Democratic participation is a guiding principle for many youth workers and organisations, yet attempts to engage young people in organisational and political decision-making are often criticised as tokenistic, lacking meaningful influence and having significant barriers to inclusion. In this study, professionals and young people from across England examine the role of youth participation workers. It explores their perceptions of the role, opportunities and barriers to young people’s participation, how workers experience and resolve conflicts and ways to improve the effectiveness of youth participation. This doctoral study argues for increased clarity about the aims and processes of youth participation work. This clarity includes how organisations and workers handle conflict and support workers to challenge and share their observations with confidence. Rather than relying on top-down, formal methods, this study argues that participation work would benefit from a shift toward approaches that attend to young people’s organic, day-to-day participation. These should enable collective action through participation networks that accommodate differences without compromising individual identity. This study grew from my experiences and reflections on youth participation as a youth worker and manager. It makes its unique contribution to knowledge by applying learning and perspectives from youth work and considering how relational approaches build bridges between young people’s lives and the systemic complexities of the organisations that seek to engage them.