Youth Voice Matters Conference 2024

In February 2024, the Council for Disabled Children (CDC) hosted our sixth Youth Voice Matters Conference. Over 110 disabled children and young people, and children and young people with special educational needs, from across England came together to develop their participation skills and to recognise the impact they can have when taking part in strategic participation.

This event is held annually as part of the Department for Education funded national programme Making Participation Work. Youth Voice Matters is a conference with a difference – designed and delivered by young people for young people. Children and young people’s right to participate is enshrined in law. Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child says that all children and young people have a right to be heard in decisions that affect them, and to take part in decision-making. Clause 19 of the Children and Families Act 2014 introduces principles around how disabled children and young people and/or those with special educational needs participate in decisions around their support and care.  At CDC we believe children and young people’s right to be heard and to take part in decision making about their lives should go even further than what the law outlines. The event was created to give young people a space to develop their confidence and their participation skills, to highlight the different ways to speak with decision-makers, and share examples of what can happen when young people realise their collective power.

This year our theme was Action, as decided by the children and young people’s advisory group to the Department for Education, FLARE. Building upon previous events where workshops have explored what strategic participation can look like and about developing the skills young people need to have their voices heard, this year focused on how we can put learning into practice. FLARE have a key role in co-designing the day, from the activities on offer (including networking opportunities and a photobooth) to the workshops run.

The FLARE group led a workshop where delegates collaboratively and creatively set out their priorities in the following areas, health, education, social care, and our community. They thought about the changes they want to see in the SEND system at the local and national level, and their ideas will be published as a digital zine which the FLARE group can use to ensure they are raising the issues important to children and young people from across England in their advisory work to the Department for Education and so that the participation/youth groups involved can use these priorities to shape their agendas.

A second workshop led by the FLARE group explored how delegates, independently and in their participation/youth groups, can develop their own campaigns. The workshop broke down a campaign into separate steps, using the example of campaigning on the wider use of empowering language, and allowed delegates to develop the tools they need to build their own campaigns on the issues important to them.

Our Making Participation Work partner, KIDS, delivered a workshop on transitions and provided the opportunity to for delegates to feed into the Department for Education’s work. RE-STAR’s Youth Researchers shared insights on how children and young people can be involved in research, and Coram Voice explored children’s rights and how we can exercise these.

FLARE member Sam, Director of CDC Amanda Allard, and CEO of the National Children’s Bureau Anna Feuchtwang chaired the day. Sam shared an empowering speech on this year’s theme:

Feedback from young people who attended the Youth Voice Matters Conference:

Click here to read a blog from FLARE member Jacob about the day.