Young People are our future

At the heart of what we do are our young people. Their voices are important to us and we have started to work with them to understand how we might make improvements to our provision. It is also vitally important that we feed back to them around their suggestions, and we have devised a ‘You Said, We Did’ approach to this.

It is really important to us here at MIAG that we listen to our young people, the experiences that young people have at MIAG and in the wider world will help us to shape and improve the offer for, and the experiences of young people.

Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) states that:

Children and young people with additional learning needs have a unique knowledge of their own needs and circumstances. They will have their own views about what sort of help they would like to make the most of their education.

They should, where possible, take part in decisions like target-setting, choice of schools, assessing their needs, annual review, and change of schools. They should feel confident that they will be listened to and that their view are valued.

Young people have a basic human right to express their views on matters that are important to and for them.

It is not always easy for adults to work with young people to gain their views, and there may appear to be many challenges along the way. However, the adults working with young people need to be creative in ensuring that voices are heard, opinions are important and to close the loop in feeding back to young people.

When working with Young People to obtain their voice, adults should consider a range of factors including specific interests and how best to facilitate discussions e.g using alternative means of communication/focussing on specific topics.