Engagement with Children and Young People

Outer North West Community Committee

Foreword by the Outer North West Community Committee Chair

I am pleased to introduce this report of the first engagement event for
the children and young people of the outer north-west by the Outer
North West Community Committee.
The Chair of the Childrens Services and Family Health sub group led on
this topic and was keen to promote the Youth Engagement Panel as a
way to continue the conversations that took place at this event. If we
were to ask young people for their opinions it was important that those
ideas and thoughts were gathered and recorded. The findings in this
report will be followed up by the sub group and presented to the Youth
Offer Team for discussion at the Youth Panel.
The feedback that was taken from the young people who attended will
help inform the commissioning of the Youth Activity Fund for 2015/16
in conjunction with the Youth Engagement Panel.
Names of students who would like to be involved in the Youth Panel
were recorded and will be passed to the Youth Offer Team to follow up
and invite them to future meetings.

Councillor Paul Wadsworth

Outer North West Community Committee Chair

Contents

Introduction

Background information

The event

Results and findings

Actions to take forward

Introduction
Following discussions at the Childrens Services and Family Health sub group, the Outer
North West Community Committee agreed the topic for the January 2015 meeting. The
subject was to be based around Engagement with children and young people and
investigate some of the local priorities.
The Area Support Team and the Childrens Services and Family Health sub group met
with officers from Childrens Services, ESNW, Horsforth, Aireborough and Otley, Pool and
Bramhope Clusters, Youth Service, Youth Offer Team to discuss their priorities and what
the aims of such an event might be.
It was decided that the Committee would benefit from a greater understanding of what the
young people in the area would like to see in terms of activities prior to commissioning any
Youth Activity Funded projects. The participation in the Youth Panel has been low and it
was also hoped that an engagement event might advertise the role of the Youth Panel and
encourage take up.
It was also hoped that the young people might gain a better understanding of the role of
their area Councillors and local governance.
The purpose of this report is to provide information on the day itself and investigate how
the committee can take forward the results of the workshop and help support the ONW
Youth Panel.

Background information
Clusters
The outer north-west area is made up of 4 Clusters;
Horsforth Childrens Services Tessa Freer (Horsforth Ward)
Aireborough Extended Services Simon Toyne (Guiseley & Rawdon and Otley &
Yeadon Wards)
Extended Services North West Gill Wyatt (Adel & Wharfedale Ward)
Otley, Pool and Bramhope Cluster Phil Temple (Otley & Yeadon and Adel &
Wharfedale Wards)
All the Clusters participated in this event, encouraging schools to get involved and all 4
Clusters were represented on the day.
Child Friendly Leeds
Over the last two years, over 350 people have signed up to be Child Friendly Leeds
ambassadors, making pledges on how they contribute to the vision. Over 400 children and
young people have been recruited as Young Advisors.
Before launching child friendly Leeds, council officers consulted with thousands of children
and young people to ask what a child friendly city meant to them. The most popular
responses were used to create the 12 wishes for a child friendly Leeds that has helped
shape local priorities.
Voice & Influence Team
The team are based within Childrens Services and run a variety of citywide youth
engagement projects such as:

UK Youth Parliament
Leeds Youth Council
Takeover Month
Childrens Mayor

This event was planned alongside the Voice and Influence team to ensure it was child
friendly and that young people would be able to fully participate.
Youth Activity Fund and the Youth Engagement Panel in Outer North West
Last year the Outer North West had 56,000 to spend on a range of different types of
things from drama to arts and crafts, sports and fun days to cookery projects.
A workshop to look at what the money might be spent on was planned for the afternoon.
The Outer North-West Youth Engagement Panel is supported by an officer from the Youth
Offer team and meets monthly to consider new Youth Activity funded projects and review
existing ones. Any young person from the area, aged 8 17 can join the panel and be part
of the decision making process to decide how money is spent.
One of the remits of this day was to raise awareness of the panel and encourage young
people to be a part of that decision making process.

The Event

Richard Cracknell from

the Voice and Influence
Team led discussions
on 3 different topics with
the 63 students from 17
different schools
attending on the day.
Ages ranged from 7 - 17

The second discussion was a question and answer session with Councillors from the
ONW Community Committee.

