Young Person's Champions

The Young Person’s Champion role was a role within Swindon’s SEND Service between March 2024 and end March 2026. It was set up as part of the Change Programme Partnership (CPP) to increase the voice of children and young people in relation to SEND Services and the Local Offer, and to ensure that they are aware of the services and information available to them and that those services are benefitting them.

Some of the work that the Young Person’s Champions completed within this two-year period is detailed below:

What are we doing? 

Swindon is one of the Local Authorities (LAs) taking part in the CPP. We are seeking to gather pupil voice on what is most important to them about the programme and its reforms. 

Why are we doing this? 

Consulting children and young people with SEND on matters that affect them ensures that their perspectives and voices are included in decision-making processes.

What children and young people told us?  

  • “I would like smaller classes”
  • “Stop focusing on uniform rules and more on my learning” 
  • “Understand that my abilities and disability can differ each day” 

What have we done and what’s next?

  • Working collaboratively with Gloucester Councils young person representative on engagement with children and young people 
  • Created a digital questionnaire that aims to gather pupil voice around the CPP
  • Shared resources with Gloucester
  • Continual contacts and collaborative work with Gloucester 

We will continue to work collaboratively with our joint partners in Gloucester Council and propose to ensure that children and young people fully understand the CPP. 

Feedback

A small group of children and young people in Swindon have already identified the three most important reforms of the programme:

  1. Transitions 
  2. The right support in school
  3. EHCP Standardisation 

Progress update

We have provided the steering group with our current methods of communicating with children and young people and families in both LA’s – this way we can show the steering group what the destination for proposed video’s would be for example, newsletters, Local Offer, social media.

What are we doing?

We aim to create graphic/animated videos for children and young people with SEND that are co-produced and fully decided by them. 

Why are we doing this? 

  • To further develop and up-skill service users on the services that are available to them
  • To spread awareness of SEND services and pathways

What children and young people told us?

  • “Information about SEND Law and how it relates to me”
  • “Exam support and how I can get it”
  • “Colourful and interactive”

What have we done and what’s next?

  • Recurring meetings to discuss the destination of the project – early stages 
  • Deciding how we will engage CYP? 
  • We worked on gathering and collecting feedback from CYP and drew on common themes that could be represented via the graphic, bite-sized videos Continual support from stakeholders for development of project 
  • Sought feedback from young people at our STEP Shadow Board to begin the process of engagement 

From the feedback above, we have done the following:

What are we doing?

  • We are working on improving  the current ‘This is Me’ annual review contribution forms that are used to gather pupil voice within statutory assessments

Why are we doing this? 

CYP were asked to provide feedback on the current forms and the responses revealed the need for change.

What children and young people told us?  

  • “We need to scrap this and have a new one altogether” 
  • “Really childish, disengaging and belittling”
  • “I’d like it to represent me because that’s what it’s about”

What have we done and what’s next?

  • Analysed feedback for need for change Contacted SENCOs and participation groups for CYP involvement 
  • Visited 9 different schools and settings to co-produce new forms 
  • Analysed feedback and drew upon common themes 
  • Updated the ‘This is Me’ forms with different versions for younger and older CYP
  • Piloted the new forms in schools and gathered feedback about how easy or not they were to use
  • New ‘This is Me’ forms have been agreed with CYP, and approved by SEND board. They are now published on the Hub for Education website for education practitioners to use with CYP.
  • A ‘Methods of Engagement’ booklet has also been co-produced with education practitioners to support all education settings to include the voices and opinions of CYP in their plans, including CYP who are non-verbal. This is published on the Hub for Education website. 

What are we doing?

We are trying to improve children and young people's experiences on SEND Travel to and from school/education setting each day. 

Why are we doing this? 

Evidence from feedback from children and young people with SEND from focus groups and the Annual SEND Survey results show improvements could be made. 

What children and young people told us?  

26 children and young people were surveyed on their travel experiences. You can view a few common answers below:

  • 61.54% believe communication between staff travel team and parents could be better
  • 11.54% of children like to have their own space when on transport
  • 15.38% of children would like to have a set seating plan
  • 15.38% of children believe that having an aid or a tool with PAs on transport would help
  • 11.54% of children would like to have the opportunity of potential route changes
  • 38.46% of children said that the bus arrived frequently on time

What have we done and what’s next?

After meeting with the SEND Travel Team to look at what could be improved, the following actions were agreed:

  • Email will be sent out as a reminder of what is expected from PAs and travel team whilst they are working. Completed
  • A lot of routes have seating plans or children will pick a seat and use that same seat
  • Any aid or tool on the journey is allowed to support them, however the parents or school must provide them, this is not the PAs responsibility. The SEND Travel Team can send out emails and information about this. 
  • Unfortunately, the transport routes are laid out in a certain way in order to keep timings for children and young people on transport for the minimum amount of time, as well as having the maximum efficiency. It is planned to share with children and young people and families information about why routes are set as they are in the Summer Term 2024-25. 
  • Make sure that when the bus is going to be late the PAs know to ring the office as soon as possible to keep them updated 

The Young Persons Champion has created a questionnaire to gather feedback on SEND Travel assistance, through the thoughts and voices of children and young people from schools in the Swindon Local Area. Feedback was analysed to gather the most common themes.

Alongside this, the Young Persons Champion has updated some travel FAQS for young people that have been placed on the Local Offer website.

Finally, a report was created that brings together the results to make change happen.

What are we doing?

Our overall objective is to promote the Local Offer website as much as possible whilst also ensuring that the information provided on it is accessible to everyone.

Why are we doing this? 

  • Ensure that language on the Local Offer website is clear, concise, accurate and free of over-complicated language by co-producing information with parents, carers and young people
  • Work together with professionals to ensure that information on the Local Offer website is correct and up-to-date
  • Make sure the Local Offer website is accessible to disabled users via technology such as AbilityNet that employs accessibility best practices to help everyone have the same access to information

What have we done and what’s next?

  • Create a plan on how to create a survey  
  • Made a survey to gain the feedback of young people and children around the Local Offer
  • Attended a board meeting along with other young peoples champions 
  • Carried out a stock take for LO merchandise 
  • Contacted people on SEND Families circulation lists to check they still wish to subscribe to the newsletter
  • Monitored the LO inbox and front door spreadsheet
  • Working with page owners of the Local Offer website that receive few views, to work through what needs to happen to their information for example, update, remove, marketing
  • Co-produced and published ‘How to guide’ on how to communicate with CYP, using CYP feedback to influence the guide. It is published here: How to write for young people - a guide

Feedback

The feedback we have received so far shows that very few if any young people and children have heard or are familiar with the Local Offer website. Young people have also expressed that they prefer to work in small groups and they would like people to talk to “who just get it, they don’t have to explain”.

Progress report

  • Updating Newsletter circulation lists ensure we are complaint with Data Protection Act, as well as ensuring those who wish to receive newsletters do so
  • Keeping LO Front Door log updated ensures we can easily see analytics to measure that we are meeting our targets in relation to response times to enquiries
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