A huge “Thank You” to all of those who attended the Together for Sutton (TfS) Young People's Information Network on Monday 16 December 2024, and apologies I could not make it there myself, but a huge thank you to the team for supporting Simon in my absence.
This event was all about our Young People in the borough, and very much an opportunity for you to speak to them directly and ask questions about their experiences of our services. We really hope each and every one of our guests and participants managed to take something away to help with improving our Young People's journey in the future. Kicking off with Simon Breeze and an introduction to where we are now, Simon discussed the need for focussing on our next generation and why we need to prioritise this quickly in order to prevent further disadvantages to our young residents.
The focus of this Information Network was always intended to support the re-launch of the local campaign around Children Looked After (CLA) being a protected characteristic. This was originally launched in January 2023 by the Sutton CLA team alongside Councillor Marian James, with the hope to push this in our session and look to getting your commitment to sign-up and pledge to support children in care or leaving care, and to fast track/prioritise where possible. However due to unforeseen circumstances and the nasty bug doing the rounds at Christmas, this wasn't possible, but I have been told that we did have some CLA pledges, so I hope to review these with the CLA team in the coming months and to work with you all to get your ideas in place ASAP. Please do watch this space!!
Throughout this Information Network, we invited children/young people who have experienced disadvantage to talk us through their journey and highlight barriers in the system. And in order to do this, we invited Sutton’s Young Carers, SEND Advocates and MAPs Mentors to support our Young People in demonstrating the reality of their world and how it could be improved upon if we just collaborated more to bring the challenges they face to the forefront of the minds of those delivering these crucial and life changing services.
Action Voices have their say at the TfS Young People's Info Network.
Hayley Brooker, Young Person's Advocate, Volunteer Centre Sutton, representing our Young MAPS Mentees
Rather than network as we have in the past, this time round we wanted to show you how our Young People feel, and so through creative speech, demonstrations and our Young People's panel, we hope this gave you all something to think about!
With our amazing group of Young People, we invited you to take a walk in their footsteps in order to understand the barriers to our services and the real impact this has on young lives. With questions like:
- Is there anything more you would have liked education to do to support you in the earlier days?
- Where do you feel improvements could be made?
- What have been your highlights/recommendations to other young people?
- What’s the biggest challenge from young people when mentoring?
- How to help if you think a young person is making a ‘bad’ decision, without interfering?
- What is the most frustrating thing as a Young Carer dealing with professionals?
The panellists all answered questions honestly and with real enthusiasm to improve our working together moving forwards, and so a huge "Thank You" to our Young People for sharing their journey with us, you are the true stars of our event.
Ultimately, there is no one size fits all when working with different individuals regardless of age; but if we improve what we already do and really, actively listen to our Young People's voice, then there is always room for improvement!
