How CSMH's REACH study input youth voices into the recent Black Voices on Policing Consultation Report for the Mayor of London.

My Perspective

Two years on from our involvement in the consultation, the full report has now been published, and the Mayor of London’s Office for Policing and Crime have displayed meaningful commitment to implementing the recommendations to ensure a fairer London for all. It has personally been very fulfilling to be involved in creating such impactful change for young people like me, my peers, and the next generations of young Black people in London. For us as YPCC, we know that racial disparities in policing can have a hugely negative impact on young people. Just recently, at our CSMH Conference, I presented findings from analyses of REACH data, produced by Dr Sam Davis, on the mental health implications of negative police contact for Black children in Southwark and Lambeth. So, to be able to continue contributing to delivering change, to ensuring research informs policy has been rewarding. The work we have done on this consultation will pave the way for a much fairer and more accountable justice system based on community-led ideas, which in turn will protect the interests of young people throughout London.

Who are we?

REACH (Resilience, Ethnicity & AdolesCent Mental Health) is an ongoing school-based study in Lambeth and Southwark, which aims to understand the impact that social circumstances and experiences have on young people’s mental health as they grow up in south London. It is led by Prof Craig Morgan and a team at the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health at King’s College London. Over 4,000 young people from 12 secondary schools in Lambeth and Southwark have taken part.

Our role as Young Persons’ Community Champions on REACH and within the ESRC Centre involves harnessing our lived experience as young people to co-produce research and advocate for the mental health needs of disadvantaged young people in inner-city London. A particular focus for us was co-producing research focused on the impact of police interaction on the mental health of youth in Southwark and Lambeth, which gave us a unique focus and expertise to contribute to the MOPAC consultations in many ways. 

What did we do in the Consultation?

Our team was involved with three key parts of the MOPAC consultation process. The consultations began with an online forum led by Cllr Jacqui Dyer MBE, Director of Black Thrive Global, and co-hosted with young Black Londoners with racialised lived experience, community members and leaders with experience of police engagement and accountability. As one of the co-hosts of this forum, I led community discussions in which we explored the topic of police accountability and finding solutions on how to support MOPAC's aim to overhaul community engagement and scrutiny structures to ensure that London’s diverse communities are better represented. This session was particularly important to the consultation as it gave a space for young people like me to represent our perspectives and entrench the experiences and needs of youth in the recommendations.

The next stage for us was joining the consultation’s Working Groups, where we collaborated to develop ideas on improving police accountability. Using community responses from MOPAC’s earlier surveys and data collected from across the project, we then worked on developing recommendations among a team of young people, and then as part of a wider working group. After reviewing and discussing the data internally amongst our team and brainstorming all our thoughts and perspectives, we joined Youth Working Groups with the team at Psi to form ideas for the recommendations. Following this, I represented our youth perspectives and recommendations in the consultation’s central Working Group – a large collaboration with policymakers, representatives from the Mayor’s Office, community leaders and community members – where we finalised the recommendations for the report. These collaborative sessions provided a valuable opportunity to highlight the perspectives of the young people we work with and for in the REACH study, and especially to reflect the experiences of disadvantaged Black young people in policy.

What’s in the Reports?

The published research, which you can find here, is split into five key reports:

• A Blueprint to Improve Locally-led Engagement & Scrutiny

• Consultation Methods and Findings

• Supporting Research

• Summary of Key Insights

• MOPAC Responses to Recommendations

About Jonas

Jonas has been working with the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health as part of the Reach Study’s YPCC since March 2021. Jonas is one of a team of five outstanding young co-researchers who form the YPCC including Adna Hashi, Thai-Sha Richards, Karima Shyan Clement-Gbede and Niiokani Tettey, Jonas was a recipient of the 2025 King’s Engaged Research Network’s ‘Participatory Research: Local’ award. Also, an undergraduate student, Jonas is wrapping up his final year studying Law with Politics LLB at Royal Holloway University, set to graduate in July 2025.