Youth Voices was established in June 2021, to improve the service quality and provision offered by Lancashire and South Cumbria Foundation Trust for young people. Our members are between the ages of 13 and 25. We want to ensure that young people, of all backgrounds, can share their experiences and suggest improvements to influence our work.
Our work sits within the Trust's strategic priorities, in particular objective 1 - “We will put service users at the heart of all we do, supporting effective care, recovery and wellbeing”. Our focus is to ensure that young people take the lead and that their voices are heard and valued to influence positive improvements based on members lived experience.
Youth Voices aims to be viewed by the Trust and external organisations as partners. It is important to all our Youth Voices members that a supportive environment is maintained to allow young people to share their thoughts without criticism and feel confident to challenge views. It is vital that our members feel accepted and validated and that adjustments are made to ensure this.
Youth Voices adapts all its materials in an easy read format so that every young voice is given equal opportunity to be heard.
Youth Voices meets monthly on MS Teams in the late afternoon and evening as this is the most accessible time for our members. In addition to this, we also have established smaller focus groups, whom wish to engage more closely in certain projects.
If you would like to get involved and become a member please get in touch by contacting youth.voices@lscft.nhs.uk.
