Development Service For Young People - Engaging With Young People

1. Development Service For Young People- Engaging With Young People

2. Why Consult and Involve Young People? • More effective new services or developments - YP will use things they have been involved in developing. • The health of our democratic community depends on YP being involved. • YP have a right to be involved in decisions which affect them - Article 12 UNCRC, local and national policy e.g. Green Paper

3. Benefits for Wiltshire • YP bring in fresh ideas and a new perspective. • Things can be developed based on actual rather than presumed needs - this saves money and makes things more effective. • It involves young people in one element of community life and starts to reduce a ‘them and us attitude’.

4. Benefits for the Young People • They can build on existing skills and build new ones, increasing in confidence and self esteem. • YP can start to understand how to influence change in their local area, so they don’t feel powerless but do feel involved. • YP benefit from the new services or developments which are more responsive to their needs.

5. What is consultation and engagement? • A range of activities, discussions, events and surveys. • The Children and Young People’s Democracy Team has an overview on consultation and engagement work with children and young people in Wiltshire. • The Democracy Team is linked into the Children and Young People’s Trust Board, it is Chaired by David Whewell – Head of Youth Work and has members from Voice, V&I Team, Healthy Schools, voluntary sector, Wiltshire Pathways and the disability team. • WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW ?

6. Voice and Influence –The Wiltshire Model Young People Representatives are involved in National U.K.Y.P National Campaigns County Wiltshire Children and Young People’s Trust Board 51 Minute Challenge Group Children Services Scrutiny Panel Wiltshire Youth OpportunityFund. Wiltshire Teenage Pregnancy Strategy Partnership. Wiltshire Assembly of Youth (Elected body to represent young People’s views and lobby for change) Young Assessors Programme (Review, inspect and evaluate services) DB8 Magazine Editorial Team (Collation and editing of youth views magazine) WYPOF Panel (Evaluate all WYPOF applications) Tomorrow’s Voice Survey (Survey of YP through schools – 1500 – 2500 returns) Spark Radio (Young Person led Web based radio station) Feedback Young People Choose Levels of Involvement Invited: CAYPIGs Also: County , Town and Parish Councillors Community Planner Youth Development workers Wiltshire Assembly of Youth Local Voluntary Youth Clubs Locality Community Area Young People’s Issues Groups (Improve access to decision making, inclusion, intergenerational dialogue and cohesion. Direct input to youth work Locality Plans) Young people plan the programmes Community and Centre Based Young people are volunteers in many clubs Young people run peer led projects & programmes Young people sit on interview panels Young people evaluate every session Young People take part in Centre inspections and complete satisfaction surveys annually Young people organise and book their own outings and residential trips.

7. Consultation • Children and Young People’s Plan - engaged a range of children and young people on the impact of the Plan and priorities for next year. • Children’s Workforce Development – worked with various focus groups across Wiltshire on YP priorities within the new strategy. • Sparksite – ongoing consultation with YP across the Council on development of the site. • Slippery Fish – extensive reworking of website linked to focus group work with primary school children across Wiltshire. • Tomorrow’s Voice – a large scale survey which continues to get the views of over 2,000 young people in Wiltshire on everything from alternative sports to knife crime.

8. LOCALITYTEAMS A - Malmesbury, Purton & Cricklade, Wootton Bassett B- Chippenham, Corsham, Calne C- Bradford on Avon, Melksham, Trowbridge D - Warminster, Westbury E - Tisbury & Mere, Wilton & Downton F- Durrington, Grosvenor House, Salisbury, Amesbury G- Pewsey, Tidworth & Ludgershall H- Devizes, Marlborough

9. Groups • Wiltshire Assembly of Youth and UK Youth Parliament – continues to develop with over 14,000 YP voting in elections and membership broadening. Members sit on a range of boards from Scrutiny and CYPTB to Teengage Pregnancy and the Youth Arts Partnership. • CAYPIGs – Ongoing throughout the county with many already linking into Area Boards. Successes include ongoing 1st round WYPOF assessments, developing a local transport solution for young people in Bradford and supporting new initiatives for young people e.g. graffiti wall in Wootten Bassett and the leisure credit scheme in Mere and Tisbury. • Young Assessors – trained young people who were first in the county to receive the Participation in Action accreditation. Ongoing work includes youth centre inspections, staff interviews and adult training e.g. No Worries training. • Spark Radio – web based radio station with studios in Chippenham, Salisbury and a mobile studio. Over 40 young people trained and producing a variety of programmes. • Looked After Young People’s Council – just starting to be developed. Staff and funding is in place, with the first meeting scheduled in the next month. • WYPOF Funding Panel – in their third year and have allocated over 1 million pounds to young people’s activities, facilities and projects throughout Wiltshire.

10. Activities • 11 Million Day – 66 young people took over a range of roles in Wiltshire Council from key decision makers such as Jane Scott and Carolyn Godfrey through to youth worker posts. Impacts included YP helping to promote and develop the new One Council campaign, assessments of libraries and arts opportunities for young people in Wiltshire. • Wiltshire Schools Antibullying Conferences for Primary and Secondary Schools – inspired young people and enabled young people from school councils to work with their teachers to actively develop antibullying strategies within the conference which they could implement in their schools. In total 65 schools (18 secondary schools, 1 special school and 46 primary schools attended the conferences) and over 100 people attended each conference. • Involvement Disability Residential – took 12 young people with a broad range of disabilities to Calvert Trust for a residential and consultation weekend. Consulted on Aiming High, respite breaks, direct payments and opportunities available for disabled YP.

11. Activities Continued ! • Participatory Budgeting Event – joint piece of work with Youth Service and Salisbury Area Board to develop a funding allocation event targeted at young people with disabilities and those affected by disabilities. Over £50,000 allocated and young people gave very positive feedback on feeling empowered by the event itself. • Local Democracy Week – 3 large road-shows and multiple smaller events in youth centres across Wiltshire. Over 400 young people involved and over 200 of these were directly involved in prioritising budget allocation for the new Wiltshire Council.

12. Developments • Increased engagement with new technology to gain young people’s views including texting, SNAP surveys, social networking and electronic messaging. • Review of how we include children in a representative decision making structure at a Community Area level, similar to CAYPIGs. • Meeting to look at how disabled young people are more integral to all V&I processes and whether they need a specific network to help make this happen.

13. Some Tough Questions About Consulting and Engaging Young People • What do you want to achieve? • How far have you gone already? • What will YP get out of it? • Are you prepared to resource it properly? • Are you prepared to involve YP from the start? • Are you willing to accept criticism as well as compliment? • Are you prepared to act on what you are told?

14. Some Questions for Now Break into small groups of 3 or 4 to discuss • What are two things you could engage or consult young people on. • What do you think turns young people off engaging? • What do you think you could do to make children and young people more eager to engage in your local area. • What are two things you think Wiltshire Council could do to encourage more young people to take part in decision making and Council agendas.