The Head of Strategic Services will provide an update
to the Board.
Also in attendance will be Phoebe, Member of Middlesbrough Youth Parliament who will provide an
update to the Board.
Minutes:
The
Chair firstly welcome Phoebe Teasdale, one of the members of Middlesbrough’s
Youth Council. Phoebe provided the Board with the following g update:
Hi everyone, I firstly
wanted to start by saying what an honour and privilege it is to talk to you all
today about youth council, thank you for listening to me and giving me the
opportunity to tell you about it. Youth council is a group of like minded young people from all walks of life across
Middlesbrough who meet every other Thursday to discuss issues effecting our youth population and what we can do to make
Middlesbrough the best possible place for young people to live in.
We have had quite a few
meetings now and have already started to get things moving. Our first meeting
was a get to know you session and we discussed what we wanted to get out of
Youth Council and in our second we discussed our priorities. After completing a
short google form we listed these priorities from most to least important and
from there have developed an agenda to decide how to approach issues. Then we
were given the opportunity to put ourselves forward to partake in certain roles
such as the chair, the vlogger / blogger influencer and the minute taker. I
personally applied to be the chair and ended up being chosen to chair a meeting
in February. Our roles are on a rota which gives every young person an
opportunity to give the roles a go and develops vital life skills such as
teamwork, leadership, confidence, critical thinking and problem solving.
What makes Youth Council so
good is the opportunities it provides to us young people. My dream and ambition
is to go into Politics and Youth Council has given me and many others a place
to express and debate our opinions and beliefs. We are currently working on improving
Citizenship lessons in Schools across Middlesbrough and giving local businesses
the MYC Stamp of Approval as an Incentive to work with us. Youth Council has
given its members an opportunity to make amazing new friends and look forward
to speaking to people that maybe don’t go to our respective schools. This is
particularly important in the current situation as many of us are quite lonely
and feel isolated from others. Youth council has been an absolutely invaluable
opportunity and one that me and my fellow members
continue to enjoy every other Thursday. Thank you again for giving me the
opportunity to talk to you today and I would welcome any questions that you
might have.
The
Chair and Board welcomed Phoebe’s update and thanked her for her contribution.
Following
Phoebe’s presentation, the Chair introduced Paula Jemson,
Head of Corporate Parenting and Looked after children to provide an overall
update in relation to Participation.
Middlesbrough Youth Council
•
Numbers have dipped slightly (to be expected after the initial high turnout),
but 16 young people are actively engaged and attended the last meeting.
•
Young people are now assigned roles and this is going really well, the
chair of the meeting has a meeting with Muskaan, Batool and me beforehand so they can practice/feel more
confident- this worked well!
•
Middlesbrough Youth Council priorities have now been decided, which were
voted upon through the National British Council Council,
they are as follows (most popular first):
- A Curriculum for Life with 69%
- Tackle Child Poverty with 61.5%
- Increase racial awareness in the curriculum with 61.5%
- Free University with 53.8%
- Take Action on the Climate Emergency with 53.8%
•
Middlesbrough Youth Council are linking in with Public Health and
analysing the Curriculum4Life Service, that provides
schools in the Tees Valley with PSHE lesson plans, in the last meeting they
went over everything and gave brilliant suggestions. (next
time, they will collate all their responses and contact Curriculum4Life with
their recommendations).
•
An MYC ‘Stamp of Approval’ was something the Youth Council wanted to do
with businesses/programmes that provide services for young people. The idea was
that it may incentivise their involvement, by giving the stamp of approval (the
stamp is given when the services have been analysed and have been judged as
being of a high standard to help young people.)
•
Anonymous Feedback forms are now sent at the end of the meeting, so we
can get some insight into what we can do to enrich members’ experiences.
•
One of our young people has said she would like to attend the next
Corporate Parenting Board with Laurie
•
They are all interested in meeting some
of our Councillors to find out more about what they do.
Children in care Council/
Mini Children in Care Council
•
In the past, engagement to this groups has been difficult and there are
still low number. However the Participation Team are
working together with Tia and Xavier (Care Leavers who are now apprentices with
the Council) to increase engagement with the groups.
•
Tia is interested in
helping run the sessions
•
Going to do a push to our
Children Looked After to increase engagement (this will be done with support
from the Participation Officer)
•
3 children are involved in
the Children in care council and 1 child is involved with the mini children in
care council, however there are recruitment campaigns underway to increase
numbers.
Care
Leavers
•
Pathways CAHMS worker, John
has taken on board a suggestion from the Care Leavers Forum (CLF) which was to
create contact cards – he has created this and also added a ‘what is a mental
health crisis?’ section on the card and contact details for the crisis line.
•
John has also suggested
that the CLF can have 5/10 minute mindful exercises that he will lead on and
guide through - this was met with positive response.
•
The CLF have come up with
ideas for engaging more care leavers, such as them designing leaflets/letters
to be sent to care leavers.
•
They have also expresses
interest in ensuring young people in residential placements (including those
with additional needs) are aware of the CLF and have their voices heard.
•
The existing leaflet has
also been send to Pathways and Helen Dempsey is sending to PA’s for them to
signpost.
Next steps
Participation Officer:
·
Marcus started with Middlesbrough Council in March 2021 and will be coming into
post to help facilitate our improvement journey by ensuring the voice of the
child is prevalent in Social Care.
·
Marcus will also facilitate
in the running of our young people’s groups, and form a positive rapport with
the young people (ultimately act as a role model)
Mini CiCC/CiCC:
·
To increase engagement
levels by working with Xavier, Tia and Marcus (new Participation Officer).
·
To create an updated plan
of action with support from Marcus/the work he is doing with Practice Lead.
Care
Leavers’ Forum:
·
To increase engagement with
the support from Pathways
·
To have the Forum more
Youth Led, by Xavier and Tia deciding agenda items/presenting
·
To increase mental
wellbeing by doing short mindful sessions with John (Pathways CAMHS worker)
Youth Council:
·
To continue with the
Curriculum4Life work, get ducks in a row and contact the programme
with their recommendations
Good News story
·
Middlesbrough Council were successful in securing £30,000 to promote online safety
for young people in Middlesbrough.
·
Our Care Leavers’ Forum
were consulted and gave their experiences that were used in the bid.
·
A number of staff were
consulted with, and gave input to the bid- great example of collaborative
working.
·
The money will ultimately
aid our young people in becoming more digitally resilient and ensuring digital
inclusivity (ensuring all those who need access are given this).
·
The above point is
explained in our Digital Resilience Mission Statement: “To develop an online world
where children and young people can be nurtured, safe, self-confident and
compassionate digital citizens”.
-
Finally, The Head of Service outlined that in terms of young people
NEET, a NEET Task and Finish group in place to support
looked after children in to education, training and employment.
-
NEET panel commenced with
engagement from Community Learning, Virtual Schools and Youth Offending Service
to enhance multi agency support around young people
-
Work underway to support
apprenticeships within the council
The
Chair thanked the Head of Service for her update.
ORDERED- That the update be
updated.