Lincolnshire Young Voices is an award-winning multi-disability participation group of volunteers that helps improve the lives of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and/or Disability (SEND).
We are funded by Lincolnshire County Council and supported by Lincolnshire NHS. Broadly, our aims are to improve services and raise awareness of SEND in the wider community.
Our friendly and supportive young volunteers have lived experience of disability and are dedicated to making positive change. We are looking for new volunteers under 25. If you know someone or you want to find out more, please use the contact form.
We meet every other month though communicate regularly. We understand that to inspire change we need to network and partner other organisations.
Our current work
Our service plan echoes our mantra of 'together, our voices make a difference'.
We are determined to help the people of Lincolnshire know what LYV do and how they can get involved.
Our current project - the voice of the child and young person
We want every child and young person with SEND to be heard, involved and empowered.
We are currently working in close partnership with the SEND team to improve how the voice of the child and young person is heard, recorded and acted upon across SEND processes in Lincolnshire.
A major focus of our work is supporting young people who have an education, health and care plan (EHCP) to:
- understand what an EHCP is
- know how they can share their views
- feel confident in sharing their views
- influence the support they receive
We currently have several workstreams underway to achieve this, including:
- designing accessible EHCP information for young people
- identifying strategies for children and young people to express their views
- helping professionals better understand how to facilitate the voice of children and young people with SEND
If you have any ideas linked to this area, please share them using the online form
Our previous work
While our focus has evolved, we continue to value and share the impact of our earlier priorities on bullying and accessible transport.
Bullying
Research from the anti-bullying alliance (2021) found that 36% of children and young people with SEND experience bullying. This shaped our priority to create resources that speak directly to the experiences of disabled children and young people.
Our bullying project:
- researched and developed anti-bullying resources
- created SEND-focused tools to help students understand what bullying is, how to recognise it and what they can do if it happens.
- delivered 16 anti-bullying workshops across 7 settings reaching over 170 students
Bullying in schools resources (see right hand side of linked page for downloads)
Transport
Our accessible transport project:
- gathered over 600 responses in our survey
- held follow-up meetings with Lincolnshire County Council transport managers and bus operators
- presented survey findings at the highways and transport scrutiny committee
Award winning training
In 2022, with support from the Council for Disabled Children and funding from NHS England, we developed a training package that won a NASEN award for co-production.
Our training package named 'A rough guide to not putting your foot in it- communicating with children and young people with SEND’ was voiced by our very own committee members who shared best practice to improve knowledge and confidence for everyone including professionals working or meeting children, young people and adults with SEND.
his training is freely available once registering with Safeguarding Lincolnshire (If your organisation is not listed use – ‘private organisations’).
Co-production and outreach
We welcome opportunities to work with both mainstream and SEN schools to involve students with SEND with our projects.
If your school would like us to visit and involve your students in shaping the future LYV work please use the contact form
Social media
To keep up to date with our projects and opportunities you can follow us on social media:
Facebook: Lincolnshire Young Voices
Instagram: @LincsYV
