Manchester Metropolitan University and Greater Manchester Combined Authority KTP 24_25 R4

Greater Manchester is overhauling how its justice system treats children, shifting from punishment-focused processes to a child-centred approach that prioritises welfare and long-term outcomes. This matters because children who enter the justice system often face fragmented support, inconsistent decision-making, and a lack of coordinated follow-through across police, courts, social services, and youth offending teams. The current approach can fail to address the underlying causes of offending, such as trauma, poverty, or unmet mental health needs, and may entrench rather than divert young people from further involvement with the law. If successful, this project will embed a permanent organisational culture and process change within the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and its partner organisations. That means frontline staff, managers, and policymakers will have the tools, training, and systems to consistently design, implement, and evaluate interventions that keep children’s needs at the centre. The practical impact could include fewer children entering custody, better coordination between agencies, and more effective diversion programmes that reduce reoffending. This is applied, system-level work—it does not generate new fundamental knowledge, but it aims to make existing evidence-based practices work reliably at scale across a major city-region.