Agenda item

The Executive Member for Young Adults and Political Engagement, Cllr Luke Mason, was in attendance to update the Board on his aims and aspirations, progress made to date and to highlight any emerging issues relating to his portfolio. The Director of Legal and Governance, the Executive Director of Children’s Services and the Director of Education and Partnerships were also in attendance.

 

The Executive Member opened by thanking the Board for the invite and advised that he would highlight some of the key areas he had been working on, as well as some of the emerging issues relating to his portfolio. During the presentation the following key points were made:-

 

·         The role was split into two different parts, the first covered political participation in the town, with a focus on increasing the number of voters during elections and the second focussed on ensuring that all young adults in Middlesbrough had access to the support they needed when leaving school and accessing further education, employment and apprenticeships.

·         There were numerous barriers to political participation including political apathy, distrust and lack of understanding. Lack of understanding in terms of how the Council worked and the role of the local Councillors. In an effort to address this deficit a document was being produced to detail the work of the Council, the roles undertaken by Councillors and Officers and how the Council operates. The document would cover a number of topics including general information on the history of the town, the type of local authority Middlesbrough was, the scale and statutory responsibilities of the Council in relation to adults and children’s services, information in respect of elections and the role of Councillors both in their wards and for the town more generally, as well as outlining the Council’s political balance and the role and benefit of the Council’s scrutiny panels. The document would hopefully encourage more people to watch the scrutiny panel / council meetings and have an understanding of the role undertaken by the Mayor and the Executive Members.

·         The document would contain information in respect of full Council, how meetings operated and explained the role of the Council’s Constitution, the Local Plan and the Council’s Tree Policy. It had also been important to provide information on the role of the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) and how the Council worked in partnership with the TVCA.

·         The document was apolitical and factual and would be presented to Full Council at a future date.

·         Reference was made to the appointment process for Middlesbrough’s Youth Parliament Member and the work involved in the recent count process, which had been really interesting.

·         The Executive Member advised that he was keen to expand the powers of the Youth Parliament in Middlesbrough, as Youth Parliaments provided a great opportunity for young people to be involved in politics. It was felt that motions passed in Youth Council should be brought forward to full Council. In some local authorities Youth Council representatives were also involved in the scrutiny process, which could be a further area to explore in terms of increasing and capturing the voice of young people in Middlesbrough.

·         Often young people did not have the opportunity to express their views in a formal environment and the Youth Parliament would help young people to gain access to politics.

·         Apprenticeships also had a key role in developing young people and work was being undertaken in Middlesbrough to explore all avenues for increasing the number of apprenticeships available. Reference was made to the social value contractors provide and it was advised that with regard to the Boho X development in awarding the contract the Council had ensured that 12 work experience weeks had been provided, 6 careers advice and guidance events had been held, 200 training weeks had been delivered and two project initiated apprenticeships had been created. There was a need to expand these types of opportunities as much as possible.

·         Young people also deserved to be given the best opportunities possible and local education providers were key to this delivery.   

 

Following the update, Members were afforded the opportunity to ask questions.

 

A Member of the Board queried how the Executive Member could take on a role that involved political engagement when he had an interest in one particular political party and whether or not his undertaking of the role could be viewed as biased. In response the Executive Member advised that in his view there was a clear separation between the two and that it would be deeply unprofessional not to distinguish between party political actions and actions undertaken in the role of Executive Member for political engagement.

 

Reference was made to Middlesbrough’s Looked After Children and whether the Executive Member had undertaken any specific work to ensure that children leaving the care system in Middlesbrough were receiving all of the support they needed to access education, employment and training. In response the Executive Member advised that although he was not the Executive Member for Children’s Services he had liaised with the relevant officers and would endeavour to develop a stronger understanding of this area.       

 

It was queried whether Councillors had been consulted in respect of the document detailing the work of the Council, as discussed by the Executive Member, as although reference had been made to the role of ward Councillors each ward was very different. The document was non-specific and a number of ward Councillors had been consulted during the preparation of the document. 

 

In response to a query regarding the possibility of the Youth Council having a small degree of budgetary responsibility the Executive Member welcomed this suggestion and advised that consideration would be given to this issue.

 

The Chair thanked the Executive Member for Young Adults and Political Engagement and the relevant Directors for their attendance and contributions to the meeting.

 

The Executive Member for Neighbourhood Safety, Cllr Tony Grainge, was in attendance to update the Board on his aims and aspirations, progress made to date and to highlight any emerging issues relating to his portfolio. The Director of Environment and Commercial Services and the Operational Community Safety Manager were also in attendance.

