Providing opportunities for children and young people to shape and improve services is a vital part of ensuring the needs of all service users are met.
Young people need to be involved at all levels of our healthcare system, from shaping the care they are receiving at the front line right up to co-designing and inputting to strategic change. NHs England are committed to working in partnership with young people but we would love to see all health care providers thinking differently about how they engage young people in their work. All too often we expect young people to get involved on our terms, but traditional engagement approaches don’t work for young people. Moving away from jargon-filled documents and meetings during school hours to more creative approaches can help us involve young people more effectively.
In collaboration with the NHS, the Youth Forum have created a series of resources to support the engagement of young people in healthcare services.
