Two of our Year 9 students attended the Northamptonshire Information, Advice & Support Services (IASS) Young People’s Advisory Council meeting held at the Guildhall in Northampton, to share their views on the planning and development of services for young people.

The IASS Young People’s Advisory Council was launched in September with student representatives from secondary schools across the country coming together to form a young people’s advisory group to work with the Northamptonshire SEND IASS. The Advisory Council contributes to local and national policy and supports the development of the SEND IASS programme of work across the County.

The meeting commenced with an interactive game of ‘human’ bingo, which allowed the student representatives to ask questions and get to know each other. Students were also involved in designing a new logo and name for the North Northants SEND IASS Teams. Graphic artist, Jon Ralphs was in attendance to capture the young people’s voices and views on the developments of services in graphic form while Mark Dean from Inspiration FM created an audio representation of the meeting.

SEND Teaching Assistant Michael English, who escorted the students said, ‘Both students enjoyed taking part in the tasks, and it was a great opportunity for them to have their voices heard and put forward their views on improvements to develop the services available for young people.’