Consultation Feedback

As part of involving young people in the ongoing review and development of the Leeds Local Offer website in August 2025 the Leeds SEND Youth Council reviewed the Leeds Local Offer website, and also looked at information about the SEND Youth Council. 

The full report can be read here. 

Members of the Leeds SEND Youth Council undertook a mystery shop of leisure centres across Leeds. Members visited the leisure centres managed by Leeds City Council to review the accessibility. 

The group fedback their experiences to decision makers. 

In June 2025; the STARS team consulted with the Leeds SEND Youth Council on the proposals to change the STARS team offer. 

The proposals in the Corporate Report ‘Consideration of a needs led not diagnostic led SEND offer (Autism)’ have been agreed and signed off.

The changes will come into effect 1st January 2026 and involve:

• SENIT & STARS teams will join together and will become known as Inclusion Advisory Team.
• The 4 distinct professional disciplines in SENIT & STARS will be maintained; early years, communication & interaction (including autism), learning & cognition, SEMH.
• STARS team will be known as the ‘Communication and Interaction (including autism) Team’. Overall though the team will be known as Inclusion Advisory Team.
• The Communication and Interaction (including autism) Team will no longer require autism diagnosis as a pre-requisite for settings accessing support for focused CYP work.
• Communication and Interaction (including autism) team will no longer provide an early years offer. EY team will continue to provide this comprehensive support including a SEND home visiting offer (portage)
• There  is much work to be done and we will use this term to communicate with and work with schools and settings and wider partners so that this can be implemented effectively. 

The SEND Youth Council gave insightful feedback and we have listened. They commented that the move to a needs-led model would make services more accessible and help children and parents understand and address their needs better. They asked that the team name should clearly describe the team's function and the service it provides. I hope ‘Inclusion Advisory Team’ does that! Young people also reflected that it is better to have one early years team and put all the funding into one team, and that is the plan going forward. 

In October 2025; the STARS team held a consultation session with the Leeds SEND Youth Council to explore their views and thoughts around developing resources to support schools and education settings in seeking and acting upon pupil voice.  

Following the consultation a training session for SENCOs on ‘Seeking and acting upon pupil voice to empower children and young people’ has been developed. It’s a ‘train the trainer’ session, so SENCOs take the training package back to their school, adapt as appropriate and deliver to their whole staff team. The voice of children and young people is everyone’s business.  In our session with SEND Youth Council we learnt that it is  important to have a key familiar adult to connect with, but that often information was not shared or acted upon. As such the young people felt listened to but not heard. These insightful contributions have  really influenced the training. Golden threads in the training are:

• The importance of embedding CYP Voice as whole school practice
• Stressing   the need for adult/pupil trust and quality relationships when seeking pupil voice.
• Committing to and valuing CYP voice means   actively seeking CYP voice,  acting upon it and keeping the dialogue open with CYP. 

The West Yorkshire Provider Collaborative for Children and Young People's Mental Health is where the specialist Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism NHS Trusts have agreed to work together to get the best possible care, experience and outcomes for people who use NHS services. The Trusts who are part of this are:

• Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust
• Leeds & York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
• Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
• South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

In May 2025; parents, carers, children and young people were asked to complete an online survey to give their views and feedback around managing emotions and eating disorders / eating issues. 195 people shared their feedback via the survey. 

The report and recommendations have been shared with the trusts. 

SEND Summit (12th February 2025)

Localised conversations took place regarding the Youth Summits in 2024, in accordance with the Children’s Champions and Children and Families Sub Groups. As we appreciate and understand that each community is different, the arrangements for the summits were worked through, using a collaborative approach and progressed by officers in the Communities Team, the Voice and Influence Team and the Children’s Champions, specifically taking into account, equality, diversity and inclusion. 

A key objective for the Community Committees is that we engaged with a wide variety of young people and that this engagement reflected the diversity of the city. With this in mind the Communities Team attended the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Youth Summit, alongside the Voice and Influence Team, to consult with young people that have special educational needs and disabilities.

At the SEND Summit which took place on the 12th February 2025, the Community Committees engaged with 47 young people from Broomfield South SILC, Cardinal Heenan, Green Meadows Academy, John Jamieson, East SILC, Lighthouse Futures Trust, Lighthouse School, Oulton Academy, Springwell Academy East and West SILC, with 51 YAF consultation surveys returned. 

SEND Youth Activity Fund Consultation Survey (Oct 2024 to March 2025)

The Youth Activity Fund Consultation Survey ran from October 2024 to March 2025, which young people could complete by clicking on an online YAF Survey link, or alternatively by scanning a QR code. 

As a key objective for the Community Committees is that we engaged with a wide variety of young people and that this engagement reflected the diversity of the city, an additional survey was created for young people that have special educational needs & disabilities. 

