Youth Steering Group
Impact stories: Becky
Name: Becky
Age joined the Youth Steering Group: 24
Home Region: East Midlands
Becky joined the FEA Youth Steering Group in 2023, aged 24, and graduated in 2025. During her time as a member of the Youth Steering Group, Becky has presented at the FEA Annual Summit, helped organise the Youth Summit and attended various events, including xxx.
“It’s been amazing to work with all the other young people - learning from them, hearing about their lived experiences, and seeing their passion.”
Why did you join the Youth Steering Group (YSG)?
I had all these struggles in school that I always attributed to mental health, and it was only afterwards that I realised I had autism and ADHD.
I think schools and teachers often don’t have the broad knowledge that’s needed to recognise and identify SEND early on — especially how it presents in different groups. And in my experience, how it presents in women. Also, how it can look different when conditions co-occur, because that changes things as well. I think there’s more in-depth knowledge needed in schools.
So that was my main reason for joining the FEA Youth Steering Group — from my own personal lived experience. And then I started seeing it in other people too, through working as a tutor in schools with pupils with SEND. And also in my most recent role with Tutor Trust — seeing my own lived experience reflected, but also seeing the broad spectrum of other barriers to education that people face.
I knew Ellie, who was in the group last year, and I spoke to her about it when she was finishing up. She encouraged me to apply and talked about how rewarding the experience was, and all the cool things you get to do and be involved in.
How have you found being on the Youth Steering Group overall?
I’ve enjoyed being on the Youth Steering Group. It’s been amazing to work with all the other young people - learning from them, hearing about their lived experiences, and seeing their passion. That’s been inspiring, just seeing how passionate everyone is.
The opportunities to develop skills through the FEA have been amazing. There’s been constant chances to push myself out of my comfort zone and try new things. It’s improved my confidence.
Also getting to see the impact of the group — being able to share our opinions and lived experiences, and seeing how that can contribute to policy and decision-making — that’s been powerful.
If you had to pick one thing that's been a highlight of your time on the Youth Steering Group, what would it be?
The highlight for me was when Elijah and I spoke at the opening plenary for the FEA Annual Summit in July last year. That was something I was nervous to do — it’s not something I would’ve done a year ago - it was a big turning point for my confidence. I felt proud of myself.
It’s something that gave me more confidence, not just within the Youth Steering Group, but outside of it as well. I’d been anxious about it beforehand, but once I’d done it — and especially after getting feedback from people at the event — it just felt like a really big moment for me.
During that experience, there was a lot of support from everyone at the FEA. People would speak to us about what we were writing and give feedback, which helped. On the morning of the event, Elijah and I had plenty of time to go across the stage, see how everything would work, and then sit together in a quiet room to practice.
That support made such a difference — just having that space and guidance to do something that’s out of your comfort zone.
What do you think has been the Youth Steering Group’s most impactful activity?
I think the Youth Summit was a successful and impactful event — both on a smaller, group level and in a wider sense. Within the group, it was amazing to see everyone stepping up, running all these different panels, and just doing incredible work. So many people contributed and pushed themselves out of their comfort zones. We were involved in planning what was a really big event, with loads of attendees.
It's hard to say overall, because a lot of the work we do — like contributing to consultations or ongoing evaluations — is part of a longer-term process. Especially with all the changes since the new government came in, we might not see the full impact of what we’ve contributed until later, when findings are taken forward and hopefully turned into action.
Even so, it’s been really good to be part of those conversations. I think a lot of those calls for evidence should be gathering insight from young people, especially those currently experiencing the barriers we’re talking about. But those processes aren’t always accessible, or even known about, by young people. It felt good to have the chance to contribute to that work.
What skills do you feel like you've developed during your time on the Youth Steering Group?
One of the most obvious skills I’ve developed has been public speaking — especially public speaking in the context of sharing your own experiences, which can feel quite vulnerable.
I’ve just started a new job, and I think being in the Youth Steering Group was a huge factor in helping me get to this point. It’s a community organising role, and a big part of it is about sharing your lived experiences, listening to other people’s experiences, and finding common ground around the things they’re passionate about and want to change. My time in the Youth Steering Group sparked that interest in me and helped lead me into the kind of work I’m doing now.
I’ve also developed skills around working with lots of different people who have different strengths, and having discussions with people I don’t know very well, which is something I find hard, because I’m not great at talking to new people. One of the goals I had for myself was to get better at networking. I wouldn’t say I’ve made loads of progress there, but I’ve had some training and gained knowledge about how to improve.
I’ve also started thinking about things differently — especially with the FEA’s focus on systems-based change. There’ve been lots of opportunities to hear more about that, through talks at the Summit, and also when I attended the Place-Based Change roundtable. I feel like I learned a lot about the process of how change happens — from the ground level up to policy and government. That’s something I didn’t have much knowledge about before.
Our Youth Steering Group provides leadership on youth engagement across the Fair Education Alliance. Members are involved in the work across the Alliance, from collective action and policy influencing, to communications, events and support for our award winners.