Reflections on our SPW Summit March 2026.

Nicole Burchett reflects on the inaugural conference from Single Parents Wellbeing. This March saw 100 people come together for the SPW Summit. Held at the Cornerstone in central Cardiff, co-produced with our young people and hosted by SPW.

One of the SPW pieces of work that is coming to an end Summer 2026 is the ‘Mental Health Manifesto’ project. It has been running for 4 years working with children and young people from single parent households (aged 10-25) about what they need for a mentally healthy future. Co-production runs throughout the project from the development year at the start, to the end of project event held in March 2026: The SPW Summit 2026.

The aims of the Summit were to share the learning from the project, to show professionals and policy makers in education, health and the wider third sector how we work with young people, to inspire professionals and organisations to step forward as champions and make commitments about how they will work in future, and to position SPW as experts to support organisations in future.

The approach SPW took on organising the Summit was with the ethos of that the children and young people involved should be central in the design, planning and delivery of the day. Here are some of the things that made it work....

Involve people from the start - make people part of the journey.

We started talking with the young people about the event as soon as we started thinking about it; before we’d finalised the objectives, or format, or who would be invited. So their input contributed to those decisions. Remember it’s fine to say ‘we don’t know about that yet’ when co-producing an event.

Make the process enjoyable!

With the 10-16 yr old age group, our co-design sessions were included within sessions they were already attending and wanted to be at. We found ways to make the activities enjoyable - early stages of design utilised art-based methods to work out what we wanted the event to feel like for participants. Later we prepared for roles on the day using playful role-plays to practice.

It should be authentic, but it doesn’t have to be perfect. As an organisation be prepared to release control!

As much as possible we aimed for the young people to be the face of the event, leading on registration, on hosting, on helping co-facilitate the workshops. They had a chance to practice these roles in advance, but also knew there was an adult member of the team on hand who could be called on at any time. On the day, this happened very rarely, but it was important in creating a safe space in which the young people could shine. (Obviously, we made sure that we met all safeguarding and GDPR requirements.)

Show, don’t tell.

We deliberately avoided telling event attendees about how we work with young people. That can sound preachy, isn’t always interesting, and could lead to us talking about the young people. Instead, we made a deliberate intention from the start that by being present at the event, attendees would SEE how we co-produce with young people.

Don’t be extractive, be reciprocal.

It’s important to look at what participants can get from their involvement, beyond just the satisfaction of being listened to and involved in decisions. For the older 16+ group a significant factor was developing job skills; for the under 16s, we had to consider that it meant a day out of school. All the young people were involved in the main sessions, then for the workshops they were split according to age:

- 16+ group were involved in co-hosting the workshops for adult professionals;

- Under 16s attended interactive taught workshops where they learned more about co-production and designed their own co-production and facilitation plan.

Value the young people

Remember to show the young people that they have been appreciated. All the young people were invited to a meal and learning debrief after the event, while members of the adult paid team dealt with the cleanup.

The young people fed back that they enjoyed the Summit and were really pleased with their involvement in it. From the staff and SPW perspective, it couldn’t have been the success it was without them.