The challenge 

In 2024, the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) began work on their local implementation of the National Women’s Health Strategy, a bold initiative aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of women across England.

A key priority for the ICB was ensuring the strategy genuinely reflected the views and priorities of young women aged 16–18, a group whose voices are often underrepresented in health planning. To inform the approach and showcase these insights at a high-profile NHS conference, the ICB partnered with Explain to design and deliver an inclusive, youth-focused research programme.

The challenge? To create a safe space for young women to share what health means to them, uncover their real priorities, and turn those insights into meaningful, actionable input that would shape regional implementation of the national strategy, all within a short timeframe.

Our approach

We took a collaborative and participant-led approach, ensuring young women were not only involved or engaged  but empowered throughout the process. This included: 

Inclusive, Insightful Design

• Our researchers developed an innovative discussion guide designed to feel natural, open-ended, and inclusive, encouraging participants to reflect on the meaning of "women’s health" in their own words.
• We facilitated both in-person and online focus groups and interviews, allowing for a diverse and accessible participation experience.

Collaborative Recruitment

• Recruitment of participants was managed through a combination of Explain’s existing community networks and partnerships with the ICB.
• This approach allowed us to engage a broad cross-section of young women across different schools and backgrounds in the region.

Synthesis & Storytelling

• All qualitative data was thematically analysed to produce a final PowerPoint report, synthesising findings across every discussion and interview.
• A tailored debrief slide deck was created for presentation at the North East and North Cumbria Women’s Health conference, clearly outlining the key priority areas for young women in the North East and North Cumbria.

Youth Voice in Action

• One of the young participants co-presented the findings at North East and North Cumbria Women’s Health conference on 11 July 2024, supported by the Explain facilitators who had led the research sessions.
• This approach ensured that the findings were not only authentically voiced but also fully understood by the young person presenting them.

Key insights

The research uncovered a wide spectrum of priorities and perspectives that challenged assumptions and shed light on often-overlooked issues.

Some of the most prominent themes included:

• A desire for better education around women’s health in schools, including menstruation and mental health.
• The importance of accessibility and trust in healthcare professionals, especially regarding sensitive topics.
• Concerns around mental health support, body image, and pressures linked to social media.
• A call for non-judgemental, safe environments where young women can speak openly about their health.

These findings weren’t just collected, they were shared by young women themselves with NHS stakeholders, bringing a level of authenticity and urgency to the conversation.

The results

Explain’s involvement in this research helped put the real voices of young women at the heart of regional implementation of the national strategy:

• Insights were showcased to a wide NHS audience at the North East and North Cumbria Women’s Health conference
• Young women co-led the conversation, demonstrating inclusive research in action
• Findings have been shared with workstream leads within the ICB, to influence their regional implementation plans
• A new standard set for participatory, youth-led engagement in health strategy planning

By engaging Explain, the North East and North Cumbria ICB were able to empower the next generation of women to shape their own health futures.

Do you want to connect your strategy with the voices of those it’s designed to support? Talk to us about how inclusive research can make your next policy, service, or campaign more powerful, and more human. You can speak to the team on info@explainresearch.co.uk or call 0191 261 5261