Yorkshire SEND Alliance was formed because of young people who are part of a local SEND Youth Voice Groups, recognising that not every area provides a separate space for specific issues experienced by SEND youth to be acknowledged and addressed.

The young people want to create an alliance of young people from across the region, to give young people with SEND a voice, as often this is seen as the voice of the parent. They have identified a range of topics they want to address including employment vs training and volunteering, access to information and opportunities and how to make Education and Health Plan Assessments more inclusive for young people.

In 2022 as part of the project ‘Authoring Our Own stories’ The SEND Alliance underwent a piece of research to explore civic identity with young people and explores how this can affect their access to services . The findings from the project and the feedback from the SEND young people who took part in year one, highlight some of the specific barriers SEND young people experience when trying to access support and careers advice, gain employment, access training opportunities, and improve their skills. Their report can be read here AOOS Year One written report-final. To see what the AOOS project is doing now see their website Authoring Our Own Stories – Youth Work Unit

New priorities for 2025 voted by SEND young people- Bullying and discrimination, Education, and Health and Well-being.

The group are supporting the Governments SEND Change Programme, working alongside Wakefield, Bradford, Calderdale and Leeds Councils.  Members have trained as peer researchers, to be able to consult their peers on what improvements they would recommend.

Members continue to be asked to share their experiences at conferences across the region, here is their latest presentation on the importance of voice for all young people SEND YV presentation final

visit the YSA website for more information about their work https://sendyouthvoice.com/