We had a total of 46 replies across the city of Leeds and these survey responses have been passed on to the respective individual committee areas, so that this feedback (along with other feedback), can inform the way that the Community Committees spend their allocated Youth Activity Fund budget in 2025/26. 

Recommendations

The consultation surveys submitted by young people, suggested the following Youth Activity Fund priorities for 2024/25:

• Youth activities delivered locally.
• Youth activities delivered either inside or outside.
• Majority of provision taking place on a weekend, or during the school holidays.
• Ensure any funded activities consider neurodivergent children and their needs, with provision provided being for smaller groups of young people.

Popular activities included: sports, cooking, coding, music and other outdoor activities.

To ensure that the Community Committees can make an informed decision when being asked whether they support funding for projects from its Youth Activity Fund in 2025/26, the Communities Team will advise committees if the project meets the priorities identified by young people who have special educational needs and disabilities, as a result of the consultation that has taken place.

On Wednesday 12th February 2025; the Early Help team attended the SEND Summit at Leeds Civic Hall to consult with 47 students with special educational needs and disabilities in Leeds. 

The team spoke to young people about the new Family Hubs, and wanted their feedback and views on the new SEND Coordinator roles. 

What should the SEND coordinators be like? 

Students were asked to draw a person and then write what they think the SEND Coordinator should be like. 

The most popular words you chose were caring, supporting, helpful, good and funny. 

What we plan to do: When the SEND Coordinators start work, we will show them the drawings and will also review with families to see if they think the workers are caring, supporting, helpful, good and funny.

What should the SEND coordinators do?

Students were asked to rate some of ideas for the SEND Coordinator role, by putting a green sticker on the ones they liked, a red sticker on the ones they didn’t like, and an orange sticker on the ones they were unsure about. 

As a group, students liked most of the ideas, the ones they were not sure about were:

• Telling you what your rights are
• Helping you to say what you think and what you want to happen

There were also some new ideas for example, supporting brothers and sisters and other family members. 

What we will do: We will speak to the SEND Coordinators about the ideas students liked and put a plan in place to make sure this is how they are helping children, young people and families. 

Click here to read the full consultation feedback report. 

In September 2024; the NHS Youth Forum carried out a consultation with children and young people about their experiences of transitioning from children's to adult health services. 

The NHS Youth Forum's report highlights significant problems within the NHS transition process, with many young people experiencing delays, poor communication, and a lack of support. Despite NHS guidelines recommending transition from ages 11-13, all young people we surveyed began transitioning much later, often leading to rushed and unstructured care.

Poor communication between paediatric and adult services results in young people feeling lost, while gaps in mental health support left many without care during a critical period. Our parent/carer(s) survey reinforced these concerns, with many feeling excluded from decisions despite their key role in supporting young people.

To improve outcomes, healthcare services must ensure holistic care, better communication, and a more structured approach. Training led by experienced young people and greater family involvement would help create a smoother, more supportive transition that prioritizes long-term well-being.

This report was written by members of our NHS England Young Researchers 2024-25 cohort, a group of young people passionate about improving health services for young people across the country.

The report is being used by the NHS England and the Children and Young People Transformation Programme to help change and alter policies, guidelines, and use to further advance the future of transition.

In September 2024; six members of the SEND Youth Council took part in a consultation session to gain feedback from the group around all aspects of the new online education, health and care needs assessment form.

Key feedback captured around the wording and length of the form, as well as the likelihood of the group using the form themselves.

Issues were raised around the length and accessibility of the form, which was fed back to IDS colleagues to amend.

Amendments to the form was made ahead of launch, based on the initial feedback from the SEND Youth Council.

The launch was delayed in order to make the amendments.

The new forms are available on the Education, health and care needs assessments and plans webpage. 

In the summer of 2024; the West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Partnership consulted with young people and adults across West Yorkshire to understand their perception of the causes of violence and the effect it has on the area, and what they feel should be done locally to prevent and tackle violence.

6,062 people fedback back, with 29% of those who fedback living in Leeds. 

Next Steps 

The findings from the community engagement highlight the complexity of preventing and tackling serious violence in Leeds. A layered approach is essential, involving collaboration between residents, community groups, organisations, local government, police and education to name a few. The approach should focus on both long-term prevention strategies, addressing the influential factors for violence, fostering a supportive and engaged community and enforcement in the ‘here and now’ to create a safer and more cohesive community. 

click here to read the full report. 

In September / October 2024, 174 primary school children and 30 young people from youth group settings took part in the opportunities to play consultation sessions. 

The purpose of the consultation was:

• to explore the access and opportunities to play for children and young people across Leeds.
• to understand what works well, and what could be improved regarding spaces to play for different age groups in the city.
• to provide planning guidance to be used by city developers to encourage child-centred designs of outdoor spaces to encourage and facilitate play.

