Meeting with ATLAS regarding the Local Offer

Earlier this year we met virtually with ATLAS to find out about their experiences using the Young People's section of the Local Offer. We used a number of tools to collect ATLAS members' feedback and encouraged them to share their opinions by speaking or writing in the chat.

The week before the meeting we went to the ATLAS group to introduce our planned feedback session and invite members. We did this in advance to give members time to prepare any feedback.

Below is a summary of the feedback and the actions we plan to take:

How do ATLAS find the Young People's section now?

Our first question was how ATLAS found the Young People's section currently. The feedback was on a scale of 1 to 10, using different smiley or sad face emojis instead of each number. This is shown in the image below.

On the scale of smiley faces from one to ten, 40% scored 4, 20% scored 5 and 40% scored 6. So the average answer was 5.

Graph showing feedback scores on a scale of one to ten, using smiley or sad faces below to illustrate the difference in scores. Forty per cent scored four, twenty per cent scored five and forty per cent scored six.

What did ATLAS like or dislike about the Young People's section?

Next we asked ATLAS to write or say what they liked or disliked about the Young People's section. The responses are below:

  • "I liked the initial photos, but once you click on 'preparing for adulthood,' and then the smaller subsections there is a lot of text".
  • "I would like to see the long paragraphs of text broken apart. Maybe include some bullet points and integrate photos throughout".
  • "I like the bit where it has related content, that's super helpful. It saves you time searching around for stuff".
  • "I like how on the pages of info, there is almost a contents so you can click, and it takes you down the page to the specific bit, instead of having to scroll"
  • "like that it had photos and pictures and not just loads of text".
  • "I found it hard to navigate at first, but I liked the symbols and photos".

What topics on the young people's section are most important to you?

We asked ATLAS to look at the topics on the young people's section and tell us which are most important to them. All members ranked the topics by importance. The results below are listed from most important to least important:

  1. Mental Health
  2. Preparing for Adulthood
  3. Surrey Youth Voice
  4. EHC plan reviews
  5. Post-16 education and training providers
  6. Travel assistance and transport

Where do you go to find out about activities, services and information relevant to young people with additional needs and disabilities?

We were interested to learn where ATLAS members find information that might be helpful to them. The results are listed below from most likely place, to least likely:

  1. Websites or online search
  2. Social Media
  3. ATLAS
  4. School/College or Work
  5. Newsletters/Online Publications
  6. Friends
  7. Family members

Further questions and summary of answers

We had time for some quick questions so asked ATLAS members;

What was their favourite social media channel?

Most replied Instagram or Tik Tok.

Would they be interested in writing articles or blogs for the Local Offer?

A number of members indicated they would like to.

What we plan to do with the feedback?

  • We will make a process for children and young people to submit blogs or stories to the Local Offer for publication on the Young People's section.
  • We will publish articles for young people/adults, talking about experiences of Additional Needs and Disabilities (AND) in education.
  • We will update the images on the Young People's section, to make them more visually appealing.
  • We will change the order of the topics on the Young People's section, to the order ATLAS said was of most importance to them
  • We will make sure that pages appear prominently in search engine results.
  • We will promote more events, activities and services for children and young people on the Local Offer social media (or share activities from Surrey Youth Voice social media).
  • We will review the reading age of the section, making it simpler where possible.
  • We will create more video/audio content on the pages.