Issue - meetings

This report summarises the Hear By Right Standards for Children and young  People’s involvement, looks at where City of York Council currently stands against the standards and highlights some recommended action points.

Members considered a report which summarised the Hear By Right standards for children and young people’s involvement, looked at where the Council currently stood against the standards and highlighted some recommended action points.

In 2003, work had begun on developing a corporate policy on young people’s involvement, based on the Hear By Right principles.  The policy had not been completed, but since then much work had been undertaken around the active involvement of children and young people, with increasing emphasis on the importance of such involvement in national policy.

Hear By Right had been developed by the National Youth Agency and the Local Government Association and provided a framework against which involvement work could be mapped.  It set out 7 Standards against which organisations were asked to evaluate their performance.  The standards had been adapted and condensed into a format that could be used to map and plan involvement work across the Council.  These revised standards were attached as Annex 1 to the report.  If approved, they would be used by the YorOK Children’s Trust Involvement Group to undertake a mapping and planning exercise, enabling priorities to be set for the next 12 months.

Members expressed approval of the revised standards, which would be more practical to apply and monitor than the original version.  However, some explanation was needed for the lay reader regarding the statements at the top of each page, which represented the opinions expressed by young people nationally.  Officers agreed to add an introductory page to the revised document and to circulate copies of the full Hear By Right document and information on Voice and Influence work to those Members who requested it.

RESOLVED: That the adoption of the revised Hear By Right standards, as set out in Annex 1 to the report, be supported.

REASON:      In order to take forward voice and influence work with children and young people.