The consultation sessions were delivered by Leeds City Council and young people were asked to complete a Top-Trumps-style worksheet that asked them to draw the space they play in the most, with space underneath to rate their spaces on a range of play-sufficiency-related themes and write accompanying notes.

A report has been produced that provides guidance and advice for the development of new and existing outdoor spaces, informed by the feedback from consultation with Children and Young People. This will be shared with service professionals and members of the working group to distribute and use within their services.

Click here to download the full consultation report. 

Click here to download the summary consultation feedback. 

In November 2024; the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board developed a survey to help them to understand what children and young people would like from a digital emotional wellbeing support service.

The survey was aimed at children and young people who live in Kirklees, Calderdale, Leeds, Wakefield and Bradford and Craven who have used a digital platform to help with their emotional wellbeing, to help us to understand what you need from a digital emotional wellbeing support service. The survey was sent out and was open for a total of 63 days, 107 responses were received. 

Click here to download the consultation report. 

In September 2024 West Yorkshire Voice asked children, young people and their parents and carers to highlight their experience of health and carer services. 

We heard from people via a survey as well as speaking to professionals supporting children and young people who are experiencing mental health difficulties, transgender or gender diverse, young carers, seeking asylum, disabled, neurodivergent and experiencing bereavement. 

A briefing paper was written based on what we heard from people as well as what we already knew from existing insights and work. This was presented at the September West Yorkshire ICB Board Meeting alongside a Healthwatch Leeds video about a young person's experience. You can see re watch the board meeting and see the other papers here. 

On the 23rd May 2024; 6 members of the SEND youth Council took part in a focus group to inform the development of a health needs assessment focused on the health and wellbeing of children and young people in Leeds. 

All the feedback was pulled together and a list of recommendations shared with professionals across the city to support them to continue working together to improve the health and wellbeing of young people in Leeds. 

The recommendations suggested:

• ways in which services could be improved for young people
• actions around improving understanding of barriers to education for young people and how educational opportunities could be improved, particularly for young people with SEND and those not in mainstream education.
• there should be a continued focus on improving the mental health of young people, reducing child poverty and increasing opportunities to hear young people’s voice.
• there should be more focus on social isolation and providing opportunities for young people to connect
• there should be services and support to ensure young people have the information to help them be physically and mentally healthy, including support for young parents.
• there should be a continued focus on supporting young people to reduce the impact of harm, including a focus on vaping, drugs, sexual health and sexual violence.

How will your views help in the future

• We have made the full Health Needs Assessment available online for anyone to access so they can use the findings to shape services and priority areas of work for young people in the future.
• We will consider key findings when we review our Leeds 0-19 health visiting and school service and other services for young people provided by Public Health.

click here to read the full consultation feedback report. 

Leeds City Council partnered with youth marketing agency, Nerds, to refresh their 3 in 1 sexual health services in the city.

In April 2021, hundreds of young people were consulted on the new name of the service, logo design and branding. 

Following the consultation, the new name for the service is “Well Wave” which was launched on 9th September 2024.

Some examples of where young peoples’ views/contribution had impact include

•  This service used to be known by near 100% of young people. One of the main things we learned from the group was that no one was aware of the service and offers. We employed a marketing agency that was specialist in communicating with young people in the spaces they are at, to help us have the best chance to meet young people in the digital spaces they go to. We done a lot of work to produce print materials and digital materials to help get the word out in spaces where young people may be. We are also doing a digital and physical poster campaign at different points in the city. We will continue to host briefings for adults who work with young people to raise their awareness too.
• When we did the case study activity with the group, it helped us to hear and see how young people would look for a place to meet a particular need. In some cases while young people reached the appropriate services on the screen, we could see that the information was laid out unhelpfully and that some young people may have tried to call or attend the wrong place. We have made a new interim service map which we hope will address some of these issues, are will continue to work on further improvements
• We have built information on how the young people looked for services and what they said was important to them in being able to access services into our practitioner training. The workers have responded well to the insight.
• We heard we need to be social. We developed social media accounts to launch in September and a bunch of content to help people connect with and understand the service.
• In our messaging we have really emphasised the importance of people being able to come for a wide range of conversations about sex and relationships - to talk about achieving the positives, working out what young people might want and how to get there, as well as to offer support for young people when things have not gone well/they need help to access services. We have talked about working alongside young person as they make decisions and take control in a way that matches their beliefs, hopes, situation, lived experience and needs as an individual. We made some awareness raising social media posts and animations to help young people understand why and how it is important to care for their sexual health (and their mates) and how they can get support with this. Once we had a new brand and design the young people who gave survey feedback helped refine and improve the designs (and the commitment to create additional ones).
• We heard young people’s thoughts on what information and communication they need to feel able to come to service. We have made new materials that clearly explain not just the service offer, but what happens when people come to the service and how people can ask confidence building or stress reducing questions or share access needs in advance.
• We are making the registration process for our c-card easier for workers and young people, and creating the option for a digital c-card (still to be confirmed) Young people initially wanted an app. We didn’t get approval / funding to make an app, but we had also not thought about the possibility of a digital wallet card at that time. We talked to lots of young people about the digital wallet card and are with their positive feedback we are hoping this can deliver the important functionality that many young people in surveys, interviews and focus groups wanted, but actually with it being easier to access and more discrete than an app. We await council approval on this part of the project.

