Agenda item

(Community & Culture Team Manager) To receive a presentation by the Epping Forest Youth Council on activities completed during the previous year and activities proposed for the forthcoming year.

The Youth Councillors would also like to show a short three-minute public engagement film about their experience of Covid-19 and the pandemic lockdown; the link is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDCA2w4UmXY

The Committee received a presentation from V Gayton and 5 Youth Councillors reviewing the work of the Youth Council during 2019/20, and outlining their plans for 2020/21.

The presentation highlighted the following points:

·        the ‘We are safe’ project;

·        the updated and expanded Epping Forest Youth Activities map;

·        the Health & Wellbeing Youth Conference;

·        the undertaking of surveys in the District’s schools on local youth issues;

·        the Youth Council’s social media activities;

·        the external funding secured from the Jack Petchey Foundation, the Safer Communities Fund and the High Sherriff of Essex for youth projects;

·        the receipt of a number of awards, certificates and letters of recognition;

·        the production of a two-minute film in April on how Covid-19 had affected young people within the District; and

·        the undertaking of a post-Covid-19 survey of young people on their mental health and wellbeing.

The Youth Councillors thanked the Committee for their continuing support throughout the year, and urged the Committee to view their short film in the days following the meeting.

The Chairman, Cllr M Sartin, thanked the Youth Council for their presentation to the Committee. Cllr S Murray commented that he continued to be impressed by the work of the Youth Council and felt that some of them could go on to become full Councillors in the future; Cllr M Sartin highlighted that two current District Councillors had been Youth Councillors in the past. Cllr D Plummer was highly impressed by the way that the Youth Council continued to engage young people in local issues, Cllr S Rackham felt that the Epping Forest Youth Council was the best in the country, and Cllr D Sunger praised the public speaking skills of the Youth Councillors who had given the presentation.

Cllr S Murray highlighted that young people were most likely to be affected by the pandemic and hoped that the results of the survey being undertaken by the Youth Council would be fed into the appropriate decision-making bodies. The Youth Councillors present gave an idea of how Covid-19 had affected them individually, which included missing seeing family, friends, even school, and that normal life had been taken for granted before, but also that the pandemic had shown they could cope and had become more independent. Cllr M Sartin felt that a lot of young people would have had a different experience as they would not have had the back-up available to the Youth Councillors, and Cllr S Murray commented that low income families without access to information technology had found the experience of the pandemic difficult. The Young Persons Officer, D Butler, informed the Committee that the link to the survey had been sent to all of the schools within the District to be sent on to all pupils, and so far 328 replies to the survey had been received.

Members of the Committee enquired if the Youth Council was undertaking any work on issues involving Black & Minority Ethnic Groups (BAME), or Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual & Tran-gender groups (LGBT)? The Youth Councillors present were clear that no discrimination on any factor was tolerated, and the Youth Council would support any young person in respect of BAME issues. In addition, the Youth Council logo had been adapted to include a rainbow during ‘Pride’ month, and a recent meeting of the Youth Council had included a sexual health education session. It was reiterated that all Youth Councillors were accepted, no matter who or what they were.

Cllr S Murray pointed out that virtually every single group listed on the Youth Activities map was run by volunteers, and it would be better if some of the professionally run groups were also included. Cllr M Sartin also highlighted that only one of the villages in the District appeared on the map, and that surely there were also such groups available in the other villages. D Butler reassured the Committee that the map had been sent to Essex County Council to enable their projects to be included in the future.

Cllr D Plummer asked if the Youth Council had any projects planned to reduce the parking around schools or encourage more people to not drive their children to school in the first place? The Youth Councillors responded that the issue of parking around schools was regularly raised at their meetings, and it was highly likely that a project on this topic would be undertaken in the future following completion of the current key project concerning the health and wellbeing of young people during the Covid-19 recovery phase and beyond.

The Leader of Council, Cllr C Whitbread, thanked the Youth Councillors for giving a voice to young people in the District, especially during this difficult time of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Leader felt that the Youth Council was performing a valuable task in examining the views of young people on Covid-19, and requested the Youth Council to share the results of the survey with the Cabinet at a future meeting and also present on how the future of the District should be shaped.

The Portfolio Holder for Commercial & Regulatory Services, Cllr A Patel, reminded the Committee that the work of the Youth Council had been reviewed in 2015, and it had been difficult to both secure and increase the budget for the Youth Council to enable it to focus on topics that mattered to young people. The subsequent awards indicated not just how good the Youth Council was, but also that the right decision had been made then by the Council. The Portfolio Holder informed the Committee that the local Clinical Commissioning Group was also engaging with the Youth Council to understand better the services which should be provided to young people, and that the Communities teams in the Paternoster and Shelley wards would welcome the involvement from the Youth Councillors for those areas in their engagement work. The Portfolio Holder highlighted that special thanks should be extended to the Officers that supported the Youth Council – particularly D Butler – and exhorted the Youth Council to continue their excellent work.

The Youth Councillors present also gave their thanks to the Officers who had assisted and supported them, and also thanked the Committee for their continuing support in funding the Youth Council’s projects. Cllr M Sartin concluded that the Youth Council was considered a huge success, and thanked them once again for their presentation to the Committee.

            Resolved:

            (1)        That the annual progress presentation given by the Youth Council on             the projects undertaken during 2019/20, supported by the Council’s             Community, Culture & Wellbeing Service, be noted; and

(2)        That the youth Council be requested to give a further presentation to a future meeting of the Cabinet on:

            (a)        the results of the survey into young people’s mental health and             wellbeing post Covid-19 pandemic; and

(b)        how the future of the District should be shaped from a young person’s perspective.