Listening to children, young people and their families during ‘lockdown’
It is fair to say that this last year has been a strange and challenging period in history. We have seen first-hand the impact COVID-19 has had on the world and especially the significant effect it has had on children and young people, whose lives have been massively disrupted. We recognise the challenges children and young people living in Leeds have faced and want to commend them for the resilience, kindness and responsibility that they have shown throughout this period.
After the first ‘lockdown’ in 2020, the enrichment team was keen to communicate with care experienced children, young people and young adults to see how they had coped during the lockdown, what support they had been offered and what activities they wanted the team to focus on, when we were able to resume face to face sessions.
Different surveys were designed for each age group: primary, secondary and care leavers. Each participant took such care to write insightful thoughts and to let us know what they would like to do when the lockdown eased. We produced three ‘easy to read’ infographics that we wanted to share with you – to view them, follow the link below.
From the survey results, it was clear that young people were all ‘Zoomed’ out and wanted to resume fun activities, outdoors, face to face and to get back to socialising with others. We listened to what the young people said and in response, focused all of our attention and resources on setting up some small scale, safe, outdoor activities, as soon as we were able to. We successfully delivered four activities days across the month of October 2020 before the necessary Covid restrictions were re-instated. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our partners at LS-TEN, Skelton Grange and the Ministry of Defence for their support, as without this, it would not have been possible. As we look forward to summer 2021 we are committed to providing activities that children and young people want.
If you would like to get in touch with us regarding this consultation or anything you may want to discuss, please don’t hesitate to e-mail us at: cflenichment@leeds.gov.uk