 

The Executive Member opened by thanking the Board for the invite and advised that he would highlight some of the key areas he had been working on, as well as some of the emerging issues relating to his portfolio. During the presentation the following key points were made:-

 

·         In terms of the Executive Member’s background and suitability for the role the Executive Member advised that he had started volunteering in the community in 2003 at Beechwood Youth Club and St Agnes Church. In 2004 he commenced university and studied Youth Studies, completing his dissertation on why do young people commit crime? The Executive Member advised that he had always been interested in how do we make Middlesbrough a safer place? And how does the Council help communities become more resilient and empower themselves, within the limited financial resources available.

·         Crime, the fear of crime and the concept that no-one cares was a real issue that the Council and the Police needed to tackle, as often victims felt powerless and alone.

·         Reporting back to the community, as well as the wider town on the action being taken by the various authorities, for example, 37 arrests in Hemlington in March followed by 29 arrests in April, was particularly important and improvements were needed in this area.

·         The Council, Thirteen, the Police and the Fire Brigade were working collectively to improve publicity and it was extremely important for teenagers in Middlesbrough to know that there would be consequences for those that committed any crime or anti-social behaviour.

·         Reference was made to the 6 steps / 6 stages response initiated by the Council’s Neighbourhood Safety Officers in cases where a young person was found to be committing anti-social behaviour.

 

Stage 1 – First warning letter, advising of the 6 stages

Stage 2 – Second warning letter and Police involvement

Stage 3 – An Acceptable Behaviour Contract (ABC) drafted, outlining certain and specific boundaries

Stage 4 - Breach, court informed

Stage 5 - Final warning, pre-legal meeting

Stage 6 - Criminal Behaviour Order, if broken it would lead to a criminal conviction

 

·         Parenting and positive role models were a huge factor in a young person’s upbringing and some parents really struggled. Reference was made to an organisation called Safe Families, which worked alongside parents to support and advise them, as well as provide respite. The Executive Member expressed the view that he was extremely keen to be promote the involvement of Safe Families in supporting more children across the town.   

·         Locality working would be introduced in Hemlington, with work to be undertaken directly from the Viewley Hill Centre. Locality working had proved effective in Newport and North Ormesby and it was hoped this could be replicated in Hemlington.

·         Many young people in Hemlington had expressed a desire to have a boxing club in their area and through collaborative working it was anticipated that this idea would soon come to fruition. The establishment of a Hemlington Boxing Gym would be great for discipline, respect, fitness and mental health and the best youth work often took place in very local communities.

·         The provision of CCTV had more than doubled in recent years, between January 2021 and January 2022 provision had increased by 113 per cent. Rapid deployment cameras were also used regularly in hot spot areas and funding had been secured to further increase CCTV provision.

·         The need for residents to continue to report all instances of crime and anti-social behaviour was emphasised, as resources were targeted in response to need.

·         The good stories were important to report and a good neighbour award would be launched in 2022 to highlight the huge community spirit across the town, which far outweighed the negatives.  

 

In response to a query the Executive Member advised that he would be very happy to meet with Members on an individual basis to talk about specific issues in their area.

 

It was queried whether an increase in CCTV could be viewed as a positive when there should not be a need to have it installed in the first place. It was advised that CCTV served a number of purposes, part of its role was to act as a deterrent and knowing that if crime was committed it was likely to be caught on camera also helped reduce the fear of crime. The majority of people welcomed the addition of additional CCTV cameras, although it was acknowledged that it would be better if it was not needed.

 

The Director of Environment and Commercial Services advised that generally anti-social behaviour was down across the town, although of course Hemlington was an exception to that and there had been some very serious incidents. The work undertaken with Cleveland Police, Cleveland Fire Brigade, Thirteen and other Social Landlords in Hemlington would bear fruit about how the Council replicated that work across the rest of the town. Over the last six months there had been a significant change in the approach taken by Cleveland Police in respect of their involvement and focus. It was expected that this would be reflected across the town and the rest of the town would not be neglected. Environmental anti-social behaviour was also reducing and significant action was being taken across the town to ensure that fly-tipping and issues of anti-social behaviour were addressed.     

 

The view was expressed that it was reassuring that an Executive Member had been appointed with specific responsibility for neighbourhood safety and the work undertaken to date was appreciated.   

 

The Chair thanked the Executive Member for Neighbourhood Safety and the relevant Officers for their attendance and contributions to the meeting.

 

AGREED that the information provided be noted.