Key Highlights
What was this case study? Exploring how Citywall uses multiple Outcomes Stars as a shared framework across its services to support young people facing challenges with education, engagement and wellbeing.
Why were the Stars chosen? To create a consistent, strengths-based approach that captures the young person’s voice, supports flexible and personalised work, and provides a shared way to plan support and measure progress.
What was the impact? The Stars have helped Citywall strengthen engagement with young people, make small but meaningful progress visible, and demonstrate impact both for individuals and across the organisation – supporting reporting and recommissioning.
“Ultimately it means we can really celebrate progress – making change visible.” – Emma Hodges, Head of School-Age Alternative Provision
Introducing Citywall
Citywall is a not-for-profit organisation serving communities in Salford and across Greater Manchester. The team support young people and families to enable them to thrive in education, at home, and in the community. Their work with young people is driven by a strengths-based, solution-focused approach, supporting them to build skills and confidence.
Using multiple Stars as a shared framework of support
Citywall uses a range of Outcomes Stars across its services including Family Star Plus, My Mind Star, My Star, Justice Star and Recovery Star. The organisation has also been part of the pilot for the upcoming new Navigation Star, developed specifically for young people who are neurodivergent.
Together, these tools form a shared framework for how support is planned and delivered. Emma Hodges, Head of School-Age Alternative Provision has been leading the successful integration of these Stars – “It’s become a core part, and a common theme across the organisation, of how we plan provision, identify goals and capture the young person’s voice,” says Emma.
Explore the Stars Citywall uses
Working alongside young people at Citywall
At Citywall, support is shaped around the individual needs, experiences and readiness of each young person. As Emma explains, this means working in a way that is flexible yet consistent rather than a fixed programme of support.
Many of the young people Citywall works with have experienced challenges within education and other services, including anxiety, school attendance and difficulty engaging in structured environments. In this context, building trust and creating a sense of stability over time is a key starting point.
For practitioners like Rick, a Youth Mentor & Family Support Worker, this involves working in a way that is both relational and responsive. Sessions are adapted based on what a young person feels able to engage with on a given day, and can include a range of activities, from academic learning and practical, skills-based sessions to more informal support focused on confidence, accessing wider services and independence.
As Emma highlights, this kind of work is often characterised by “very persistent, consistent, low-demand support that goes at the young person’s pace,” creating the conditions for young people to begin engaging in a way that feels manageable and meaningful for them.
Sometimes it’s about just turning up and not giving up. We don't take it personally if a young person doesn’t want to see us one day… I tell them ‘I still think you’re great… I’ll see you another time.’
Supporting change over time
For many young people at Citywall, building trust and engagement is a gradual process. Practitioners often begin working with young people who are struggling to attend sessions, reluctant to leave the house, or finding it difficult to engage.
Rick describes working with one young person who was not attending school and whose Citywall attendance was initially low. The young person found it particularly difficult to try anything new. Anxiety played a significant role, often presenting in ways that made engagement challenging. Even small things such as feeling self-conscious about appearance, could affect whether they felt able to attend sessions.
Over time, through consistent, patient support, this began to shift. Attendance became more regular, and the young person started to engage more fully. As Rick reflects, much of this comes down to persistence and not taking setbacks personally:
“Sometimes it’s about just turning up and not giving up. We don’t take it personally if a young person doesn’t want to see us one day… I tell them ‘I still think you’re great… I’ll see you another time’.”
This approach allows practitioners to maintain a stable and trusting relationship, even on more difficult days. Progress is often gradual, but over time, these consistent interactions help create the conditions for young people to begin re-engaging and exploring what they are capable of.
Understanding and recognising progress
At Citywall, understanding progress goes beyond measuring visible outcomes. As Emma explains, it also involves recognising the internal changes that take place as young people begin to reflect more deeply on their experiences and challenges.
In some cases, this can mean that progress does not follow a straightforward or linear path. Emma describes one young person whose initial Star readings were relatively high when their world was more contained and predictable. As they engaged with a new educational environment, they became more aware of challenges, including anxiety and discomfort in unfamiliar situations.
As a result, their Star readings shifted to reflect this new awareness. Rather than seeing this as a setback, practitioners understood it as an important step forward. As Emma explains, supporting young people to make sense of that change is a key part of the process: “It doesn’t mean they’ve gone backwards… it just means their situation has changed, and they’re experiencing new challenges. And that’s okay – we’re there to support them through that.”
This approach is reflected in how the Star is used to support action planning. Rather than focusing only on long-term goals, practitioners work with young people to identify very small, achievable steps that can be revisited and adapted over time.
“Sometimes steps can be very small, because even getting in their mentor’s car is something that’s a challenge… they’re very measurable and the young person can almost tick them off, which builds that sense of ‘I can do this,’” says Emma.
These steps are shaped by the young person and are visible, flexible and regularly reviewed. This helps to build confidence and allows progress to be recognised and celebrated, even when change is gradual.
As Emma sums up: “That’s my favourite way that the Star gets used… it’s really driven by the young person. It’s adapting and changing, and it feels really meaningful. Ultimately it means we can really celebrate progress – making change visible.”
That’s my favourite way that the Star gets used… it’s really driven by the young person. It’s adapting and changing, and it feels really meaningful. Ultimately it means we can really celebrate progress - making change visible.
Demonstrating impact and capturing individual voice
The ability to capture the voice of the young person in a meaningful way using the Star helps to demonstrate the impact Citywall’s work is having with each individual. As Rick explains: “It’s the best tool that we have for making sure that the young person’s thoughts and their feelings really are included… it helps make sure their voice is actually heard.”
This has also been recognised by external partners. In one instance, feedback from a Virtual School highlighted the quality and depth of the child’s voice captured through the Star. As Emma recalls:
“She said she hadn’t seen that level of child voice before… it gave such a rich understanding of what life was like for that young person, what their motivations were, and what they wanted to work towards.”
Demonstrating impact across the organisation
Alongside supporting individual change, the Star plays an important role at an organisational level, helping Citywall demonstrate impact across its work.
By using the Star consistently across different services, the organisation builds a clearer picture of the needs and progress of the young people and families they support, creating a shared language across teams, reports and partnerships.
At the same time, the structured nature of the Star allows progress to be tracked and reported in a way that supports wider organisational and strategic needs. This can include producing project or cohort-based Impact Reports, which are helpful to share with commissioners. As many project are commissioned on an individual basis, these impact reports are vital to winning recommissioning bids, explains Emma.
A shared approach to meaningful change
The work at Citywall demonstrates how a relational, flexible approach can be strengthened through a consistent framework for understanding and supporting change.
By combining strong relationships with the structured insight provided by the Star, practitioners are able to work alongside young people in a way that is both responsive and focused. As Emma reflects, this balance is key; maintaining a clear sense of direction, while still adapting to each young person’s pace and experience.
Across the organisation, this shared approach supports practitioners to build trust, identify meaningful steps forward and make progress visible over time. This creates opportunities for young people to develop confidence, resilience and progress towards their goals. As Emma adds, this reflects the heart of Citywall’s work – to support young people to “overcome barriers to engage in life in a way that’s positive, hopeful and meaningful them.”
Click here to meet the Stars