The Consultation

Leeds City Council is proposing to make changes to the policy we have which provides transport to students over 16, and to young people aged between 19-25 with special educational needs and disabilities. Before any changes are agreed, we wanted to consult with anyone affected to better understand the impact of the proposals. 

The consultation has now CLOSED. We are currently analysing your responses and will be publishing detailed feedback in due course.

Please visit the consultation webpage to view more information about the consultation and what we are proposing.

If you have any queries regarding the consultation, please email post16transport.review@leeds.gov.uk

The Youth Activity Fund Consultation provides the opportunity for young people to share with Community Committees what activities they would like in the area they live.

The survey ran from October 2023 to March 2024, which young people could complete online.  

As a key objective for the Community Committees is engage with a wide variety of young people and reflects the diversity of the city, an additional survey was created for young people that have special educational needs & disabilities. 

SEND Youth Activity Fund consultation 

The survey received 75 responses, and responses from the survey was fedback to the relevant Community Committees, this feedback along with feedback from the wider survey will inform the way that the Community Committees spend their allocated Youth Activity Fund budget in 2024/25.

Localised conversations took place regarding the Youth Summits in 2023, in accordance with the Children’s Champions and Children & Families Sub Groups. As we appreciate and understand that each community is different, the arrangements for the summits were worked through, using a collaborative approach and progressed by officers in the Communities Team, the Voice & Influence Team and the Children’s Champions, specifically taking into account, equality, diversity & inclusion. 

A key objective for the Community Committees is that we engaged with a wide variety of young people and that this engagement reflected the diversity of the city. With this in mind the Communities Team attended the SEND Youth Summit, alongside the Voice & Influence Team, to consult with young people that have special education needs & disabilities. 

At the SEND Youth Summit which took place on the 14th November 2023, the Community Committees engaged with 36 young people that have special educational needs & disabilities.

SEND Youth Activity Fund Consultation Survey Recommendations

The consultation surveys submitted by young people that have special educational needs and disabilities, suggest the following Youth Activity Fund priorities for 2024/25:

• youth activities delivered locally. 
• youth activities delivered either inside or outside. 
• majority of provision taking place during the school holidays, or on a weekend. 
• ensure any funded activities are fun, active and creative. 

Specific feedback re: SEND provision in Leeds included, “holiday provision for SEND kids is a real issue in Leeds” and “there is so little for teenagers with SEND to do in the holidays”. 

Popular activities included:

1. Sports (football, netball & basketball in particular).
2. Dance.
3. Cooking.
4. Other popular activities included music and arts & crafts.

RJC Dance Camps Dance Camps are a very common theme amongst the feedback from young people, as there was over 20 separate comments re: both the Summer camps, as well as the October camps. Comments included, “I have enjoyed this week because I like dance”, “has been really entertaining and everyone has been themselves”, “the dance is easy and very vibrant and I'm excited to perform” and “I have enjoyed meeting new people”. 

It is recommended that any projects funded by the Community Committees from the Youth Activity Fund, focus on these key themes and activities above in 2024/25.

To ensure that the Community Committees can make an informed decision when being asked whether they support funding for projects from its Youth Activity Fund, the Communities Team will advise the committee if the project meets the priorities identified by young people who have special educational needs & disabilities, as a result of consultation that has taken place.

Following an increase in demands on service and workforce challenges resulting in a drop in statutory performance, Leeds City Council commissioned a review of its current EHC assessment, plan and annual review processes to identify key opportunities for change. The review highlighted areas for improvement in relation to the Council’s communications, processes, support provided and consistency in approaches.

Click here to download the consultation analysis. 

Our aim is to implement changes and improvements, to help the Council achieve its vision, that children and young people in Leeds with SEND, have the best possible start to life and equal opportunities to learn.

The Children and Families Department will keep you updated throughout the process here, and this webpage will serve as an information hub about the changes.

If you have any queries in relation to the project, please get in touch with us at ehcpreview@leeds.gov.uk.

Make Your Mark is the largest youth ballot for 11 to 18 year olds in the UK. Young people have their say and begin their democratic journey by voting on the issues they want to change. The 2024 Make Your Mark voting ran between 29th January and 8th March.

