Youth Forum takes a step closer
Date of release: 7 April 2025
Young people came up with lots of ideas and provided invaluable insight into Wolverhampton’s healthcare services when they took part in an engagement session in the city.
Wyatt with Kirsty Lewis
Staff from The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) visited The Way Youth Zone last Friday evening to ask questions on a host of topics connected to young people’s experience of using services, with a view to establishing a Youth Forum. This activity was supported by the RWT Charity which put together raffle prizes for the event too and provided samosas courtesy of Manny Singh Kang.
Kirsty Lewis, Senior Matron for Acute Children’s Services at the Trust said: “We were amazed at how willing they were to talk to us and tell us what works and what doesn’t. The group we spent time with on Friday really opened our eyes to how it feels to access our services as a young patient, and we thank them for being so honest and sharing their stories and thought with us.”
Triston, aged 16, said: “People trust the hospital and its staff and that is a big responsibility. Healthcare is vitally important for everyone and events like this to give young people a say are a great idea.”
Wyatt, 18, has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. He wants to see greater Physiotherapy provision.
He said: “I don’t want to be in this wheelchair, I want to be able to walk. There are others in the same position as me who want the same. I wish we could have more physio sessions to help achieve this because it’s really frustrating.”
D’Shae, 13, had some suggestions for hospital food.
D'Shae
“When I was in they had tuna sandwiches and I don’t like tuna, you need to do food that kids want to eat!”
Amera, 15, was full of praise for how well staff communicated with her when her father had to have a valve replaced in his heart and underwent surgery at new Cross Hospital.
“I have additional needs, and the Nurse sat down with me and spent time explaining everything. She made me feel so comfortable and helped me understand what was going on and why. But that needs to be everyone’s experience when they’re worried and in hospital”
Following Friday’s session, all feedback will be looked at and discussed with a view to up to 12 young people becoming part of the Youth Forum and meeting up to four times a year.
Kirsty added: “We all came away buzzing because the young people were so fantastic. Now we want to put their ideas into practice wherever we can. We will do more sessions like this one and thank our RWT Charity for helping us to make such a good start towards establishing our Youth Forum.”
Amie Rogers, Fundraising and Lead Digital Engagement Officer, also praised young people for being so honest.
“It was really enlightening, and their feedback can definitely help us shape healthcare services better in the future. We’d also like to thank staff at The Way for giving us such a warm welcome and enabling us to hold this session.”
