May’s Unstoppables meeting was full of hard work and laughter. We had a busy agenda to work through with some important topics to have discussions about.

The topic for the meeting was the ‘CYPP’ (Children and young peoples plan). Every few years Somerset produces a new Children and Young People’s Plan based on the things that children and young people tell us are important.

The overall ambitions of the Plan are that all our children and young people are safe, happy, healthy and prepared for adulthood.

Since November 2023 the Somerset Youth Forum (a group of children and young people aged between 10 – 24 years who meet regularly online to discuss what’s important and relevant to them) have been deciding what the priorities for the next CYPP should be – which will run from this Autumn until 2030.

If you’re a young person under 25 and you want to have your say about the CYPP please follow this link – https://forms.office.com/e/dNHr44HCfn – closing date is Friday  7^th June 2024.

The Unstoppables were invited to have a discussion surrounding the 6 priorities that Youth Forum came up with and give our thoughts and feedback. The 6 priorities were:

• Having a better experience in education
• Leading healthier lives
• Help to improve your mental health.
• Living in safer communities
• Building better relationships
• Being prepared for adulthood.

We started the discussion by thinking about why it is important that young people have their voice heard on issues that are important to children and young people.

• Members of Unstoppables agreed that it is vital that the plan is written on issues that are important to young people because they are the ones who the plan is based on.
• If it wasn’t written by them for them then it wouldn’t be meaningful and wouldn’t be relevant.
• Members stated that if it wasn’t consulted with young people then it would be a tick box exercise and something that isn’t going to make a difference for the young people it’s important for.

We then moved on to discuss our thoughts about the 6 priorities and whether they found that they could relate to them and that they were relevant. All members in attendance felt the 6 priorities felt relevant to them and their peers. Members of Unstoppables shared their lived experience to the 6 priorities, below is some examples of what was talked about.

“Being prepared for adulthood”:

• Members feel there is not enough support for preparation for adulthood, especially for YP with SEND.
• There are opportunities for supported employment however the communication from professionals around this isn’t good enough nor can we always travel to the job / not accessible as we’d have to rely on parents still.
• We learn life skills from parents/carers, some teachers, some professionals such as our meeting in Unstoppables.
• Not all members feel they can travel independently either due to public transport not being accessible or anxiety over travel.

In the afternoon we started planning what we want to do at the SPCF / CIAT Family Funday in July and look forward to planning it further in June’s meeting.

Our next meeting is Saturday 1^st of June 2024.

If you or someone you know would like to be a member of the Unstoppables then follow the link to our form Expression of Interest to join the The Unstoppables (office.com) 😊

Similarly, If you or a young person you know wants more information about how they can join the Unstoppables, or be part of our work they/you can contact us via email (SENDParticipationTeam@somerset.gov.uk) or via phone/What’s App (07976 809 773).