirral Council
Aim
To support Wirral’s Children and Young People’s Department in understand the main risk-taking behaviours and pressures young people are experiencing (health-related behaviours in the Healthy Child Programme) and what helps or prevents young people and parents from accessing support and services.
People engaged with
Insights were gathered from 39 people, including young people aged 11-19, parents of young people aged 1-26, and professionals who work in young people’s services. The young people engaged with included Year 7 students (aged 11-12), Year 9 students (aged 13-14), and 17-19-year-olds who were engaged in services.
Methods
Focus groups were held with Year 7 students, Year 9 students, parents, and professionals. The focus groups included activities such as brainstorming, case studies, and designing Snakes and Ladders boards, where snakes represented barriers to accessing support and ladders represented enablers. The 17–19-year-olds engaged in services were spoken to using semi-structured 1-1 interviews and friendship interviews (where two friends are interviewed together).
Key insights
Involvement in gangs, crime, weapons, or ‘gangster appearance’ due to peer pressure, exploitation, financial pressures, or the ‘inevitability’ of growing up in and around deprivation. Mobilisation of gangs from Liverpool to Wirral, and young people wanting to disassociate from East Wirral due to post-code stigma.