Issue - meetings

The Chair welcomed the Barking and Dagenham Youth Forum Representatives – Jade Ramsey, Paul Cox, Adam Kaspar and Alexander Lau.

Assembly received and noted the annual report of the Barking & Dagenham Youth Forum (the Forum) introduced by Councillor Reason, Cabinet Member for Children and Adult Services, who summarised the excellent work that the Forum had undertaken in the past year.

On behalf of the Corporate Director of Children's Services, Erik Stein, Group Manager of Integrated Youth Service introduced the Forum representatives and thanked Assembly for having invited the Forum to give its presentation.

The Forum representatives each spoke in turn about the work of the Forum.

The Crime sub-group focused their campaign on bullying after a survey of their peers and school councils concluded that bullying was an issue for many young people.

The Crime sub group:

·  applied for and received O₂ funding which they used to pay for training by Kidscape in how to deliver anti-bullying workshops to young people

·  planned and developed an interactive anti-bullying workshop that they delivered to five secondary schools (Jo Richardson, Eastbury, Barking Abbey, Sydney Russell and All Saints) and Progress Project youth group (a forum for young people with disabilities)

·  reviewed the anti-bullying policies for all secondary schools in the borough and wrote recommendations for each of them

·  designed an anti-bullying questionnaire for pupils, the results of which would be sent to the schools together with the policy recommendations

The Education sub-group considered that there continued to be an issue around teenage pregnancy in the borough due to poor sexual health education in schools and focused their campaign on the delivery of a sexual health workshop:

·  sub-group members took part in sexual health training from the Terrence Higgins Trust

·  the workshop was planned to ensure its message would engage with young people

·  the workshop was delivered to five youth groups in the borough

·  feedback has shown that young people enjoyed that the workshop was delivered by other young people and that 80% of those attending learned something new

The Leisure sub-group's project focused on the need of young people to be able to easily access information on youth club provision in the borough:

·  sub-group members researched on line what information was available

·  visits to a range of facilities/clubs were arranged and criteria was written, based on what the sub-group members felt young people would want to know

·  sub-group members practised interview techniques on each other

·  youth clubs that were reviewed:

o  Volunteer Police Cadets

o  Youth League UK

o  Ab Phab Project

o  Young Carers Project

o  Kickz

o  The Hub

o  Alibon Youth Centre

o  Sydney Russell Streetbase Youth Club

as well as a generic session at the Vibe Youth Centre.

The Consultation Sub-Group participated in:

·  Local children's workforce development consultation

·  an Ofsted consultation on volunteering

·  Tenant participation consultation

·  LBBD Safeguarding Children Board website consultation – developing ideas and making suggestions about its appeal to young people

·  B&D Skills centre consultation with Alan Lazell, Head of Skills & Learning

Two  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55