Five Years, Many Voices: What We’ve Learned from the Understanding Self-Harm Project

For five years, Fullscope has been working with young people, professionals and communities across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to change the way we understand and respond to self-harm. This is what we’ve learned - and what we’re doing next.

Self-harm is a subject that makes many of us uncomfortable. And that discomfort, the instinct to look away, to close the conversation down and make the problem go away is, it turns out, is part of the problem.

That’s one of the things young people told us when we started this work back in 2021. They were asking to be understood, to have someone ask them how they were and really mean it.

What followed was five years of listening, learning and building and our 2025/26 evaluation marks the end of one of the most significant phases yet.

Where it started

Fullscope was commissioned by Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Public Health in 2021, with funding from NHS England’s Wave 4 Suicide Prevention programme, to understand self-harm in children and young people locally. We began by listening.

Nine young people aged between 14 and 18 worked with us for over a year guiding us towards a deeper understanding of what it feels like to use self-harm and, crucially, how the adults around them often responded in ways that weren’t always helpful.

"I feel like they say it because it’s a hard thing for them and they don’t want to have to deal with it themselves so it’s easy to be like ‘oh well, you’re doing it for this reason’ and not actually know the reason."

From those conversations came Ask Me How I Am, a five-minute animated film co-created with this group of young people and award-winning filmmakers Boundary Pictures and animator Joseph Clarke at Oh Studio. The film is now at the heart of everything we do.

The professionals’ workshop: reaching further

The film is now the centre-piece of a 90-minute workshop for professionals, designed to build empathy, reduce stigma and improve how adults respond to young people who self-harm.

The workshop has consistently received outstanding feedback and follow-up surveys have also demonstrated lasting changes: increased confidence, more empathy, less judgement, and in some cases, whole-school reviews of policy and pastoral approach.

In 2025/26, following pilot activity during 2024/25, we took a significant step: reducing our in-house delivery and scaling our train-the-trainer model, training others to run the workshop themselves.

Demand came quickly from a range of local services and in the past year:

25 professionals completed our train-the-trainer course

133 professionals accessed training through the new model

477 people used the online post-workshop platform we created to support continued learning.

Through this process we have continued to learn and adapt. For example, we found that whilst many trainees were enthusiastic, they were often daunted by the workshop’s facilitated, rather than taught, format. In response, we introduced monthly reflection sessions and opportunities to co-facilitate with experienced practitioners. These additions have made a big difference and will be built into how we support trainers going forward.

Reaching young people: a workshop of their own

The young people who made Ask Me How I Am always hoped that the film would reach their peers, not only the adults around them. In Phase 5, we made that happen.

Working with seven youth workers from across the county, we piloted a self-harm awareness workshop designed for young people themselves. The workshop, co-produced in the previous phase by a group of young people, had been tested once before. This year, we went further to test and scale.

By the end of the year:

288 young people aged 14 to 18 participated in the pilot

718 comments from young people were collected and analysed

7 facilitator reflections were recorded from 11 sessions and reviewed.

What young people told us was clear: the film worked. 76% of ‘what I learned’ comments were about understanding self-harm better; different types, why people use it, how it affects them. Many described a shift in how they thought about people who self-harm, and more confidence in supporting a friend.

We also heard what could be improved and following review in March 2026, two new versions of the young people’s workshop have been designed: a 50-minute school session and a two-hour version for smaller, more flexible group settings such as youth clubs or support groups. Both make better use of the accompanying workbook and include clearer calls to action around getting help.

The power of time

Five years in, a few things feel clear to us.

Young people’s voices are not a box to tick in a co-production process. When you genuinely share power, following where young people lead, even when you don’t know where that will take you, you create something that works. The film’s impact on the professionals who watch it comes directly from the authenticity of the young people’s voices in it.

Good things take time: workshops need piloting, trainers need support and systems need nurturing. Steady, careful work creates change that endures.

What’s next

The project continues into 2026/27 on strong foundations. The professionals’ workshop is established and in demand. The young people’s workshop is ready to be rolled out more widely through its own train-the-trainer model. The steering group - now 8 members, spanning health, education, the voluntary sector and the University of Cambridge - is being re-energised with a sharper focus on amplifying what we’ve learned.

There is still much to do. A parents’ workshop is on the horizon. More young people and professionals need to be reached. The conversations this project has started, about how we talk about self-harm, how we respond to it, how we support those who use it, need to keep going.

We are grateful to all of the young people, professionals, parents and partners who have made this work possible. And we are especially grateful to the young people who made Ask Me How I Am, whose voices continue to change minds and move hearts across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

Read our Phase 5 evaluation report

If you are a professional and would like to access the workshop, contact us at getinvolved@fullscopecollaboration.org.uk

August 2026