Achievements in March:

• Voices United members have started to give their preference for payment. The options include zero-hour contracts, vouchers or through activities
• Lydia Beech, Voices United member, has started her accessibility workshops for practitioners working within the local area partnership. She is working alongside Digital Accessibility lead Helen Wilson and together they are co-delivering sessions
• the youngest two members of Voices United are scheduled to do a sensory audit of the children’s unit in Worcester A and E on 11th March
• Voices United members have booked in to meet with the SEND quality assurance team to identify their first project to plan and evaluate. They will be using skills learnt from the young evaluators course

Achievements in February: 

• Voices United members had a remuneration meeting, where they discussed how members will be reimbursed for their time and contributions.
• 4 Voices United members attended a Youth Voice Event at the NEC in Birmingham where they spoke to Georgia Gould (Minister of Education Standards) and took part in activities around youth voice
• Voices United started their subgroups to start planning resources, ideas and timelines for projects. The 3 subgroups are as follows: planning workshops for practitioners, creating an online resource bank and planning in person fun forums!
• young evaluators course is still running and ends in March

Achievements in January: 

• Goals for Voices United 2026, Voices United long term plan (2026) (PDF)
• Voices United have created subgroups to break the projects into smaller steps
• Voices United have presented the outcomes for children and young people with SEND to overview and scrutiny panel and SEND and Alternative Provision Committee
• Voices United joined Wyre Forest pupils to launch the outcomes! They did a question and answer sessions with pupils about Voices United
• Voices United have collaborated with the acute hospitals and organised to do a sensory audit of the hospital

Achievements in December:

• Voices United members collaborated with SENDIASS to co-design a Christmas tree for the Worcester Cathedral
• Voices United have come up with a vision for 2026 and are now working on the steps to make this vision a reality
• 8 young people are going take part in some funded training by NDTi (National Development Team of Inclusion) to become Young Evaluators

Achievements in November:

• three Voices United members joined in with the second round of interviews for a Business Support Officer position, they were able to use a scoring system to evaluate each participant
• two Voices United members became full members of SEND and Alternative provision Executive board
• co-produced newsletter which goes out every 2 months
• members of Voices United wrote a segment to go into the new Self Evaluation Framework as to why the forum is so important

Achievements in October:

• three Voices United members presented to a group of practitioners from Health, Education and Local Authority on the importance of co-production and listening to those with lived experiences.
• Voices United members co-produced and co-designed a logo, slogan and strapline for their group
• Sophie Willetts - Early help Family Support Team Leader in Worcestershire County Council came to the forum and said: “Attending Voices United to consult with young people was an invaluable experience. Their openness, honesty, and creative thinking have provided meaningful insights that have directly shaped decision-making and improvements to practice. I look forward to continuing to work alongside them to develop services that are inclusive and accessible for all’’