National Results
512,606 young people cast their vote. The top issue voted for by young people was Health and Wellbeing. Members of Youth Parliament from Leeds and across the UK will be working on Health and Wellbeing as their campaign for the next 2 years. 

Leeds Results
7,884 young people from Leeds cast their vote. The top issue voted for by young people in Leeds was Crime and Safety.

The Leeds Youth Council will work on Crime and Safety as their campaign for the next two years.

As part of the development of a new Leeds Local Offer (SEND) website, a new logo and branding was developed in consultation with young people. 

Potential logos were shared with young people at the SEND summit in November 2023, and also with the Leeds SEND Youth Council. Young people were asked to vote for their preferred logo and also choose the colours they preferred. 

The feedback was shared with the team developing the logo and branding. Final designs were shared with the Leeds SEND Youth Council in January 2024 and their feedback and suggested amends were implemented. 

The new logo and branding for the Leeds Local Offer (SEND) is now used on the new website and all promotional material. 

From September to December 2023 children, young people, parents and carers were asked to give their views and feedback on Short Breaks and Fun Activities in Leeds. 

Leeds City Council's Commissioning Team are carefully reviewing the data from the consultation with children, young people, parents and carers as well as working with providers and practitioners when commissioning services. 

the Commissioning Team used the established Voice, Influence and Change (VIC) networks, Leeds Local Offer site and social media accounts to share information and encourage families to share their views. The networks include a range of parent and carer groups with a SEND focus; young people’s groups; and schools and education settings. Commissioning Team have established relationships with VIC leads in many Leeds schools and settings, who will often support VIC activities with their learners.

As part of this Short Breaks review, the Commissioning Team engaged with children, young people, parents and carers by using a mixture of mechanisms:

• Focus group with the SEND Youth Forum on 19th October 2023 (via Teams)
• Consultation at the SEND Summit on 14th November 2023 (Leeds Civic Hall)
• C&YP and P/C online surveys (December 2023)

All feedback received from the consultations will inform the current review of Short Breaks and Fun Activities in Leeds.

Click here to read the full consultation report. 

In Leeds we want to help children, young people and families who live in poverty.

We want to work with and support children and families that are living in poverty and experiencing poverty-related difficulties.

The Leeds Children's Poverty Board are a group of senior members of staff from across the city who are working together to try and address the impact of child poverty.

In the summer of 2023 the Child Poverty Board consulted with children and young people in Leeds when updating the Child Poverty Strategy for Leeds (a plan).

Click here to download the consultation report. 
 

Young people from specialist learning settings takeover the Leeds Area SEND Partnership Board every November as part of National Takeover Challenge.

In November 2023, students from St John's School, West SILC, East SILC and future Horizons took over the board.

Students surveyed 99 young people with SEND in Leeds to find out which of the Child Friendly Leeds wishes were most important to them, and what ideas they had for achieving this wish in Leeds.

Click here to download the Child Friendly Leeds wishes consultation report.

Students shared the report with the Leeds Area SEND Partnership Board on the 22nd November 2022, and have also shared the findings with the Child Friendly Leeds wish leads.

If you would like any more information about the Child Friendly Leeds wishes please email childfriendlyleeds@leeds.gov.uk
 

The Leeds SEND Youth Forum attended an online session on the 13th February 2023 to review the young people’s section on the Leeds Local Offer website.

All feedback and recommendations for improvement to the website have been actioned and responded to.

During the May 2023 session, SEND Youth Forum members heard from MindMate about their website, and the new Neurodiversity Information Hub.

The SEND Youth Forum shared feedback with MindMate about the website:

• Really good website with lots of information
• Really like the visuals
• Urgent help - like that it is a priority of all pages
• Like the videos
• Like the 'real' stories.
• Easy to navigate and understand

Service feedback:

• Urgent help is all for under 18's, and nothing other than calling 999 for 19 to 25 year olds.

MindMate's Response

• We have updated the website based on your feedback which was really helpful.

The following pages now have a button link to Mindwell for the over 18s who might need urgent help.

• https://www.mindmate.org.uk/urgent-help-all-services/
• https://www.mindmate.org.uk/coping-common-issues/thinking-of-suicide-need-urgent-help/ 
   

Back in June / July 2023, young people and families shared their experiences of accessing dental care with Youthwatch Leeds.

Youthwatch are currently in the process of writing up a report to share our findings from our Oral Health project, we’d like to ensure this a co-produced piece of work with our young volunteers and aim to get this complete sometime within October. We're really keen on creating visuals/ videos to ensure our findings are communicated through different mediums and not just via text heavy reports. A total of 352 parents and carers, 248 children and young people have shared their thoughts/ experiences with us. We’d like to extend our gratitude to each and every person who was involved and welcome us into their space to speak too!

