Youth Voice

We always look to empower young people aged 11-19 to influence and inform the decisions that affect their lives.

We support young people to get involved in their communities and democracy locally, and work with the British Youth Council both nationally and internationally, making a difference as volunteers, campaigners, decision-makers and leaders.

To get involved you can can look at the opportunities below and get in touch with 

Marya Ali 

Telephone - 07920 160044 or

Email marya.ali@peterborough.gov.uk 

Peterborough Youth Council

Peterborough Youth Council (PYC) is a city-wide youth voice group that campaigns on issues important to young people and assists Peterborough City Council and local organisations to ensure young people are given the opportunity to have a say on decisions that may affect them. It’s made up of young people aged 11 – 19 from across Peterborough. There are two Youth Council members from each secondary school or college in Peterborough.

View our Peterborough Youth Council web page to view more details

Youth Voice Champions

If you are ages 11-19 (or up to 25 if you have special educational needs or disabilities)

Living, Working or Studying in Peterborough then sign up to be a ‘Youth Voice Champion’.

• Get access to social action, volunteering, and youth voice events

• Have changes to get your voice heard on issues that matter to you

• Get access to opportunities where you can develop your skills, chosen by you

• Get access to youth voice activity days and trips

• Support local and national youth voice campaigns

• Receive regular newsletter bulletins that inform and update you on youth voice opportunities- sign up to as much or as little as you like

• Be rewarded for your time

Sign up here 

Children in Care Council

Did you know that the council has to have a Children in Care Council and that they have to listen to you? Come along and have your voice and ideas heard. Join the Peterborough Children in Care Council.

If you would like to know the meeting dates or more information contact Marya Ali 07920 160044 or email Ciccouncil@peterborough.gov.uk

Youth MP

I’m Eva Woods and I’m proud to be Peterborough’s Youth Member of Parliament for 2022-24.

I believe that young people are full of answers. If you ask us for our thoughts on an issue, we can talk for hours about what we love, what’s missing and what’s not good enough. The problem is that these thoughts and ideas rarely reach the people with the power to do anything with them.

That’s where the MYP comes in. My platform exists to be a direct channel between young people and the policy-makers who hold power over our lives. My job is to listen, to collate, to support and to execute.

I was elected on the basis that I would fulfil three “campaign promises”:

• Supporting schools to reduce sexual harassment and bullying

• Creating new PSHE curriculums that effectively address eating disorders

• Supporting young people in Peterborough to access university and higher education

But that doesn’t mean I can’t use my platform to stand up for anything that’s important to you.

Youth MP is a nice title to have, but it is completely and utterly meaningless if I am disconnected from the people I represent. I am committed to being transparent, accessible and accountable in my role, and I will do everything I can to make sure that young people’s lives continue to improve in Peterborough.

The MYP of any constituency is part of the UK Youth Parliament, linking us to other MYPs across the country and allowing us to campaign for you on a national scale. We are provided with training and support, as well as opportunities to build networks with influential groups and people.

I am a member of Peterborough Youth Council, a council-run group made up of representatives from schools and colleges across the city. I also work closely with other local organisations, including Peterborough Citizens, Jumped Up Theatre and PARCA.

My email address is Eva.Woods@peterborough.gov.uk – my inbox is always open.

You can also keep an eye on what I’m doing on Twitter and Instagram:

@evawoodsmyp

@evalindywoods

Preparing for Adulthood Questionnaire

It is important that you have your voice heard. These questions ask what you think about your life.

Your answers will be used to help us understand what is working well and what needs to be improved in the lives of children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Your answers will help us make a plan of action for the next year.

Take the Young People's Consultation  survey

PfA Annual Youth Consultation January 2023 -Highlight Report 

You can view more details in the PfA Annual Youth Consultation January 2023 -Highlight Report 

We are the 'PfA Young People's Consultation Working Group' and we consult with young people in Peterborough who have SEND and are aged 14-25 years. We share their feedback with health, local authority, schools, community groups, etc., so we can improve young peoples' transition to adulthood. We are a multi-disciplinary group with representation from health, local authority, SENCOs, parent-carer forums and third sector groups.

We carry out a city-wide youth consultation every year with young people from schools and colleges across Peterborough.

We held our annual PfA youth consultation and information event in January 2023. We asked young people about health, independent living, employment, youth voice and community inclusion.

Six schools and colleges attended, bringing along 27 young people aged 14 to 25 including:

• 18 males and 9 females
• Majority with EHCPs
• 3 students with severe learning difficulties and majority with moderate learning difficulties.
• Majority were aged 14-18 years.

We also had six information sessions from health, education, employment, community and youth voice.

Groups who presented were:

Vivacity, Safe Soulmates, Peterborough Youth MP, Peterborough College Supported Internships, Scope and Access Champions Coffee Shop After Dark.

