SEND Young Inspector at the Bucks Youth Summit 2024
Cadence’s review of the Bucks Youth Summit 2024
Introduction
Hello my name is Cadence. I am 15 years old and I am neuro-diverse.
I have been a member of Shout Out for SEND since 2023 and I enjoy attending the regular debate meetings.
My interests and hobbies include Formula One and gaming.
I attended 4 conversation spaces at the Bucks Youth Summit 2024.
In my role as a SEND Young Inspector, I reviewed what was good and what could be improved, to help make the Bucks Youth Summit as accessible and enjoyable for young people with SEND as possible.
The Conversation Spaces
- My first session was The SEND Space. The activities were good and the session was open and educational. We talked about different hidden disabilities.
I have no criticism – except that I would have liked to have spent more time here!
- The LGBTQ+ Space was a safe space that gave us plenty of information and opportunities to share our experiences. I chose this conversation space because being an LGBTQ+ individual I felt it would be a good place to go and meet more individuals like myself and learn more about the community.
- My third session was the Cost of living Crisis Space. Here, the adults were kind and the session felt inclusive for everyone.
We learnt about certain words. I think the session could have been even better if we had more time to learn about ways to save money and get advice from experts on this.
- My final session was The Vape Space. This space taught us more information about vapes and it felt very honest – it had a scare factor!
To make this session even better, they could bring in a guest speaker to share their own experiences on vaping to further encourage young attendees to not do it.
Summing up
Overall atmosphere
At the Bucks Youth Summit 2024, there were lots of adults who knew what they were talking about and there were a lot of engaging activities which helped everyone to learn in a fun way. The atmosphere was friendly and inviting although it was quite crowded in many places.
Conclusion
I enjoy being a Young inspector at events like this so that I can help them to be more inclusive for the neurodiverse.
I would recommend the event to other SEND individuals because I felt my voice was heard and that there were plenty of interesting opportunities.