Agenda item

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 other Forum representatives, Azaan Akbar and Shekhar Seebaluck were elected in February 2011 to the UK Youth Parliament.  They have attended regional meetings and Azaan attended an annual debate in the House of Commons in November 2011.

 

Other events that the Forum members had taken part in were:

 

·  a visit to the BMX track in Dagenham

·  Peer Outreach Event at City Hall

·  discussions with police following the August 2011 disturbances

·  a visit to the O₂ to take part in training to secure funds for the Crime sub-group

·  Barking and Dagenham Partnership Conference

·  Save the Children London Young Ambassador Summit

·  National Takeover Day 2011

·  The Forum Chair attended the Children's Services Select Committee meetings

 

Full Forum meetings had taken place in January 2011 when topics to focus on in 2011 were discussed; in April 2011when a question time session was held; and in June 2011 when various presentations had been given.

 

Following questions from Members, who all congratulated the representatives on their excellent presentation, the Forum representatives advised that:

 

·  they were honoured and inspired to have been invited to give their presentation in the Council Chamber;

 

·  regarding the anti-bullying project

 

(a) though initially daunting, their confidence had grown with each presentation and some schools had invited them back to re-present;

(b) they felt that the schools in the borough had taken into account that bullying could happen through mobile phone and social media means;

(c)  they felt that the Forum's recommendations would be listened to and would provide those recommendations to Members;

(d) because of the age range of the Forum (13-19) they had not taken the anti-bullying project to primary schools as they felt the Forum would be more in touch with secondary schools students and opinions.

 

·  two representatives of the Forum – Azaan Akbar and Shekhar Seebaluck - had been elected to the Youth Parliament as a Member and Deputy Member respectively.

 

The Worshipful the Mayor, Councillor McKenzie, stood to speak as a mark of respect for the young people of the borough.  He referred to the work that he and former Councillor Thomas had done in establishing the Barking and Dagenham Youth Forum and thanked the Forum representatives for their delivery of an excellent presentation, stating that he considered our future was safe in their hands.