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As a part of the new roles that we are seeing in the SEND Service, due to the Change Partnership Programme (CPP), we sat down with the newly appointed Young Person's Champion. As always, we talked to her about her role and what impact she will have for children and young people with SEND, their parents and the professional's that support them.
What is your role?
I am one of the new Young Person’s Champions within the SEND service and I am working closely with the statutory team.
What does this role involve?
My role involves working with children, young people and their families to ensure that children and young people have access to, are included in, and have their voices heard throughout the Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and Annual Reviews process. I will be networking with as many service users as possible to ensure that we get a full representation of children and young people’s voices across Swindon. My main goal is to ensure that children and young people remain at the heart of everything we do within the service.
Why is your role important to children and young people and families in Swindon?
We’re all aware of how difficult the SEND system can be to understand and navigate, so my main aim is to work with children, young people and their families to ensure the process is as accessible, understandable and inclusive as possible – this way we can create better outcomes for children, young people and their families within the SEND service. By working towards making EHCP and Annual Review process easier, understandable and more accessible for children and young people, I want to make sure that we have and hear all of the voices of the CYP taking part in the process, enabling them to portray their views, wishes and aspirations so that the outcomes are reflective of these goals – a truly child focussed EHCP and Annual Review process.
I think the most important aspect of my role that is incredibly important for CYP and their families to understand is that they have a designated person that is championing their voice - willing for it to be heard and motivated to ensure that it’s listened to.
What are your goals in your new role?
Some of the targets I have set myself as new Young Person’s Champion are:
- To develop new, inviting ‘This is ME’ resources that are co-produced with children and young people and used to support the voices of children and young people in statutory processes.
- To co-produce child’s voice ‘toolkits’ that enable CYP to: have a voice which is acted upon, to give their view on the support they receive, identify what help they would like and who from, enable to share what is important to them and also enabling adults and professionals to know how best to work with them
- To deliver workshops/forums or 1:1 and small group sessions for CYP to better understand the EHCP and Annual Review process
- To create and develop video’s that are co-produced with CYP that outlines the EHCP and Annual Review process through a medium of their voices that are made in a way that is relevant/accessible/inclusive and understandable for everyone in the SEND sector
- Ensure that the percentage of children and young people expressing their views, wishes and aspirations in statutory assessments increases and the number of children and young people feeling like they are being listened to and heard also increases
What do you love about your new role?
- Collaborating with children, young people and their families to ensure everything that we do within the SEND service is child centred and all about them
- Collaborating with colleagues in and out of borough to maximise the best outcomes for children, young people and their families
- Being given the opportunity to co-produce new resources and unlocking creativity skills
- Getting to interact with multiple different children young people, families, professionals and colleagues to ensure that we’re working at our best in being able to provide CYP within the SEND service the voice they deserve!
You can get to know more about members of the SEND Service and view their 'All About Me' profiles, on the Meet the SEND Service page.
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