Agenda item

Shokat Lal, Assistant Chief Executive, gave the following powerpoint presentation:-

 

“For Rotherham to be a great place to grow up in; where children, young people and their families have fund and enjoy living, learning and working”

 

Why are we doing this?

-        Ambition to become a child friendly borough – result of CSE report and Council’s Fresh Start Improvement Plan

-        The Council wanting to improve the Borough for all children and young people – not just focusing on ‘Children’s Services’

 

Our Approach

-        Established a local Child Friendly Board providing governance and help steer the work.  This ensured:

Local leaders were engaged: Elected Members, Chief Executives and Senior Managers

Partners were engaged who already work with children and young people:

Voluntary and community sector

Health, Police and Education

 

Our Approach

-     Children and young people engaged from the start

-     Ensured it was not ‘adult-led’ but children and young people had their voices heard and acted on

-     Feeding this into everything we do in the Council

-     Influencing other partners

 

Who we spoke to

-          We spoke to around 4,000 children and young people using a range of methodologies:-

Attending meetings (Youth Cabinet/Youth Parliament)

Events and activities led by young people

Embassy for Reimagining Rotherham consultation and manifesto

Online survey

Lifestyle survey for schools

Rotherham Show

 

What children, young people and their families told us

-        Children and young people feel positive and proud of where they live

-        Enjoy opportunities to be with friends and family and celebrate their cultural diversity

-        Enjoy what was on offer – just wanted to have a bit more “fun”!

-        Adults much more likely to be negative, critical and concerned about diversity and lack of things to do

 

Reimagining Rotherham Project – The Reimagined Rotherham Town Plan

-        Park – everyone should be able to go to the park to relax or get active

-        Art – an arts centre would show off the town’s talent as well as how cultural Rotherham is

-        Museum – help people learn about things in an enjoyable way

-        Cinema – watching films helps you be more imaginative

-        Café – we would like a café where people can gain work experience

 

Four Themes for ‘Child Friendly Rotherham’

-        Analysis of all consultation and CF Board workshop highlighted 4 themes:-

A vibrant borough with age-appropriate, fun things to do

Places in Rotherham to be safe, clean and welcoming

All children and young people have a voice and are listened to

Opportunities to bring together and celebrate Rotherham’s diverse communities

 

‘Our Rotherham’: Achieving the ambition to be a Child and Young Person Friendly Borough 2017-2025

-        Using consultation responses and event the board and young people co-produced an action plan

-        Plan for 2018-2025 in line with other key strategies and plans

-        CF Board identified champions for each theme

 

‘Child Friendly Rotherham’ already in action

-        Young people influencing town centre masterplan

-        Influenced ambition to be Children’s Capital of Culture 2025

-        Influencing policy and strategic agendas e.g. Safer Rotherham Partnership and Building Stronger Communities Forum

-        Continuing to work with the Different but Equal Board and Grimm & co as key partners

-        Community journalist project and ‘Our Rotherham’ website https://www.ourrotherham.com

-        Programme of workshops/events being developed throughout the year

 

What Next

-        Continue to use this initiative to influence everything we do always asking “what is the impact on children and young people?”

-        Ensure co-production and meaningful engagement is the norm

-        Not just focusing on what children and young people want but using their influence to make Rotherham great for all ages

-        Where can you contribute to the agenda?

 

Discussion ensued with the following issues raised/clarified:-

 

·         Acknowledgement that there was a risk of over reliance on consulting the same young people and community groups from existing forums which may lead to an in-built bias in responses.  An example of how this was being addressed was the Different but Equal Board; work had been undertaken to ensure that the views of a wide range of children and young people were represented.    It was recognised that, because of age or circumstances, some young people would only be involved for a limited period of time, therefore, it was important that as many children and young people were given an opportunity to participate and contribute.   Methods of consulting had include an online survey and use of some of the voluntary sector groups to widen participation

 

·         With regard to the right balance of engaging young people and children on their own terms, lessons were being learnt on how this engagement should take place and how those discussions were facilitated with the use of the experts e.g. Children’s Services, the Different but Equal Board, Grimm & Co. and Defeye Creative & Co.

