Please take a look at the report here and share this within your networks.
The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Long Term Conditions (LTC) NHS Youth Forum work stream have launched their report on how young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and/or Long Term Conditions experience education.
Over the last year, members of the NHS Youth Forum have been working in groups to improve health and social care services for young people in certain areas, one of which was targeted at young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and/or Long Term Conditions.
The report is a reflection of young people’s views of their time in education and informs educators of the preferences children and young people have in an educational setting.
The report has gathered the views of children and young people aged 11-25 years old through a feedback form which addressed two broad questions: ‘when I attend my educational setting I feel…’ and ‘I would like my teachers to know…’.
The aim of asking these questions was to ensure that the group had a full understanding of what that would improve the experience of young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities or Long Term Conditions in education, and that we would be able to translate this into a guide for educators to best support those young people.
You can also find an accessible video version of the report here:
If you would like this report to be produced in a format that can be read by a screen reader, please get in contact with us at NHSYouthForum@byc.org.uk
Members of the NHS Youth Forum got together with Dr Peter Green from the National Network of Designated Healthcare Professionals for Children (NNDHP) to create a report for the United Nations Committee for the Rights of a Child.
After being consulted by the National Network of Designated Healthcare Professionals for Children on their report: ‘Health thematic for consideration prior to the review of the UK by the UN committee for the rights of a child’, the Youth Forum wrote their own report for consideration by the UN committee for the rights of a child that addressed the concerns and views of the NHS Youth Forum.
This report looks at the five issues outlined in the National Network of Designated Healthcare Professionals for Children report, as well as a further issue young people thought to be prevalent. These issues are:
• Infant mortality, Maternal death in childbirth and Adolescent Mortality
• Malnutrition
• Looked after children
• Child poverty + UN sustainable development goals
• Promotion of health and wellbeing
• Gender identity
The report was co-led by Haris Sultan and Sonia Beard, with writers, Ray Everall and Emma Beeden, and illustrated by Beci Ward.
You can read the full report here.
Across the UK there is a fantastic youth social action network, this network can be in a variety of forms but I have personally experienced this in a number of different settings.
I have been a member of the NHS England Youth Forum which is an awesome network for making positive change from the point of view of young people who let’s face it are going to be using the NHS for years to come.
The NHS England Youth Forum has been able to positively make a difference in a number of different ways over the 12 to 18 months, through 3 campaigns ‘Share your NHS Story’; ‘Peer Support’ & ‘Educating the Educators’.
For myself, the ‘Share your NHS Story’ campaign has had the most impact within my local area because I have been able to influence positive change by encouraging young people to speak out about there NHS Story if they have one & have felt confident enough to share it with there peer group.
I have also been able to see a positive change in the way that young people are listened to by key decision makers not just within my home town of Hereford but also now on a national level through my work with the NHS England Youth Forum & Youth Advisory Panel at the Sport & Recreation Alliance.
When I launched The Young Person’s Network in 2017 my vision was to enable all children & young people in Herefordshire to be heard if they are aged between 11-18 and have a disability or additional need. 2 years on I think it is safe to say that decision makers in my county are effectively listening to marginalised young people.
I know this is happening is a positive way because my network managed to get 2 pavements lowered in a rural area of the county for a young person who is a wheelchair user and wanted to go out independently with friends.
She wasn’t able to before this change because of the lack of dropped kerbs in her local town so I was contacted about this issue and then liaised with key decision makers to influence this much needed change.
More recently I have worked with a group of young people to highlight the lack of dropped kerbs for those who are either in wheelchairs or have mobility issues. After months of high profiled campaigning, we have now had such an impact on key decision makers that more dropped kerbs are going to be added to roads where they are needed in Herefordshire.
To conclude: without young people speaking out and being heard by people in power across a number of organisations locally, regionally & nationally we wouldn’t have made a positive impact on the lives of generations to come, this is why since getting involved with the NHS England Youth Forum & SRA Youth Advisory Panel I have developed a serious passion for youth social action in the UK. Don’t be afraid to speak out & be heard.