About the Youth Summit
The Stockport Youth Summit 2026, organised by PIE and the L!STEN steering group in partnership with Stockport Council, is a youth-led event designed to empower young people to shape their future.
The summit has grown over 3 years to become a central platform for youth voices in Stockport, with a strong focus on inclusion, bringing together young people from diverse backgrounds, including those from special schools and home-educated settings.
In 2026, the summit welcomed 16 secondary schools and colleges, 43 participating organisations a total of 165 attendees.
Purpose and goals
The Youth Summit aims to provide a platform for influential leaders in Stockport to hear and understand the key issues impacting young people's wellbeing. Our goal is to work together to improve these areas, supporting Stockport to become a place where young people both belong and thrive, directly linking to our One Future vision.
Empowering young voices
We're committed to making sure that young people feel heard and continue to develop a community where their voices matter.
The feedback from the summit is being used to inform Stockport’s new Coproduction Charter and Social Care Reforms, ensuring that services and opportunities are co-produced with young people at the centre.
Inclusive engagement
Ahead of the summit, 2 extensive surveys were carried out, each receiving responses from over 1,500 young people, including those with additional needs, disabilities, care experience, and from a wide range of backgrounds. These surveys were instrumental in identifying the key themes for the summit by gathering insights on young people's needs, priorities and expectations.
Feedback from 2026 workshops
Feedback from the summit highlighted that young people are ready to engage, contribute and lead. The challenge is ensuring systems are accessible, inclusive and designed with young people, not just for them.
Workshops revealed:
travel safety: young people highlighted that feeling unsafe when travelling, particularly on buses at night, is a major barrier to participation, and improving lighting, supervision, affordability and the overall travel environment could significantly increase their confidence and access to activities
welcoming and inclusive debate: young people are keen to participate and have a strong appetite for inclusive, varied and meaningful opportunities; however, engagement is significantly limited by transport barriers, affordability, accessibility gaps, safety concerns and poor awareness of what is available
safe spaces: young people are not disengaged; they're looking for safe, comfortable, flexible spaces and better awareness of opportunities, especially during colder months when going out feels less appealing
communication: young people said communication needs to be short, visual, authentic and youth-led, using engaging content and trusted channels like schools, to clearly promote opportunities and make them more visible to young people
jobs and employment opportunities: young people are ambitious and understand the education routes into careers, but their access to work experience and employment opportunities is shaped by confidence, networks, transport, cost and inclusion barriers, highlighting the need for more accessible, visible and equitable pathways into the workforce.