You can view more details in the PfA Annual Youth Consultation January 2023 -Highlight Report 

Your voice

Your voice helps us to ensure you have a full range of opportunities and support as you move through into adulthood

•  to increase by 100% our Supported internships in Peterborough and the numbers going into paid employment from the pre pandemic numbers 
• To set up an employer forum and to see if employers interested in employers champion training 
• To follow up with recent TSI (Training in Systematic Instruction) training for job coaches by training in supported employment techniques and ensure all job coaches follow BASE qualifications and training. 
• To promote vocational profile use in schools and colleges and increase use by 100% 

Next Steps-how your voice helps us ensure you have the full range of opportunities and support as you move through into adulthood

Your pathways to independent living

• 2023-4 focus on how to encourage discussion about next steps of where to live in the future e.g., in EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan), supporting families to discuss this by promoting what is available to them. 

•  We have recently produced PfA Top Tips for Families/Carers,  

• to include YP and families in the new housing policy being developed next year. 

• Via Senco Network encourage schools and colleges to include more practical food lessons in extra/courses. 

•  We are planning a food demonstration in our next YP consultation event and seeing if we can link to visual food demonstrations for our local offer. 

Next steps

Our next steps will be to provide information and support to young people about how they can use personal budgets to help with costs. We will be approaching groups we know to let them know costs might be a barrier. We are working to promote the information about groups on our local offer and are now looking at promoting leaflets as young people have told us they like these.  

PfA Employment

98% of young people said they would like to get a job.

Next steps  

•  to increase by 100% our Supported internships in Peterborough and the numbers going into paid employment from the pre pandemic numbers 

• To set up an employer forum and to see if employers interested in employers champion training 

• To follow up with recent TSI (Training in Systematic Instruction) training for job coaches by training in supported employment techniques and ensure all job coaches follow BASE qualifications and training. 

• To promote vocational profile use in schools and colleges and increase use by 100% 

PfA Health

Next Steps

• We will be holding cooking demonstrations at our next young person's consultation event in January 2024 
• We will be encouraging parents and carers to support young people to cook healthy meals 
• We will be asking our schools and colleges to support young people to cook healthy meals by looking at their curriculum and extra curricula activities 

Preparing for Adulthood - Young Persons Consultation Spring 2021

In response to our consultation with young people and a continuation of that dialogue with them, we have produced an online learning resource.

The Preparing for Adulthood - Young Persons Consultation Spring 2021 learning resource may also be useful to parents and staff who need some training in SEND and PfA.

The target age group is 13-25. (Please note the voiceovers and videos don't work on the presentation - if you want a copy of the original powerpoint presentation please email Marya Ali ( marya.ali@peterborough.gov.uk) or Elizabeth Sullivan Ash (elizabeth.sullivan@peterborough.gov.uk).

Resources 

In 2021, we released a virtual information resource for schools and colleges to deliver to their students. This resource included information about the Local Offer, travel training, supported internships, annual health checks and the Peterborough Smart Flat.

We also delivered focus groups with students at St John Fisher school on Employment and Independent Living. Young people told us, they'd like to:

• get a part time job
• meet new people and make new friends
• learn how to cope with anxiety
• learn how to drive a car
• be able to travel independently
• keep fit and healthy
• go on more walks
• try new activities, such as sports and arts

Young people said, in order to do this, they'd like help from teachers, school to help pass their GCSEs, post 18 support, college and university, and counsellors.

Young people were most looking forward to getting a job, driving and buying a car.

Consultation via online survey

In 2020, due to the pandemic, we consulted with young people via an online survey.

Here's what we found:

 Local Offer 

• Around 10% of young people knew about the Local Offer, and 5% stated they have used it.  

Activity Clubs 

• 84% said they don’t go to activity clubs outside of school/college, and only 32% knew how to find activity clubs in their local area.  

Independent Living 

• 37% had said someone had talked to them about where they would like to live in the future. 
• 58% said they had never done travel training.  

Health 

• 74% had never heard of an annual health check and 11% said they had been to an annual health check in the last year.  

Employment 

• 94% said they would like to get a paid job in the future. 
• 79% had heard of a supported internship. 

As a result, we created a virtual resource for schools to share the information you told us you needed.

In December 2019 we invited young people aged 14-25 from schools and colleges in Peterborough to an event to talk about their transition to adulthood. A total of 46 young people attended, who were consulted on employment, health, community inclusion and independent living.

Young people told us:

• 12% said they did not know about the Local Offer
• 72% said they have never heard of an annual health check
• 64% said they would like to some help to become confident in getting about the city
• 60% said they had not talked to anyone about where you would like to live when they are older

We used this feedback to improve the information and services we offer so young people are more prepared for adulthood.

About the event

The event was held on Friday 14 September 2018 from 10.00 to 12 noon for professionals and children and young people. The age group for the children and young people ranged from 10 to 25 years.

A brand new Local Offer website.

The 'topic' for the training was the Local Offer for Children and Young People and was chosen because Peterborough City Council were planning a brand new Local Offer website for children and young people.

The event was split into 2 parts.

Part one

The first part was a morning session for Professionals from Health, Education and Social Care to learn about co-production with children and young people techniques.

Part two

The second part was a 'live session' for children and young people to help design the new website.

Professionals had the opportunity to assist the KIDS team to participate in the sessions.