A Conference for Young People and Decision Makers

H Walton, L WilsonCircles of Influence 2016July 2016

Bury Circles of Influence

A conference for young people and decision makers

June 2016

Conference Report

Introduction

On 29th June 2016, young people from across Bury came together to meet with local decision makers and contribute to future change at the annual Bury Circles of Influence conference. Decision makers sat in circles with young people discussing issues on 5 themes: Health; Education; Places to go, things to do and transport; Young People facing additional barriers; and Safety, culture and inclusion. 44young people attended aged 13-18 from 11 secondary schools and colleges including 6 young people from Bury’s Youth Cabinet. There were 28 adult decision makers including the Executive Director of Children, Young People and Culture and other senior officers from the local authority, councillors, representatives from local health services, schools, the police and the third sector.

As well as circle discussions, young people were invited to take part in a number of interactive activities designed to gather their views on life in Bury. Young people also identified a number of priorities from each theme group.

Young people from Bury Youth Cabinet organised the event and facilitated activities throughout the day. This was an invaluable experience for the young facilitators as they gained confidence and developed a variety of skills. One young person in particular over came great nerves to act as a presenter on the day which was incredibly empowering for them. The day was full of excitement and enthusiasm as young people really took the lead and offered decision makers some feedback on, and ideas for, the services they provide in Bury. The young people also spent some time thinking about how they as young people could address the issues that they identified. The Council’s Communities and Wellbeing Procurement Service also took the opportunity to ask young people about their experiences of using health services and what recommendations for change they would like to make.

The conference included a variety of activities.This report contains details of the findings from each of these activities. These are followed by key findings and recommendations for the future:

Agree/disagree continuum (p3)
Circles of Influence discussion groups (p5)
Prioritising exercise from circle discussion groups (p14)
A community asset approach – what can young people do to help each other and themselves? (p16)
What is your experience of using health services and what recommendations for change would you make? (p18)
Questionnaire (p 20)
Junk modelling/creating a piece of drama (p24)
Also during the day (p25)
Evaluation (p26)
Key Findings and Recommendations (p27)
You said we did: Schools (p29)
You said we did: Health (p30)
You said we did: Other Services (p31)

Agree/Disagree Continuum

The room was separated into two ends: agree and disagree. Statements were read aloud and young people had to position themselves across the room demonstrating whether they agree or disagree or are somewhere in the middle. Young people were then asked to explain why they stood where they did.

When young people leave school they have all the skills they need to succeed in life

Agree-0 3 Adults stood in the middle Disagree 44

School doesn’t teach parenting, everything is academic, won’t use most of the subjects that you are taught. Taxes are not taught. Want real life lessons.

The adults in the middle say that it’s impossible to teach everything in the 5 years that you’re in high school but they felt actually young people are taught a lot of transferrable skills that they may not recognise themselves.

I have access to good information, advice and guidance about my future.

Agree- 31 13 in the middle Disagree -0

Connexions come into schools. It’s there but you have to look for it and people don’t know where to look for it.

In my school offensive and discriminatory language is challenged by teachers.

Agree 15 29 in the middle Disagree -0

It’s hard for teachers to hear everything that is said particularly during break times.

My school delivers good sex and relationship education

Agree-8 middle 3 Disagree- 33

Agree – In our school Science and PSHE lessons look at relationships and deal with situations through drama which helps you to learn from it.

Middle - not good but not bad we learn about contraception and infections but not relationships.

Disagree –We are not prepared we don’t have many lessons. A bit on contraception, no long term advice, no relationship advice or domestic abuse advice, made aware of it but not how to deal with it.

Talking online with people I’ve never met in person is dangerous

Agree -14 Middle -24 Disagree- 6

Agree- don’t know them they may be lying about who they are.

Middle- it’s ok as long as you don’t tell them personal things about yourself.

Disagree - you should be able to have internet friends as long as you are educated and don’t meet them in real life.

In Bury young people are getting the right help at the right time to support them with any issues they are having.

Agree1 middle 5 disagree 38

Agree- Connexions are there to help and at Bury Grammar we have a really good school nurse that I could talk to about anything.

Middle- Depends on the situation schools have counsellors but nobody knows where to go.

Disagree- Recount times haven’t had help when needed and situations get worse. Waiting lists for services are bad.

It is important that young people have opportunities to tell decision makers what they think

Agree 42 middle 2

It’s important that we have our say but does anyone actually listen?

It’s hard to be totally honest today when decision makers are in the room while doing this exercise

Agree- 13 Middle 2 Disagree 29

It can be hard to be put on the spot but it’s good they’re hearing our views.

