ST BASILS YOUTH COUNCIL MEETING

Minutes of the St Basils Youth Council meeting held 11am -1:30pm on

Wednesday 27th May 2015

at

St Basils Training Room - The Arch, 120 Heath Mill Lane, Deritend, Birmingham, B9 4AX

Present:

  • Rohan Donald – Chair
  • Siobhan Griffiths – Timekeeper
  • Harry Everill
  • Toby Wilkes
  • Tawny Davies
  • Heidi Walford
  • Emma Greenshields
  • Arshad Farooq
  • Daniel Jackson
  • Shannon Lacey
  • Kyle Taylor

In Attendance:

  • Shanti Bromfield – St Basils Head of Housing
  • Sam Henry - Youth Engagement Coordinator
  • Joanthan Dean – St Basils Rents Officer
  • Matthew Pitts – St Basils Policy Officer
  • Enactus – Debbie White
  • Enactus – Paul Adams
  • Enactus – Amrit Sandhu

APOLOGIES: None

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING

Minute of the previous meeting were read out by Rohan and agreed as an accurate record by those who were in attendance.

MATTERS ARISING

Nothing to report

MAIN AGENDA ITEMS

Presentation: Jonathon Dean – Rents

Jonathan gave brief presentation on his new role as Rents Officer which are

Support young people across St Basils who are behind in their rents

Managing the collection of rent across St Basils Supported Accommodation projects

During his presentation Jonathan asked St Basils Youth Council members how they could assist himself in getting the message across to St Basils residents of the importance of paying their rent. One ST BASILS YOUTH COUNCIL member pointed out that the average amount that residents are expected to pay is quite small and that (£4 – £12) per week is reasonable. The member went on to state that young people in St Basils were not prioritising paying their rent and that St Basils should take a less tolerant approach in enforcing young people to pay their rent. Interestingly there were no strong objections to his viewpoint from the other ten young people present.

Action: Jonathan will arrange a future meeting with nine members who wish to work closely with Jonathon and brainstorm ideas on how the Youth Council can get the message across to young people on financial management. One idea put forward was a video produced by the Youth Council wo promote a positive message to all St Basils residents. Another idea was to reintroduce/promote the PASA Training to all residents

Enactus

Debbie White introduced herself and her two colleagues Paul Adams & Amrit Sandhu. Debbie gave an overview of the social enterprise opportunities that are available to the Youth Council and individual members in partnership with Birmingham University. Paul is available to give specialist advice on business start up. Amrit’s specialises in providing work experience opportunities to St Basils young people. During the discussion the concept of developing an mobile app was brought up by Debbie.

Action: Debbie, Paul & Amrit are to continue to correspond with the Youth Council with the aim to begin support the |Youth Council and the wider St Basils community in September 2015 to develop a social enterprise programme for St Basils.

Review of the new Youth Engagement Policy & Procedures Policy

Matthew Pitts gave a concise overview of the Youth Engagement policy. A lively debate took place between members over local engagement opportunities. This appears to vary widely across St Basils with no consistency across the agency.

Matthew’s analysis of the verbal feedback from young people on the engagement policy is as follows:

  • The young people want to feel more connected to young people in other projects, as well as their own.
  • Lots of the young people said they would like to have more opportunities to meet other St Basils Young people, to socialise, and support one another, particularly around areas such as mental health, life skills, and education/training.
  • Those living in independent living projects were particularly in favour of this, as they said there is often less of a social culture in these project when compared to supported living projects, which have communal living areas. The young people said they would like to have events where they could meet people from other projects, as well as more social events/trips/activities within projects.
  • The young people want to see improvements in communication within St Basils.
  • The young people said they were often unaware of events, activities and opportunities at St Basils, as there is frequently a lack of communication, this included cross project activities/initiatives, as well as events within projects. The young people suggested newsletters could be used to publicise what’s going on. These could include project specific details, as well as cross project news/events. The news letter could also include contributions from young people of things such as creative writing, reviews etc. Some young people added that they didn’t receive welcome packs on arriving at St Basils – so it took them a number of months to find out about things such as the Youth Council.
  • Additionally, the young people raised the point that they felt there is often a lack of communication between staff at St Basils – particularly between night staff and day staff. The young people said that there were frequently occasions where staff didn’t appear to know about certain situations that were going on within projects, and they had to ‘step in’ to sort things out.
  • The young people were satisfied that their views were being heard within the organisation, however they now want to see action.
  • The young people were positive about the opportunities they have to voice their views to management, but as yet they feel they haven’t seen many changes influenced by what they’ve said. Additionally, there was some concern about specifically how the Youth Council would be represented on the Board.

Action: Sam to explore communication channels and opportunities to develop or improve a St Basils Youth Council Newsletter

Youth Council Member (Resident Rep) - Role & Responsibilities explained

Sam gave a brief overview of the roles and responsibilities expected of members of the Youth Council and in particular the importance of the role in their project.

Mystery Shopping update

The process explained. Sam gave a brief presentation covering the Mystery Shopping programme including; what’s involved and how Youth Council members can be involved in carrying out Mystery Shopping Activities across St Basils service delivery areas. The focus of the current programme will be:

  • Support received by St Basils residents
  • Quality of the St Basils accommodation

Action: Sam to agree Mystery Shopping Timetable with Shanti & then recruit Youth Council members to begin visits starting June/July 2015.

Youth Council Logo Competition - Update

It was decided to extend the LOGO Competition deadline to give members an opportunity to consider more entries. There were only two entries to date from Bromsgrove & Conybere. Youth Council members agreed to an extension to the deadline to Friday July 17th 2015 to allow more time to select a winner and runners up for the next Youth Council meeting in on August 26th 2015.

Action: Sam to email projects announcing extension of Logo Competition

Feedback from Resident Reps – What’s happening locally

There were no specific issues or information raised from individual projects

EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY

Nothing to report

BUDGET/EXPENDITURE UPDATE

Nothing to report

A.O.B

Prior to the meeting Jean raised the issue with Sam of the need for a mechanism to allow the Main Board to meet with the Youth Council and allow the sharing of information that was mutually compatible. Sam suggested that an informal meeting could be organised whereby the Youth council could present to the Main Board current achievements and progress to date on agenda items. The Main Board could likewise do the same. Food would be provided for this event which could take place after the next Main Board meeting in September. Sam presented this idea to the Youth Council members and all were in favour of it taking place.

Action: Sam to liaise with SMT and Youth Council and arrange date in September 2015 for meeting.

Date of Next meeting

The next Youth Council Meeting will be held at 11am -1pm on Wednesday 26th August 2015. The venue will most like be the new refurbished Head Office adjacent to St Basils Youthhub with the entrance on Allcock Street.

YOUTH COUNCIL MEETINGS SCHEDULED IN 2015
Wednesday 18th February 2015 / 13:00 pm - 16:00pm / Head Office Training Room
Wednesday 27th May 2015 / 13:00pm - 16:00pm / Head Office Training Room
Wednesday 26th August 2015 / 13:00pm - 16:00pm / St Basils Head Office Training Room
Wednesday 28th October 2015 / 13:00pm - 16:00pm / St Basils Head Office Training Room

These minutes are approved by the rotating Chairperson of St Basils Youth Council

Rotating Chair______

Signature:______

Date of Signing: ____/____/____

1 | Page