 

·         The consultation had taken place with children and young people from 6-16+ years with 4,000 participants.  The views of a 7 year old would differ hugely from a 13 year old so mindful that when consulting/engaging it was across the whole range to ensure that different views were captured

 

·         The 4 key themes within the plan had been broken down into issues that were more relevant to particular groups for consultation purposes

 

·         The online survey had asked questions with regard to race, age and gender for which there were statistics available.  The consultation was also supplemented with other engagement such as the Lifestyle Survey which highlighted issues around health and wellbeing 

 

·         The resident survey had revealed that adults were more negative and critical about the areas where they lived; that had not been put to children and young people

 

·         The consultation on the Reimagining Rotherham Town Plan had taken place in the pop up shop in the Town Centre where young people had come in and talked about what they would like to see.  It had been an open question about how they would develop Rotherham Town Centre

 

·         It was believed that, in terms of some of the work that had been carried out so far, some of the most difficult to reach young people and children had been involved 

 

·         From a Council point of view, it was felt that the Child Friendly Borough Board had the correct representation i.e. Assistant Directors, Heads of Service and Children and Young People’s Services and there was a good level of commitment.  The same applied to the voluntary sector.  Work was taking place through the Rotherham Together Partnership in terms of having decision makers on the Board from SYP, CCG, Hospitals, Fire Service, College etc.  Representation had not been pursued until it was felt that there were examples of good practice.  The clearly defined action plan would help organisation develop their own work and show exactly what being child friendly was and how it sat alongside the work of their organisation.  The Rotherham Together Partnership was very well represented, supportive and hugely committed to Rotherham as a whole and the challenge of making the Borough child friendly

 

·         It was clear that the young people celebrated diversity and felt that there was no place where they could meet children of different backgrounds and spend time with them.  The Town Centre was not seen as a place where they could come and do that.  The Reimagining Rotherham work had looked at how this could be addressed

 

·         One of the big differences between the Reimagining Rotherham consultation with children and young people and the adult consultation on the Rotherham Town Centre Master Plan had been that the adult consultation spoke about the retail offer and shops.  The children and young people responses differed from this focusing more on the availability of leisure activities.  This had been used to  influence the Town Centre Master Plan in terms of leisure, entertainment and places to meet and talk rather than just shop

 

·         Leeds had engaged 750 child friendly city ambassadors from the business and voluntary sector.  However, there was a high level of support resource required in terms of training, activity and managing it.  In Rotherham there were the Rotherham Pioneers; discussions were to take place as to whether some of the child friendly work could be embedded within their work

 

·         Quite a number of the children and young people were on the Child Friendly Board which met on a quarterly basis at Grimm & Co. That membership would continually change.  They would receive feedback on consultation, how things had changed and work through the different agencies

 

·         Activities were planned with local town centre businesses about engaging young people.  There had been some activity with other groups with regard to  business sponsorship in the town centre but the Council had not necessarily actively led on it

 

·         Work was underway to link Reimagining Rotherham into neighbourhood working and other Council priorities.  The 4 key themes were now clear and based on what children and young people had said.  The Directorates, through their Service Planning process, now needed to think about what their priorities would be for the next financial year and how they could build in the child friendly work and the 4 key themes.  The Overview and Scrutiny Management Board would receive quarterly monitoring reports and would have the opportunity to question what Service was doing in relation to child friendly borough 

 

Shokat was thanked for his presentation.

 

Resolved:-  (1)  That the presentation be noted.

 

(2)  That a workshop be held in 6 months on the Child and Young Person Friendly Borough action plan.

 

(3)  That Strategic Directors be invited to Select Commission meetings to discuss what work their Directorate was undertaking to make Rotherham a Child Friendly Borough.