Thanks to the support and involvement from the Public Health Team, some funding has been secured in recognition of the difficulties many people have reported back with difficulty seeing a dentist. This will be used towards providing oral health promotion within the east Leeds locality (recognition of high demand in need of support). Currently we are in the process of assisting the recruitment of community oral health ambassadors for training. Insight and findings will also be shared with decision makers within dentistry to help ensure public voice and experience is placed at the forefront of commissioning changes now that dental services will be overseen by the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board. We'll be working closely with said commissioners by continually highlighting experiences shared with us when attending/ representing the people of Leeds at the West Yorkshire Children and Young People's Oral Health Board and the Children and Young People's Oral Health Network Meeting.

Some of the recurring feedback themes that have emerged from the input shared and what we are actively feeding back thus far include;

• a lack of available dental practices taking on patients
• financial difficulties in accessing dental care and maintaining oral health
• mental health implications of oral health upkeep and dental visits (i.e. anxiety, distress)
• the need for dental practice environments to be less stimulating and better equipped to provide a calm and welcoming atmosphere 
• the importance of dental professionals adapting to delivering person-centered care 
• the need for better flexibility around adjustments to meet individual needs - particularly including the use of communication aids such as translators and story boards and clearer communication on the dental pathway/ access to dental advice.

The Children and young people's plan outlines our priorities that guide our work. The plan has been developed through consultation across the city, including the views of children and young people. 

Ensuring that our Best City Ambition delivers for Leeds' children and young people, we will focus on:

• children in all areas of the city having the best start in life and enjoying a healthy, happy, and friendly childhood
• young people having the skills that enable them to realise their potential and to thrive. 

In October and December 2022 we consulted 142 young people via online surveys and 67 young people contributed in ‘child friendly’
sessions. The consultation also took into account comments from the Child Friendly Leeds 12 Wishes, that captured the voices of 80,000 children and young people in Leeds in 2021.

The refreshed Children and Young People's Plan 2023 to 2028 can be found online. 

click here to download the consultation report. 

SENDIASS have been working with a graphic designer to create digital animation characters that can be used on social media and on information.

40 young people took part in our consultations between November 2021 and March 2022 and made over 300 comments for us to consider and use about the colour character and text style for designs. Young people also made detailed comments and considered how designs could work best for as many young people with SEND as possible who may view them in discussion.
 

Thank you to everyone who completed the NHS Youth Forum consultation about special educational needs and disabilities and long term conditions.

The NHS Youth Forum have written a report following the consultation, you can find the full report as well as a video version of the report here: NHs Youth Forum Report. 

In 2022, the views of children, young people, parents and carers were sought on the green paper about the changes the government want to make to the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) system in England.

The consultation ran from the 29th March 2022 to the 22nd July 2022.

The government’s response to the consultation is available in the SEND and alternative provision improvement plan.

This plan sets out our responses to the feedback we received and the improvements we’ll make to the SEND and alternative provision system in England.
 

The Council for Disabled Children have been working closely with children and young people to ensure that their voices are included in the DfE’s consultation on the SEND and Alternative Provision Green Paper.

The SEND Review is a piece of work by the Department for Education (DfE) that looks at improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND. To ensure that the DfE’s proposals will reflect the needs of children and young people with SEND, CDC have been gathering their opinions to create a children and young people’s response to the SEND and Alternative Provision Green Paper.

Click here to read the response from children and young people.

Make Your Mark is the largest youth ballot for 11 to 18 year olds in the UK. Young people have their say and begin their democratic journey by voting on the issues they want to change.

National Results
434,492 young people cast their vote. The top issue voted for by young people was Health and Wellbeing.

Leeds Results
5,546 young people from Leeds cast their vote. The top issue voted for by young people in Leeds was Health and Wellbeing.

The Leeds Youth Council and Leeds Members of Youth Parliament will work on Health and Wellbeing as their campaign for the next two years.

Specialist Provision Results
Students from 6 specialist provisions in Leeds cast their vote. The top issue voted for by the young people was Health and Wellbeing.

Health and wellbeing will be the theme for the 2022 SEND Partnership Board Takeover.
 

The Leeds Youth Council Campaign Group was formed in May 2022 and consists of 18 young people aged 10-18. The group meet in person on a monthly basis to develop a campaign around the top voted issue from the Make Your Mark Ballot, the largest youth consultation in the UK. 'Health and wellbeing' was voted as a national and local priority, receiving a total of 5546 votes in Leeds.

The group developed three aims for the initial stages of their campaign:

• To explore what health and wellbeing means to young people in Leeds.
• To find out what needs to change for young people in Leeds.
• To explore possible solutions to bring about change for young people in Leeds

To achieve their aims, the group put together a consultation survey for young people aged 9-18 (up to 25 with SEND) who live in or go to school in Leeds.

