Agenda item

The Chair welcomed officers from the Directorate for Children and Young People:

·  Bob Stott, Director for Universal and Early Support Services;

·  Kirsty Houghton, Development Worker for Youth Engagement;

and also

·  Hal Meakin, (young person) Member of the Youth Council for Lancashire County Council.

The report explained that, in September 2013, the Chair of the Education Scrutiny Committee had asked members of Lancashire Youth Council to carry out a consultation that would enable them to identify any barriers to education that young people faced.

It summarised the findings from a consultation carried out by the Youth Council, which indicated that young people were facing a number of issues that were seen by them as barriers to learning, many of which were already being addressed both within the education establishment and by external partners and organisations.

Education Scrutiny Committee was being asked to consider and comment on the findings of the consultation and in particular on the three recommendations identified by the Youth Council, set out in the report.

By way of introduction, the Committee received a brief overview of the structure and role of Youth Councils both nationally and locally.  Members suggested that a bite size briefing to present this in more detail be arranged for the benefit of all members. Bob Stott undertook to take it forward with the Member Development Manager.

Hal Meakin briefly explained how the Lancashire Youth Council had developed the questionnaire and he summarised the findings from the responses received. He then explained that, based on those findings, the Youth Council had recommended that further work be done to identify specific needs that young people may have to overcome barriers to learning as set out in the report and below:

1)  Further awareness raising should be undertaken to ensure that young people, schools and colleges are familiar with the work of the Youth Council campaign on Emotional Health and Well-being  and the work of Pulse (Children and Young People's Health and Wellbeing Board) on 'Life's up's and Downs'.  These campaigns and initiatives are working to raise awareness of the issues affecting young people, offer support and advice and remove the stigma surrounding mental health issues.

2)  Further consultation should be undertaken with a larger sample group, perhaps focusing on specific groups of young people such as particular age groups/gender groups.  Additionally further work could be done with the groups of young people who were already consulted with to look at what may already be available or could be provided to support these young people and their education establishments in overcoming the barriers they face.

3)  Lancashire Youth Council felt that it may also be beneficial to share the consultation findings with LASSH (Lancashire Association of Secondary School Heads) and the Lancashire College Principal's groups so that they can be made aware of the issues and help that young people felt they needed throughout their education. They could also be reminded about initiatives such as the Bullying and SRE Charter and be encouraged to promote services which young people can access for support.

Members acknowledged that mental health issues were well recognised as a barrier to learning and that factors such as the rapid growth of social media had led to the emergence of many complex issues with potentially serious outcomes for young people.  During the course of the discussion, members supported the Chair's suggestion that a task group would be helpful to investigate the issues in more detail and support the work of the Youth Council. It would be important to carefully scope the task group and consider the timescales to ensure that it did not become unwieldy.

Resolved: That,

  i.  The Youth Council, Kirsty Houghton, Development Worker for Youth Engagement, and John Gordon, Head of Integrated and Targeted Support for Young People, be thanked for their important work;

  ii.  County council officers be asked to consider the three recommendations of the Youth Council, as set out in the report now presented, and report back to the Education Scrutiny Committee on action taken;

  iii.  A task group be established to investigate issues around emotional health and wellbeing of young people as a barrier to learning, and support the work of the Youth Council in this connection.