Co-design with young people: a practical guide for schools and councils

Co-design with young people means they shape the decision before it is made, with real influence over the result. Consultation asks for opinions. Co-design shares the pen. The difference shows up in one place: whether the final document changed because of what young people said.

Most of the time, organisations consult young people early, write the document, and never come back. The strategy gets finalised in a room without the people it is about.

That is for-design. It can be well-intentioned and still be tokenistic. I say that as someone whose own organisation has got this wrong.

What does co-design with young people look like when it is done properly?

Picture this. A council is nearing completion of its youth strategy. It has a DRAFT on the table. Not a finished one. A draft.

Before releasing it, the Inner West Council did something most organisations skip. They put the draft in front of 150 young people from 20 schools at the first Inner West Youth Voice Summit and asked: did we get this right? Does this actually reflect what you need?

The room shifted things. They challenged assumptions. They pushed back on action items that did not ring true. They backed the ones that did.

That is co-design done properly. They wrote it. They tested it. With the young people it is for.

The five-question tokenism test

Run any youth engagement activity through these five questions. Be honest.

1. Can young people change the outcome? If the decision is already made and you are seeking endorsement, it is a launch, not co-design.

2. Are they in the room before the draft is final? Input at the idea stage and nothing after is the most common pattern and the least useful one. The draft is where the real decisions live.

3. Will they see what changed because of them? If nobody reports back, young people learn that speaking up goes nowhere. That lesson lasts longer than your strategy.

4. Who is in the room? If it is the same six students who put their hand up for everything, you have consulted the confident. Go and find the ones who do not come to things.

5. Is their time treated as valuable? Adults in the room are paid. Students are often given a sausage sizzle. Pay them, credit them publicly, or at minimum make sure the day is worth missing class for.

Score fewer than four and the activity is consultation at best. Fewer than two and it is tokenism, however good the intentions.

How do you run a youth co-design session?

The structure matters less than the sequencing. Here is the one that works across the councils and schools I have worked with.

Start with the real document. Not a summary. The actual draft, in plain language, with the parts you are uncertain about marked. Young people respond to being trusted with the real thing.

Ask narrow questions first. “Is this true for you?” beats “What do you think?” every time. Specific questions get specific answers that can actually change a sentence.

Mix young people with decision-makers. The best sessions have the people who will sign the strategy sitting at the tables, not watching from the back. Intergenerational collaboration is the method. Young people and experienced leaders working on the same problem, not in parallel.

Capture decisions, not vibes. Leave with a list of what changes, what stays and why. Then publish it.

Close the loop within 30 days. Send the updated draft back to the same young people with the changes marked. This single step is the difference between a council young people trust and one they ignore next time.

Why does co-design produce better decisions?

Because the people closest to the problem see things the people furthest from it cannot.

30% of Australians are under 25. A youth strategy, a school wellbeing policy or a transport plan written without them is written with a third of the evidence missing. That is not a values argument. It is a quality argument.

And the data backs it. After YLAA community programs, 97% of participants say they feel more empowered to create change in their community and 99% would recommend the program to another council. Those numbers do not come from being asked an opinion. They come from seeing that opinion move something.

Where do most organisations get stuck?

Fear of the answer. If you ask young people whether a plan is right, they might say no. That is the point. A no at the draft stage costs a rewrite. A no after launch costs the whole strategy and the trust that went with it.

The Inner West Council took the risk at the draft stage. What they got was a document the young people in their area recognise as theirs. That is what every council and every school should be doing.

This is the work I care about most, and it is the core of Change Happens Together, the session I run with governments, councils and education systems.

So here is my question for you. The last time your organisation consulted young people, what changed because of it? And did they ever find out?