The respondents were given a choice of 14 issues relating to Health and Wellbeing and asked to vote for the one they felt was the most important. They were asked to share their ideas
for how to address the issue.

A total of 853 surveys were completed. The results were analysed so the issues could be ranked based on their importance to young people in Leeds. Key themes were identified surrounding possible solutions to bring about change.

Click here to download the full survey report

For more information about the survey results, and the work of the Leeds Youth Council campaign group contact VIC@leeds.gov.uk
 

Throughout 2021-22 Common Room was commissioned to engage with young people as part of the NHS England National Quality Improvement Taskforce for children and young people’s mental health inpatient services. This work included establishing a Young Persons Advisory Group made up of six young people with lived experience of staying in children and young people's mental health inpatient settings across England.

The group was tasked with creating a resource to help improve responses to suicidal feelings and self-harm incidents in inpatient settings.

Working alongside Patrick Grace, the designer, the group created a series of posters using quotes directly from young people who have lived experience of staying in inpatient settings. The posters are aimed at different audiences who may be present in a children's inpatient setting; children & young people, staff, visitors and family members or carers.

The group also produced a Team Briefing Sheet to share other quotes they felt weren't appropriate to display, but still needed to be heard by staff. They hope that this sheet can be used in the units to promote some discussions around improvement and change.

All resources can be downloaded here: click here.

The NHS have collected young people’s views, thoughts and experiences of the healthcare system to feed into a health based youth charter for the city of Leeds.

Three main questions were asked:

• Thinking about the health care system today, what don’t you like?
• Thinking about the health care system today, what do you think works well?
• What would your dream health care system look like?

FIND OUT WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH THE YOUTH CHARTER HERE
 

Due to the coronavirus pandemic we were unable to host an in person SENate information and consultation event for schools and information and consultation event for parents and carers.

Leeds City Council worked in partnership with EPIC Leeds to host a virtual Leeds Local Offer Information and Consultation Month on the Leeds Local Offer website. The month was split into three elements on the website:

• Service Information Market Place
• Parent / Carer Consultations
• Young People Consultations

Click here for the full report. 
 

In February 2021 we asked members of the Leeds SEND Youth Forum to design a logo for the group.

We are really pleased with the new Leeds SEND Youth Forum Logo. All members who sign up to the Leeds SEND Youth Forum will receive a pin badge with the logo on with their welcome letter.
 

MindMate help young people in Leeds to find help with their mental health and wellbeing. Throughout the MindMate website and on resources they produce they use characters.

MindMate have redesigned their characters (36 in total) and they wanted to know what young people in Leeds thought of their new designs. We asked you, as members of the SEND Youth Forum, to let us know what you thought.

The Leeds SEND Youth Forum is a virtual network of young people aged 11 to 25 years old with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) who live in Leeds or attend school in Leeds.

The Leeds SEND Youth Forum provides opportunities for young people to have a voice and influence in SEND services in leeds.

We asked Leeds SEND Youth Forum about their experiences of being involved in the forum and how we can make it better.

5 members of the youth forum completed an online survey to tell us about their experience. 
 

The Leeds Local Offer website is a place for us to provide information in one place about services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families.

We have lots of information on the Leeds Local Offer website about education, careers, transport, fun activities, health services and lots more.

The health section on the website is quite confusing and contains a lot of out-of-date information. So, in November 2021 to January 2022 we asked young people, parents, and carers in Leeds what information about health services they would like to see on the website to assist in the redesign of the health section.

All suggestions and feedback were taken on board and influenced the changes made.
 

In April 2021; HealthWatch asked young people with special educational needs and disabilities and their parents / carers to share their experiences of finding a dentist.

Feedback from the consultation
HealthWatch received nearly 3 times as much feedback on dentistry than they have had in the previously. Access to NHS Dentistry has been an issue in Leeds and across the country for some time now.

Following the latest campaign HealthWatch produced a summary report of the key themes across the West Yorkshire and Harrogate region with regards to dentistry and this was shared directly with the NHS Dental Commissioner and more importantly, the West Yorkshire and Harrogate System Oversight and Assurance Group.

Following the report being shared they have agreed to own the issue as a West Yorkshire and Harrogate Integrated Care System. Quotes from members of the public on how a lack of dentistry affects them was a driver for them to take action, realising the wider health issues that this is now causing, including mental health and the potential for wide scale health inequalities.

Change can take a long time within the health system, especially when that change will be national but we’re pleased that we’ve been able to use peoples experiences to get this issue on the agenda at last and hopefully on the road to making improvements to the way people can access NHS dentistry.
 

In June 2021 Advonet asked for young people who were interested in helping them to design their leaflets and guides so they appeal to other young people and promote their service.

Unfortunately, members of the Leeds SEND Youth Forum did not express an interest however 4 young people from Leeds did.

