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The year's news from Participation and Play Team
Here's a summary of the Participation and Play team's latest projects and events, with updates from the Oxfordshire Children and Young People's Trust meeting in November 2009
What's been happening?
This year in Oxfordshire we held a Takeover week from 2nd – 6th November, as opposed to a Takeover Day. It was ‘kicked off’ by our three Oxfordshire Members of the National Youth Parliament, Rachel Howe (South), Sam Haztigeorgio (North) and Tyrone Steele(City), who joined others from across the Country to attend the UKYP Annual Sitting in the House of Commons - a historic event. This was the first time anyone other than elected MPs had sat and debated in the Chamber. The sitting was chaired by the Speaker, John Bercow MP, who commented throughout the proceedings on the passion, enthusiasm and quality of the young people’s contributions. There were five areas of debate: transport, university tuition fees, crime, lowering the voting age to 16 and employment for young people. The MYP’s voted on their top issue to take forward as the main National UKYP campaign for the year:Votes for 16s won.
Elections for the UK Youth Parliament
21 young people are standing for the 3 UK Youth Parliament seats in Oxfordshire for 2010/11. Elections take place in February 2010 and between now and then we will be supporting them to develop their manifestos and campaign in their areas. Electronic voting will also increase the number of young people who vote in the elections, as they can use alternate methods including online voting and text voting.
OYE! (Oxfordshire Youth Enablers)
The Disability Forum has met 3 times and involved 18 disabled C&YP aged 8-21. Most are new to ‘having a voice’ in Oxfordshire. They have focussed on short breaks/leisure/play facilities for disabled C&YP, linking with the strategy Aiming High for Disabled Children. Three YP were invited to London to run a workshop on economic wellbeing at a major National Youth Agency conference in March 2009.
OYE! (the C&YP Disability Forum), held a major event in October to explore ways that the views and voices of C&YP with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities can be heard and acted upon. Tony Baldry MP, Andrew Smith MP and Cllr Michael Waine spoke at the event, which was chaired by a disabled young person. One of the immediate outcomes of the event is to support the Changing Places campaign for accessible toilets for people with PMLD (which are large enough for full changing facilities). Oxford City and District Councils are hoping to have mobile Changing Places available in the pre-Chrsitmas shopping weeks this year.
Disabled young people from OYE! have also been involved as Young Judges for the Aiming High for Disabled Children Capital Grants panel making awards of £300k to a range of organisations; and choosing winners for the Celebrating Inclusion Awards
A second event in December will be a more celebratory event to mark the success of the first year of the OYE!’s activities.
Equality and Inclusion Award
The Aiming High for Disabled Children programme has initiated a first Award for equality and inclusion of disabled children and young people. There are 12 award categories and disabled C&YP are being trained and supported to be fully involved in the judging panel. The final Awards ceremony will be held on 3rd December 2009.
Consultation on the Children and Young People's Plan
Over 150 children and young people and a similar number of parents/carers have been involved in giving their views on the draft CYP Plan. While largely positive about the plan, there were some strong and common voices about gaps or areas which were not given sufficient focus, in particular: preventing bullying; things to do and access to them for C&YP in rural areas; over-emphasis on targets and academic results over other achievements; too little priority given to play and leisure; utilisation of local spaces across schools and communities; communication with parents; appropriate levels of support to achieve real inclusion; and flexible learning.
C&YP and Parents/Carers Sounding Board
The second Parents/Carers Sounding Board, echoed the C&YP Sounding Board's focus on using Learning in the 21st Century to inform both the new C&YP Plan and the Building Schools for the Future programme. 30 parents/carers took part from a very wide range of circumstances. The report from the meeting will be available at the CYP Trust meeting and on www.bigvoiceoxfordshire.com after 25th November 2009.
Involvement of C&YP and parents/carers in the Local Area Trust Boards
2 young people (one from the Children in Care Council and one from Oxfordshire Youth Parliament) and two parent/carers (one from Oxfordshire Family Voices) have been elected to sit on the 3 Local Area Trust Boards and the County CYP Trust Board. They will be supported by 3 practitioners to make a full contribution at the Boards. We plan to run a joint ‘introductory training session’ with Chairs of the Boards, children, young people and parent representatives in November to ensure that the meetings are fully inclusive and non-tokenistic.
Oxfordshire Youth Parliament
OYP met for the first time on 16th March 2009. It's third meeting was hosted by Oxford City Council on 10th September 2009. 25 young people from Oxfordshire schools (including special schools and the Virtual School) attended the meeting, which was hosted by City Cllr Antonia Bance and attended by County Cllrs Louise Chapman and Michael Waine. The young people’s chosen topic for debate was transport and the host organisation, Oxford City Council, used the opportunity to ask OYP about their perceptions of crime and safety. OYP will be evaluated through the year to make sure it is developing in the best way.
Next meeting date:
10th December 2009
C&YP Survey: ‘Your Voice 2009’
The CYP Survey findings have been widely circulated. The needs assessment of the draft C&YP Plan 2010-13 is informed by the findings and an Action Plan is underway to address specific service issues.
Vtalent Year
Oxfordshire’s 15 young volunteers have started in full time volunteering placements in services across CYPFD.
Celebration events
OCC successfully applied for a grant from DCSF to become a pilot authority for ‘celebration events’ for children and young people. Two major events were held in February 2009:
- a Winter Ball which was planned, designed and run by a v-involve Participation and Play Team Task Group of young people. It attracted over 200 children and young people from projects/youth centres/forums across the county (particularly C&YP from marginalised/vulnerable groups). It celebrated their achievements through a sumptuous dinner, followed by dancing and bands. Following the success of last year's event, a planning group of C&YP have been fundraising and so far raised £9,500 towards the next Winter Ball 2010.
- The ‘Respect Us’ event held at Brookes University drew more than 300 children and young people to display their work, perform and be celebrated. Chris Tolley (MYP for South/Vale) gave a 20 minute interview on BBC Oxford talking about the event beforehand and Kriss Akabussi gave an inspirational talk. As well as gaining some positive press coverage, it gave some of our most disadvantaged groups of C&YP a fantastic opportunity to show their creativity and the contribution they make to their communities.
Takeover Day 2009
Takeover Day is on 6th November 2009. Oxfordshire has been very pro-active in its involvement in this national initiative. This year we held a briefing lunch on 24th September 2009 to inspire and provide some top tips for running Takeover Days. Find out more about Takeover Day 2009.
Further information
For more info on the Participation and Play Team and the Participation Sub-Group, contact: Zoe Elford, Children's Rights and Involvement Coordinator, tel 01865 256681.
BigVoiceOxfordshire.com
