Agenda item

(Director of Communities) To receive a presentation and background report (attached) from members of the Youth Council on completed and proposed activities.

The Select Committee received their annual report from the Youth Council on their activities and achievements during the current year and plans for the next 12 months.

Four Youth Councillors made a presentation at this meeting; they were Zachary Foster an independent Youth Councillor, Lisa Nakimuli from King Harold Academy, Finlay Jordan from Davenant Foundation School and Annabelle Yamen representing Epping St Johns School.

They thanked the members for the Council’s loyalty and support for the Youth Council over the past nine years. The Committee noted that these were newly elected members and were looking forward to their two years of service.  In total about 25 Youth Councillors were elected in November 2016. They also thanked members for the grant of £8,000 project money that had enabled them to deliver the highly successful Emotional Health & Wellbeing project – ‘MiLife’ in seven secondary schools.

Their aim was to ensure that all their peers and the schools continued to have a voice and be involved in their work.

In October 2015, the previous members of the Youth Council held a Youth Conference at the Civic Offices to promote Local Democracy week and one of the stronger themes that resulted from consulting with the 90 strong delegates was the issue of mental health, deemed to be a major issue for young people; to this end they commissioned the Red Balloon Family, a local charity, to work with them and create the MiLife Roadshow.

The Roadshow aimed to raise awareness of positive mental health and help build resilience, enabling young people to help themselves and have better mental health. Over the year they would educate and support over 7000 pupils in the Epping Forest District in their initial year. With 7000 pupils experiencing this hour long roadshow, equating to £1.72 per pupil, it turned out to be very good value. In addition to the £8,000 from Epping Forest District Council, they were also able to secure £4,000 from the Epping Forest Youth Strategy group.

The North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT) and NHS England had expressed their approval of the MiLife Roadshows and would like to work with Epping Forest Youth Council (EFYC) to digitalise the programme so that it can be delivered to all schools, nationally, at no further cost. This project had exceeded the Youth Council’s expectations and they were very proud of their work.

The EFYC used social media as an important part off promoting their work and the profile of young people in the Epping Forest District. Giving young people a voice was what the Youth Council was all about. And, as Youth Councillors they have contributed to various consultations. They also have representations on the Epping Forest Youth Strategy Group and have been invited to work closely with the PCC and the Youth Engagement team at Essex Police, as well as the Young Essex Assembly, NELFT volunteers and the Jack Petchey Achievers Network, as well the local school councils.

They also have a busy training programme and had received accreditation for Mental Health First Aid training and will be completing Dementia Friends Awareness Raising as well as Fearless Training by Essex Police, designed to empower young people to make their community a safer place.

Youth volunteering remains a big theme for them and they will be taking part in a Youth Volunteering Day during the summer holidays.

They also reported that in their short time as youth councillors they have obtained external funding of £2700 from various sources over the last 4 months.

The High Sheriff of Essex had endorsed the MiLife project and had submitted it to the High Sheriffs national Crimebeat Awards.

They have produced a Manifesto and they hoped to continue working with the NELFT NHS team in schools to address young people’s mental health issues and build resilience. They would also like to work with schools to promote the accredited Mental Health First Aid training. They will also be promoting the Suggestion Boxes in schools to enable pupils to contact them and ask for support in improving services.

In order to bring new and exciting ideas to the community through project work the Youth Council would like the Committee’s support to release the £5000 DDF grant money.  This work will include working with Epping Town Partnership to support the Youth Festival in July; to collaborate with the Police Cadets on community events relevant to young people; to work with the Community Health and Wellbeing team in schools to address substance misuse, physical health and child obesity; to promote interactive Youth activities map; and to work closely with the Police and Schools to ensure young people to have a better relationship with the police through the “Cuppa with a Copper” campaign.

They finished by thanking the Select Committee for their continued support and help to give young people a voice through the Youth Council.

The meeting was then opened out to questions from the members present.

Councillor Holly Whitbread congratulated the speakers on their presentation. She was interested in Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) and wondered if they had any ideas on how to tackle ASB. She was told that that the Youth Council’s aim was to work with EFDC Councillors on this. There was a lot of work to do on drug abuse and they would like to work with younger pupils (years 7&8) to steer them away.

Councillor Whitbread asked if they thought of using social media to consult people. She was told that they did a lot of work on social media and also distributed leaflets and were doing a lot of work to build on this.

Councillor Knight noted that there was the Crucial Crew scheme and that the Committee had heard about its value. It seemed that young people found it easier approaching other young people. She asked what feedback they had and how their roles as youth councillors impacted this. She was told that the Youth Council was now relaunching the “Suggestion Box” for schools and were finding that the pupils found it easier dealing with people of their own age. They also have had feedback sheets from the MiLife Roadshows which were followed up and it offered some pupils a chance for them to ask for help.

Councillor Stavrou complimented them on a really good presentation. She liked the work that they had carried out on the ‘MiLife’ initiative; she said that it was good to catch issues like this earlier on in life. She was looking forward to seeing what the Youth Council would do in the future. Ms Butler the Youth Engagement Officer said that ‘MiLife’ came from the previous Youth Councillors, the idea coming from their Youth Conference. They were now looking at drug and alcohol awareness.

Councillor Knight asked the Youth Councillors if they would like to consider one of their members being co-opted onto the Select Committee (either one individual or through a rota) as she thought their input into the issues discussed as part of the Committee’s Work Programme would be valuable. The Youth Councillors thought that was a good idea and they would be happy for one of their number to be co-opted onto this Committee. Councillor Knight said that she would take this to the next Overview and Scrutiny Committee for their consideration and approval.

RESOLVED:

(1)  That the Select Committee thank the members of the Youth Council for their presentation, reviewing their achievements and future work programme;

(2)  That the Select Committee recommends to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee that the £5,000 (allocated from DDF) be released to the Youth Council for projects during 2017/18; and

(3)  That the Committee seeks approval from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to co-opt a Youth Councillor onto this Select Committee.