1 Background to the Broadland Youth Engagement Strategy (YES) 11

							1     Background to the Broadland Youth Engagement Strategy (YES)
1.1   In 2003 the Broadland District Council agreed to adopt the Local
      Government Association/National Youth Agency’s “Hear by Right”
      standard. This decision was taken in response to the findings of the
      Best Value Review in to Broadland’s responsibilities under Section 17
      of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. The “Hear by Right” standard
      gives a framework by which a local authority can assess to what
      degree it engages with young people. At the same time the District
      Council appointed a senior councillor as Young People’s Champion.

1.2   After completing an audit of Broadland’s services using the Hear by
      Right template it is clear that Broadland are at the “Emerging Stage”
      (emerging, established and advanced are the three stages of
      standards). In order to consolidate this position the Council needs to
      have some co-ordination of its existing engagement with young people
      and mechanisms that allow young people to become involved in
      helping to form Council decisions. The Youth Engagement Strategy is
      intended to give a framework for engaging with the District’s young
      people.

2     Preparation of the Broadland YES

2.1   For the past five years the District Council has run an annual
      competition for High Schools in the District. This has been an activity
      for the Local Government Association’s Local Democracy Week.
      Originally the game involved teams acting as the management team of
      a fictitious district council. Last year’s event changed the format of the
      game and focused it around the Community Plan.

2.2   This 2005’s event was another break with the past. The event had two
      themes and was run in close partnership with Norfolk County Council’s
      Broadland Youth and Community Service (YCS). Teams from the High
      Schools were given details of the government’s green paper “Youth
      Matters. The teams were asked to consider a response to the green
      paper and prepare a presentation. In the weeks preceding the event
      the YCS worked with the teams helping them undertake research and
      put together the presentation. On the day of the event the teams gave
      their presentation. In addition to the presentation the teams were
      invited to respond to a series of questions related to the Council’s
      services. These questions asked the young people on the teams what
      areas of the Council’s work they would like to be involved with, why
      they either would or wouldn’t want to be involved and how they would
      like to be involved. This information was captured in a standard way.
      The teams were then invited to review each other’s work and vote for
      the ideas they supported the most.
3     The Broadland YES

3.1   The strategy is drawn directly from the responses given by the teams
      taking part in the event outlined in paragraph 2.2. Colleagues from the
      Broadland Youth and Community have assured us that, collectively,
      teams who took part in the event can be viewed as a representative
      sample of young people in the district. The draft strategy is deliberately
      written in positive terms, aiming to give a clear and direct message to
      young people. The intention is to give young people an indication of
      what they can expect from the Council.

3.2   The aspect of the strategy which received most support from young
      people was establishing a Youth Council for Broadland. The rest of the
      strategy can be grouped into four key themes: Consultation (Ask and
      Act), Communication (Listen and Learn), Projects (See and Do),
      Volunteering (Help and Support).

3.3   Taking the young people’s priority for setting up a Youth Council would
      suggest that it ought to be the first thing to put into place. Once set up
      the Youth Council could give some direction to the District Council. A
      Youth Council could also draw up an action plan that could implement
      the strategy.

4     The Broadland Youth Council Officer

4.1   We are looking for someone to build on the progress we have made so
      far. This will involve setting up and running the Broadland Youth
      Council, developing programmes and events for youth engagement
      and working with the Council’s partners to create a framework for
      young people to influence decisions and the provision of services.