Agenda and minutes

Welcome by Chairman Natalie Moffat and Vice Chair Sonny Bazzoni

Natalie welcomed Youth Councillors and officers to the meeting, she also introduced Sonny Bazzoni as being the Vice Chair for this evening’s meeting.

Apologies of absence

Olu Ayandare, Sydnae Smith,Abigail Akers Furbank, Aliza Zarras, Di Gilson

Butler

Guest speakers Chair of the Independent Advisory Group, Lisa Leonce, PC Karen West, Essex Police

Natalie introduced this evening’s guest speakers to the members of the group, Lisa Leonce the Chair of the Independent Advisory Group and PC Karen West from the Essex Police. IAG stands for - Independent Advisory Group. 

Lisa explained that IAG's are a way for communities to work with the police to help improve the services they provide.  IAG’s advise on policing issues that may cause concern to local people and communities. IAG members are volunteers from local communities, from various backgrounds, different expertise, and different age groups. Lisa explained that they help and inform the Police on incidents that happen within the community and discuss how incidents could be handled differently in the future, and how these incidents can make people within the community feel.  Members are independent local volunteers, who meet regularly to discuss issues of policing and law enforcement.  The Epping and Brentwood IAG have 4 meetings a year, they are usually evening time around 6.30pm and no longer than 2 hours.

The UK has a mix of regional and specialist police forces. In England and Wales, there are 43 territorial police forces of varying size, 39 in England + 4 in Wales.  One for the entire country of Scotland - (Police Scotland).  One for Northern Ireland (PSNI).  All but 10 of the forces have IAG’s established in some form.  Recently Essex Police Force’s IAGs were said to be one of the top three in the country.

Youth Councillors asked when was the IAG formed?

The IAG's was formed in the year of 1999 following an inquiry when a young man, Stephen Lawrence, was brutally murdered in Eltham, and the public felt the racial attack was not dealt with properly.  The IAG group gives people of the community a chance to share their opinion on how the Police respond to incidents.  Although the police have worked with members of the public prior to this - for example neighbour watch.  The report which created IAG's is concerned about engaging members of the community who were not previously engaged.

Youth Councillors asked how many IAG’s are there and do they all have young people represented on them?

Some IAG’s have set up a separate Youth IAG.  For example, there is a Strategic Youth Independent Advisory Group which covers Hampshire, Portsmouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight for young people aged between 14-25years.

Other IAG’s have chosen to have young people appropriately represented on them by community workers for example. There is no right or wrong way to do this, and it is different for each district and police force.  The key is doing what has proven to be the most viable option for them.

Here in our Epping & Brentwood IAG we have decided to have youth representation on the full IAG as we have found historically this provides a more consistent approach to issues, prevents a high turnover of attendees and ensures that young people are able to communicate and be involved in the full discussion as opposed to a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

1.             Ride London feedback - Falak, Suki, Sarah, Sonny

The Youth Councillors agreed how the Ride London Event seemed to be aimed at a younger audience as not many teenagers or young teenagers attended, they agreed going forward it would be good to get more young people on board for next year. Also provide smaller bikes for the younger children who do attend as some could not take part in the activity.

It was noticed by Youth Councillors how some of the paths were blocked during the event making it hard for people to get passed, in future to just make sure all paths are clear for people to get around safely.

Overall, the Ride London Event was a great day, there were lots of smoothies made and officers thanked the Youth Councillors for their contribution as volunteers.

Youth Parliament and Young Essex Assembly feedback - Martin Prinsloo

Martin informed the group of the Period Poverty Project which covers the whole of Essex. The Youth Convention will be taking place in a few weeks’ time, if any of the Youth Council are interested speak to Martin for more information.

From the 22^nd-24^th June the Annual Youth Parliament meeting will be taking place at the House of Commons.

Update from schools - All Youth Councillors

Braeside

Chigwell

Davenant

Debden Park

Epping St Johns

Ilford County

King Harold

New City College

Roding Valley

The Ongar Academy

West Hatch

Braeside – The Deputy Head is leaving; Year 8 and 10 Chess Club has now started, and the music teacher is leaving and will be replaced with the school’s drama teacher.

Chigwell – The Headmaster who has been at the school for 14 years is now leaving, also have 2 Geography teachers who have taught at the school for a long time leaving.

Davenant – The School Council and Councillor Whitbread meeting has been postponed. There are five teachers leaving in various departments.

Year 9 and 10 have been invited to a wellness and wellbeing Dance studio on Wednesday Afternoons. The Houses of Parliament Trip took place a couple of weeks ago.

Debden Park – No updates

Epping St Johns – The Results from Ofsted is GOOD. End of Year Exams coming up. 

Ilford County High – The end of year Music Concert has now been cancelled.

King Harold – An art project is taking place to make the constructing site look more appealing and one teacher is leaving.

Roding Valley High – Maths’s teacher will be taking Maternity Leave. Roding Valley Students have been invited to a student voice meeting next week.

The Ongar Academy – No updates

West Hatch High – No updates

Action: Pat informed the group how it is useful if they look at any charity events coming up and to share with the group.

Jack Petchey Award

Natalie the Chair announced winners of the Jack Petchey Award to the fellow Youth Councillors. Katie presented the winners William and Paarth their Jack Petchey Awards. Matthew who was unable to attend this evening’s meeting will receive his award in the next upcoming meeting.

Katie informed the group that EFYC meetings will take place during the summer break, to read their handbooks, and to read the weekly diary for all upcoming dates, no further updates from Katie.

Sonny informed the group of the competition which he saw on Facebook regarding knife crime, Sonny to provide link to members of the group whom are interested.

Action: Ahiyan informed the group how he will not be able to attend of the meetings that take place during the summer.

Photograph taken of Jack Petchey winners at the end of this evening’s meeting.

The meeting ended: 19:45

Date of Next Youth Council meeting:  Tuesday 5 July 2022