Circles of Influence discussion groups

Young people signed up to join discussions in one of the five theme groups. They asked questions and shared ideas. This is a summary of the discussions they had:

Health

How have young people been involved in CAMHS (Child, Adolescent Mental Health Service) reform and change to Healthy Young Minds? Do young people have continued involvement?

There are planned workshops to involve stakeholders to look at changes (Young people not currently involved)
Discussed process and criteria
Only 1 young person heard of CAMHS noone aware of changes

How are young people kept up to date with health developments and events?

Early break have a website, social media, zombie website
Health and schools should work better together
Health should use social media - all types

How are health services promoted?

Bury directory is used to give info and sign post to services. No young people have heard of the directory
Posters on public transport and buildings
There should be one website that gives info on lots of different health issues
Link to website on social media and promote the website
Important to state confidentiality because young people could be reluctant to contact services
Parent promoted services

How can health services ensure they are accessible to young people?

Make services as open as possible, opening times in schools, times to suit young people
Access to services via internet and instant messenger
Online is easier to talk and there is no travel
Live chat with professional
Different venues in localities
Drop in service and appointments
Outside school confidential
In school offer services at lunch time

How can health services ensure that they are young person friendly?

Surveys, events
Design services with young people
More engagement with a wider range of young people
Services that don’t require an adult to accompany you, services have support to enable young people to access services by themselves
Given support and time to make you feel you are not alone. Feel more comfortable
Same person continuity of professional not saying your story again.
Same worker if any change to be supported in any transitional ie. New worker
Youth service/youth worker to be an early help until young person can access the services. For young people who do not meet the service threshold.
Online support in interim

Where can young people get advice and information about mental health issues without being referred for specialist treatment?

Internet/ google (But can be unreliable)
Young people do not know a service to get advice
Young people talk to friends trusted friends they will understand and listen and support in the next step to getting help
PHSE lessons to get advice and info on mental health treatment

Education

Young people need skills in managing money, healthy eating and other life skills. What can be done in school to help prepare young people for living independently?

Teach about getting a mortgage
Household activities
Extra curricular activities
Teach the basics of independence
Need to teach transferrable skills that help you to become independent
Had money charity in school to teach about money management
A day at school with a range of activities to take part in

Why are same sex relationships not discussed in sex and relationship education at school?

At school learn basic of SRE but don’t know how to find out more
Relationships are complex- adults don’t have the answers but support should be there on an individual basis in school
The school counselling service needs to be better promoted and more available to pupils
Should talk about same sex relationships in school as openly as opposite sex
Focuses on what you shouldn’t do. If someone asks lots of questions its informative but that’s not part of the basic information that’s given
Not always good at telling where to get information (eg online)
Think SRE is old fashioned- pre dates current acceptance of different relationships
Should we ask pupils what they want to know about (balanced with what has to be taught)?
Focus on relationships rather than sex

Can more be done to encourage schools to bring in external sex and relationship educators? Young people want education to be focused on making positive choices and staying safe

A bit awkward with someone you have never met to talk about SRE
Would prefer it to be someone you do know and feel you can be open with
Good to also have specialist (as well as the person you know and are comfortable with)
Is there a role for counselling services in delivering PSHE? (Adult question)
Perhaps at end of lesson, pupils could write anonymously any other questions- this would inform future lessons
General view prefer SRE from people that they know
More time for questions in SRE lessons

How can teachers offer more support/intervention outside of lessons? Can these be after school rather than at lunch time? Can we have more special support assistants in schools?

Limited by finance- teaching assistants in lessons for pupils who need it - In Bury fairly good support compared to other areas
In one school extra support is provided before school and on Wednesday from 2.30pm until the end of the day- works well. Most Pupils stay for the extracurricular support but still finish at the normal time (There are incentives to pupils)
Schools are working together to look at how to support pupils with mental health issues
Very little in schools about mental health
All pupils need to know about coping with stress etc sometimes sessions only run for a small number of pupils

Could basic first aid training be offered to all pupils at bury schools?

Some schools are doing this already- but not all
Quite good but needs to tell you how to deal with small cuts and accidents that happen all the time as well as major things
Learning the basic means you learn not to panic
Learn in Duke of Edinburgh’s award
A page in the school diary with the basics would help

What training is available to teachers in relation to issues affecting pupils outside of school? Teachers need to be able to pick up on issues impacting on students outside of the classroom.

Safeguarding
Child protection
Lunchtime learning
Links with local agencies- at Greater Manchester level to learn from and support each other to respond to issues that affect young people- share information.
Agencies share information about issues eg. Council staff talk to schools regularly so we know what issues are and provide relevant training and support.
Teachers need to be told issues/problems in order to be able to help. Pupils need to let teachers know if they need help- need to encourage pupils to feel like they can ask for help.

