Report of the Strategic Director, Children and Education

This report and presentation provides an a summary and look ahead of Our Year 2022.

The Committee considered the report and presentation of the Strategic Director (Children and Education Services) which provided an overview of Our Year and looked at the next steps to take this work forward.

Key points and themes in the presentation included:

• Our Year themes;
• Highlights of the year;
• Feedback from children and young people;
• Achievements from Our Year; and
• Work towards becoming a UNICEF UK Child Friendly City.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services informed Members about the celebration event on 31 January and extended the invitation to this to the Co-opted Members.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• To welcome the work which had taken place as part of Our Year and thank all those involved;
• The priority that children and young people placed on protecting the environment;
• Noting that, as part of the work towards becoming a UNICEF UK Child Friendly City, Manchester had to focus on three mandatory “badges” (priority areas) and could choose three others that it would focus on, how would these other three be chosen;
• To request that Ward Councillors be informed of how they could support this work;
• Were there any areas of the city where fewer activities had happened in 2022 and which would be given more focus going forward; and
• How best to communicate with young people about activities they could participate in.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services confirmed that the environment had been a strong theme emerging from every engagement with children and young people.  He stated that a young people-led Bee Green conference had been held which had informed the Education Climate Action Plan, which the Committee had received a report on and had asked for an update on at a future meeting.  He reported that children and young people wanted action to be taken, not just to talk about climate change, and the Council had provided funding for posts to help to achieve this.  He advised that the environment had also been considered in all the events that had taken place as part of Our Year, making events as carbon neutral as possible.  He advised that there had been a lot of learning from 2022 on how best to communicate and publicise activities using a range of methods.

The Our Year Project Lead advised that the decision on which three additional badges to focus on would be made through analysis of the school engagement exercises, looking at baseline data, feedback from surveys and a discovery day in the spring where young people would sit down with key decision makers to determine which badges were most important. 

The Strategic Director (Children and Education Services) reported that consideration was being given to children’s rights training, which might involve Committee Members or the Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordinating Group, and that the Executive Member for Children’s Services was leading on a piece of work looking at how young people’s voices could be incorporated into Council decision-making.  The Executive Member for Children’s Services provided further information on what was being considered in relation to this and advised that the Committee would be provided with an update on this at a future meeting.

In response to a question about schools becoming Rights Respecting Schools, the Strategic Director (Children and Education Services) suggested that Members who were governors raise this at their governors’ meetings and reported that this was a priority for the Children’s Board who would be looking at how they could support schools which wanted to become Rights Respecting Schools.

The Chair shared her experiences of carrying out engagement with children and young people as part of Our Year.  She emphasised the importance of targeting activities in deprived areas, promoting the Holiday Activity Fund (HAF) and providing activities in young people’s own area, rather than expecting them to cross borders.  She also emphasised the importance of play activities and early years.  She praised the Baby Week which had taken place but advised that more of this type of activity was needed.  She advised that safety was a key issue for children and young people and that the Committee should look at road safety around schools.  She emphasised the importance of using social value for the benefit of young people.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services reported that the Council had put extra funding in to the HAF schemes to cover half-terms.  He reported that applications for youth and play activities tended to be lower in the north of the city so the Council was working to address this, encouraging more applications and building capacity to deliver activities in north Manchester.  In response to the Chair’s comments on younger children, he informed the Committee about the Kickstart programme as part of the work as a Marmot city region and advised that further information on this would be provided in a future report.

Decision

To consider a report on road safety around schools at a future meeting.