Agenda and minutes

Welcome by Chairman Paarth Patel

 and Vice Chair

Paarth welcomed Youth Councillors, guests, and officers to the meeting, he also introduced William as the Vice Chair for this evening’s meeting which will be taking place via Teams.

Apologies of absence

Matthew Carter, Scarlet Hinkley, Ahiyan Shah Kabir, Liam Powell, Erika Skingsley, Sydnae Smith and Eylul Ugur.

Marissa gave a presentation and told the youth councillors about the MIND charity. MIND is currently in twenty-two schools within the district, providing support for Primary, Secondary and College students with poor mental health. In secondary schools they offer one-hour, one-to-one support for 6-8 weeks, run groups to help manage anxiety and emotions. They also offer support to parents around challenging behaviour and anxiety. They have recently launched a LGBTQ+ support group in Epping Forest and are looking to promote this work further. A few of the youth councillors asked for the charity to reach out to their schools as they feel it will benefit other pupils.

Roy gave his apologies and was unable to attend the meeting.

Krish gave an update on the repair my pocket survey and explained that it has been distributed to all schools and the New City College. 522 pupils have completed the survey to date, but we are hoping for several thousands to complete it. Krish also asked if everyone can promote the survey by speaking with their teachers and Head Teachers to make sure that all pupils can access it.

Action: Please can you all promote the survey by speaking with your teachers and Head teachers to make sure that all pupils can access it.

The survey link:https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/9DM6JNH

Di delivered the ‘Little Book of Scams’ booklets to Roding Valley High school, The Ongar Academy, Epping St Johns, and Chigwell school. The book complements the youth councillors ‘Repair my Pocket’ PowerPoint presentation.

Actions:

·       Izzy to chase Braeside school.

·       Krish chase Debden Park High school

·       Sarah and Scarlet to chase King Harold Academy

·       Matthew and Liam to chase the New City College

·       Aliza to chase West Hatch High school.

Harry is one of the four youth representatives attending the Brentwood and Epping Forest Independent Advisory Group. They have produced a survey to identify how safe young people are feeling in their area and in their schools. Results will be fed back to the IAG later.

The survey is completely anonymous, there are twenty-three questions. The aim is to survey the issues facing young people living in the Epping Forest District during 2023.

The survey asked 175 Davenant Foundation School students, from the ages of 11-18,  questions regarding their safety in and around their school and local area. It was conducted during December 2022 and January 2023. It covers safety, speeding, street lighting, scams, feeling unsafe, and crime. We aim to run the same survey next year to see if any issues change.

Overall, many of the survey results were positive: the respondents were confident in their safety around the school and their local area.

In Summary

1.     The most positive areas were feelings of general safety as most of the young people said that they felt safe in their local area, walking to, and at, school.

2.     The majority also said there was not too much crime in their area.

3.     A majority of young people said streetlighting was adequate. Those who said lighting was not adequate lived in Theydon Bois, Harlow, and Ongar.

4.     A majority of responses said there was a problem with speeding and parking in their area.

5.     About half of those surveyed, had experienced a scam, but most did not report it.

6.     Over half of those surveyed said they trusted the local police, but most people were not sure whether their local police were diverse and reflect the local community.

7.     The majority of those surveyed knew how to contact their local police, but most did not know  how to get information on local crime figures.

8.     Very few had heard of Independent Advisory Groups.

To conclude; the findings from the Davenant Foundation school pupils survey in December 2022.

•                Streetlights were an issue, in Theydon Bois, Ongar  and Harlow.

•                Streetlights went off too early.

•                Not many people report drug crime and scams.

•                There were concerns of vehicles speeding and inappropriate parking in the local area.

•                The police force was not diverse.

•                Low awareness of how to access local crime information.

•                There was a lack of awareness of the local IAG.

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 school                    No updates.

Chigwell school                   Hiring a Deputy Head Teacher for pastoral.

Davenant Foundation school        

Printing must be paid for, high turnover of year 9  form tutors. Sixth form building is progressing.

Debden Park High                Krish will chase up the Scam presentation and Cost of  living crisis survey.

Epping St Johns school      Printing is limited, music room is being moved.

King Harold Academy          Drama performance on Mental health

New City College                 No updates.

Roding Valley High school

                                                Robberies in school, Mocks this week and after half term.

West Hatch High school      No updates but suggest using Ms Chittock as contact.

Wolsey Hall school  No updates.

Youth Parliament                  Martin to report back at the next meeting.

Young Essex Assembly      Martin and Falak to report back at the next meeting.

The Epping Forest Youth Council to report to the Overview and Scrutiny committee on Thursday 20 April. They will provide an update about their  work during their first year in office.

Action:

William, Paarth, Olu, and Sarah will present the report on the night. Natalie and Aliza agreed to be reserves. Rehearsals will be held at the Civic Offices on Tuesday 11 April and 18 April at 19:00 – 20:30.

The winner of the Youth Council cup for 2022/2023 is Erika Skingsley. As Erika was unable to attend the meeting, the cup will be presented at the March meeting. Erika received the award for being an outstanding Youth Councillor, as she has dedicated herself to the work of the youth council and the community. Erika is hard working and enthusiastic about making a difference in her community and school. She strives hard to do everything well and spends her spare time volunteering, she fundraises to help the homeless, she supports her local youth group and church, she also coaches football on the Limes Farm centre. Erika works hard in her school to promote the work of the Youth Council and is always willing to go the extra mile. Erika will now join Falak and Krish at the Civic dinner awards in March. There will be two more awards for March.

The Jack Petchey Nominations are now due.

Action:

All Youth Councillors to message Di with the name of their nominee by the 28 February.

1.     Di asked if there were any Loughton volunteers that wanted to assist with the Loughton Town Mayor’s Civic Service, Sunday 26 February at 15:00 Loughton Synagogue, Borders Lane.

Action: Olu, Krish and William agreed to attend the service.

2.     Di asked for Volunteers and a photographer for the Dementia Fayre in Epping on Saturday 13 May

Action: Falak agreed to attend the Fayre.

3.     Di informed the youth councillors that the training on 14 February has been cancelled due to low numbers. It will be moved to the Easter holidays.

4.     The guest speaker at the March Youth Council meeting will be Paul Opoku from Herts and West Essex Integrated Care System. The Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) was established on 1 July 2022. Its role is to plan and buy healthcare services for 1.5 million people, working closely with partners to improve the health and wellbeing of local communities.

Action:

Youth Councillors to research the work of the I.C.B. https://hertsandwestessex.icb.nhs.uk/