The young people have met with the graphic designer to discuss what the leaflet should look like and timescales for work. The leaflet should be completed by August 2021 and will be shared with YouthWatch at HealthWatch to review in early September before making it more widely available.
 

From 23rd February to 8th March, Health Watch Leeds asked people to tell them about their experience of shielding during the pandemic. Health Watch wanted to hear both from people who have been asked to shield over the past 12 months and those who have only recently received shielding letters.

65 responses were received, 57 of which were from those shielding pre-February 2021; 8 were from people who had started shielding from February.

Click here to read the Healthwatch Shielding Survey 2021

In Leeds we want fun activities to be more inclusive, which means ensuring children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities can take part in the activities they want to.

In March 2021 we asked young people in Leeds about short breaks and fun activities via an online survey. We wanted to find out about the activities young people enjoy doing, and how we can help services to ensure all activities are accessible to young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

The responses received are being shared with a group of professionals working together to review short breaks and fun activities in Leeds. The feedback will be incorporated into the decisions that are made.
 

In November 2021, young people from the Powerhouse (West SILC post 16 provision) contacted the Leeds Local Offer to share their experience of using the website. From January to April 2022 students met with the Local Offer and SEND Voice and Influence Coordinator on a weekly basis to review the information on the young people’s section. A full redesign took place and students undertook a user testing section before the young people’s section was finalised on the 25th April 2022.

Click here for a summary of the changes that were made to the young people’s section of the Leeds Local Offer directly from feedback and suggestions made by students from the Powerhouse.

Any sections / information removed from the young people’s section are still available in the parents / carers and professionals sections.

If you would like further information please email LLO@leeds.gov.uk

SENDIASS is a dedicated service providing free, confidential and impartial information advice and support for children and young people aged 0-25 who have or may have special educational needs and/or a disability and for their parents and carers.

As part of the Leeds Local Offer Information and Consultation Month (March 2021) children, young people, parents and carers were asked to review the SENDIASS website pages.

Click here to download the feedback report. 
 

On Thursday 30th March 2021, 2 members of the SEND Youth Forum attended a zoom focus session with SENDIASS to provide them with feedback on their young people’s service information leaflets.

Click here to download the feedback report. 

Following consultation around the look and content of the Leeds Local Offer website in September / October 2020, the Leeds Local Offer team have been working with the website hosts to implement changes based on the feedback.

In March 2021, 5 young people and 6 parents user tested the new website and provided additional feedback around the ease of use, look of the website and the information the website provides.

Click here to download the user testing report. 

Making Leeds a good city for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) consultation with children and young people .

We are working on the new SEND and Inclusion strategy for Leeds. This is a big plan of all the things we need to do, to make Leeds a good place for children and young people with SEND and additional needs.

In July 2021, we asked young people in Leeds with SEND: what are the most important things for our new strategy to work on?

We heard from 29 young people. They were aged between 12 and 19 years.

Click here to download the feedback report. 

Click here to download an easy read version of the feedback report.
 

In the summer, the Children’s Commissioner asked young people to share their hopes, fears, dreams, lockdown stories and their future plans. 

The Big Answer, as the response has been called, has now be published.

The response is written for children and is very clear. The main feedback was:

• Most children are happy in their families but there needs to be more family hubs, where families can get lots of help from different people in one place, and there should be enough money to help families before problems worsen.
• Children like to have opportunities to play and relax away from their screens but they want to feel safe when they go outside, they want more youth clubs offering great activities and when they are on their screens, they want to be safe online.
• Most children said their mental well-being was fine but they want more mental health support in schools and digital mental health support, as well as more teaching about healthy diet and the importance of staying active.
• 84% of children said they were happy with their life at school but wanted opportunities to help them catch up, have more catch-up money for schools, better rewards for teachers and time after school for sports, learning and the arts.
• Children want high quality careers advice, more jobs for young people and more apprenticeships.
  Children in care were more likely to be unhappy. There was a plea for more children’s homes, better mental health support for children in care and better support for care leavers.

Click here to read the full report. 
 

Young people, families and professionals were asked to feed into the redesign of the SEND Leeds Local Offer website.

The consultation took place September to October 2020 and the new look website will be relaunched early 2021.

Click here to download the full report. 

For more information about the consultation email llo@leeds.gov.uk.
 

Each year students takeover the SEND Partnership Board as part of National Takeover Challenge. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic they unable to takeover the SEND Partnership Board in person in 2020.

Children, young people and families were asked to give their feedback about their personal experiences of the coronavirus lockdown. These responses were collated into a report that students presented to the SEND Partnership Board on the 24th November 2020.

Members of the SEND Partnership Board are going to share the presentation and report with their services and use the feedback to look at how things can be done differently to support families.