Places to go things to do and transport

Where and how are activities for young people advertised? What is in place to ensure activities are accessible to young people?

Posters, Schools, adverts.
Bury directory
Internet
Public transport

Transport is the biggest barrier to accessing services and activities for young people, it needs to be affordable. Is there any opportunity to make it more affordable for young people?

Devomanc- could bring public transport under the local authority to make transport more accessible/affordable for young people
Half term deals
5 day bus ticket
Current discounts for college students but not high school
Bus passes should be free

What can be done to make public transport more frequent and reliable, especially at peak times?

Dedicate bus lanes
Timetable needs to be easier to follow
More notices at stops with live bus times
Should run the tram to Ramsbottom

Young people can feel unsafe using trams. Could there be more safety officers onboard?

Feel unsafe at night so maybe staff on at these times
Maybe have different carriages for different age groups
All stations have CCTV
Police have ‘travel safe’ scheme
There should be people there to help
Complaints sometimes take months to resolve
Read more signs advertising safety and highlighting ‘hate crime’ reporting options

Can bus drivers be more accountable for abuse on buses? So often drivers don’t intervene, could training be offered so this could change making buses feel safer?

Drivers need to have some responsibility
Should safety officers be on the buses? Yes
If buses were free would there be more issues in terms of safety
Are buses worth the money?
There should be charging ports on buses
Drivers need to be friendlier
Are bus drivers paying attention to the maximum capacity?

Parks feel unsafe at night due to anti-social behaviour. Could the council or police provide more rangers or PCSOs to patrol in the evening so young people have safer spaces to go to during the summer months?

There is no current recruitment for PCSOs
Safe 4 summer aims to make communities safer
Council security service drives around the borough
Parks are inspected every morning
Police officers now have neighbourhood responsibility
Young people should be confident and be prepared to complain
New parks/replacing equipment is not possible due to funds
There is a problem because there are a lack of evening activities for young peoplee.g. youth clubs
Could schools be used for youth provision?

Young people facing additional barriers

In what ways are young refugees, Immigrants and asylum seekers supported emotionally and socially to integrate into communities and helped to feel safe?

Young people are encouraged to make social links with other young people. Without parents young people would be placed in foster care and a looked after child will have support and education.
Find people with the same language
Schools holding information sessions explaining things
Mosses centre offers support clothes fund health care and benefit support
Greater Manchester immigration aid link with local authorities

Children and young people in care are often perceived in a certain way. What could be done in schools to help other young people understand issues around being in care challenge stereotypes?

Schools using drama to explain the situation
Some young people want to talk about their situation and others don’t so bringing awareness in school might single the children out that don’t want others to know.
There’s a divide in school they should do more PHSCE lessons on children and young people in care not just drugs
More teaching around challenging stereotypes

What services are offering support to young disabled people?

Learning support staff in schools
Not enough ramps no lifts
A room for SEN students
If you can’t physically go up stairs you will be separated downstairs and given work to do alone
Young people in wheelchairs don’t have as much choice in highschool
Young people don’t know about services
Money is given to help with access
Bury Parents forum
5 groups a week run by the council
NHS should be first to give info
Bury young carers

What initiatives are there that educate young people to better understand issues that others might face and prevent bullying and discrimination?

Youth clubs
RE lessons
YP don’t know how to report it so making that clearer
Schools need to take things like bullying more seriously
Physical abuse is taken more seriously
Teachers let emotional abuse carry on to physical level
More info on cyber bullying
If it’s seen on social media it’s seen as the young person’s fault (CEOP explained and nobody knew what it was)
Lions heart foundation, GM police, helplines
Ending the stigma of reporting
Hate crimes need to involve the police
Cyber bullying is where it usually starts
Young people tell friends first
Peer mentors are only for year 7s but should be available to all ages
It takes so long to make a difference
Teachers don’t accept the severity of the situation
Young people don’t see school councils as helping with bullying
School councils are slow and ineffective
Schools are more concerned with academic values and not young people’s wellbeing
Teachers need to help empower young people to challenge bullies
Teachers put it down to teens being teens
Bullying effects leaning
Teachers focus solely on educating

What is being done to identify young people who might need extra support such as young carers?

The youth service runs groups
Schools usually refer
1 to 1 support
Residential
Weekly groups
More support for adult services
Young carers just see it as normal as they know no different

What is being done to raise aspirations of young people who face barriers such as lack of money or mental health issues?

Colleges offer bursaries
Schools offer financial help (pupil premium)
Connexions should offer more information
Young people that are worried for other young people need help to support their peers

Safety Culture and inclusion