Questions for Councillors

How much money do you have to spend?
Are you double jointed?
What is your opinion of chocolate?
Have you seen the film Frozen?
What are your plans for the future?
How tough is it to make decisions?
What is your favourite part of being a Councillor?
Where do you get your ideas from?
What is the largest amount of money you've spent on something?
What do you do in your spare time?
Why did you want to be a Councillor?
What kind of problems do you have to solve?
What do you do?
How do you get children involved in your job?
Whats it like being a Councillor?
How often do you meet?
How do you make a decision when building a new place for the public?
What was your job before?
What was the best idea you have come up with for Leeds?
What is the most popular project you have spent money on?
What is the largest amount you have spent on a project?
What is your most recent project?
What do you spend most money on?
How did you enter the election process to be a Councillor?
What proportion of decisions are made by Leeds Councillors and what by
Central Government?
How old were you when you were elected?
Whats the process of making our city better?
Which ward do you work for?
When do you normally go to meetings?
How do you make decisions - do you vote?
Do you have a job apart from being a Councillor?
What are you working on now?

Times asked

2
3

12
3
2
5
4

2
2

2
6
4
2

Continued
What activity has been most popular?
What is the least amount of money you have spent?
Why are you a good Councillor?
Do you ever make decisions on your own?
How many hours a day do you work as a Councillor?
How do you prioritise when spending the Council budget?
Can you tell a joke?

If you had to spend money on either the elderly, environment or children and
could only choose 1 which would you choose?
Who is your favourite Councillor?
If you had a choice to work with children or adults who would you choose?
If you had to close an important public building like a library or school what
would you do to counter act it?
Do you like being a Councillor?
Is it easy being a Councillor?
How do you improve the environment?
How do you become a Councillor - is it a democratic process?
Whats your best dance move?
Are meetings boring?
Do you think the legal age for voting should be lowered to 16, or even lower?
Are you a Marvel or DC fan?
How much money do you spend every year?
Is there a limit on how much money you spend?
Within each ward how many Councillors does it take to make big decisions?
How do you compromise on ideas?
How many are there of you in the world?
Where do you get your ideas from?
Are you shy speaking out?

2
2
2

There followed a break for lunch when Councillors and students sat together and enjoyed
a meal in the cafeteria at Trinity University.

The afternoon session then started with a workshop for Councillors and students to talk
about how they would spend 56,000 on activities for young people across the 4 wards in
outer north-west. They were split into 8 groups and provided with a menu of activities and
a map of the area.
Name of the
Project

Type of activity

Ages

Friday Night
Project
Poetry workshop

A youth club

11 - 17

Nos
able to
attend
25

A poetry workshop

8 - 17

20

Thursday Night
Juniors
Sk8 Safe

A youth club

8 - 11

25

Learn to skateboard

8 17

20

Mini Breezes x 4

One off Mini Breeze event in each ward,

inflatables, sports and arts activities
8 activity days and 2 residential weekends

8 - 17
11- 17

Up to
300
24

A drama club teaching acting, directing and

producing
Turn up and play
After school music club

8 17

40

8 - 11
8-11

50

Multi sports
Boiler Room
Studio
Inters youth club

Day long sports sessions camps

A after school club to create and make music

8-13
13
17
10 - 13

30
100

Lets Get Baking

Lets get Creative
Sports Camp

After school baking club.

Art sessions using different materials
9 days of multi sports activities at a sports
centre
Turn up and play different locations den
building, water play, messy play, games,
sports activities
An after school Youth Club that is focused on
creating and making theatre.
Make giant lanterns, take part in a parade and
take your lanterns home
Teaching young people to be skateboarding
ambassadors, encouraging use of the park and
helping newcomers
2 x Canoeing and Kayaking Beginners Session
2 x Off Road Biking Beginners Sessions
1 x Sailing Beginners Sessions
4 x Indoor Caving sessions
Learn to skate board
Learn to skateboard and to become an
ambassador to look after the skate park.

8 - 12
8 - 12
8 - 13

Six week cookery programme to encourage

the development of cooking skills.
Aireborough Performing Arts Festival at
Yeadon Town Hall Schools enter bands to
perform in a battle of the bands or pupils in a

Herd Farm
Drama project
Play Days
Groove project

Summer of Play

The Big Hoo Ha

Sessions
Lanterns Project
Sk8 Ambassadors

Sailing

Sk8 course
Sk8 Ambassadors

Mighty Chefs
Cookery Courses
Aireborough
Performing Arts

A youth club based in Horsforth

When

No. of
sessions

Cost

After
school
After
school
After
school
After
school
Holidays

30

2,150

12

1,000

30

2,150

1,600

14,000

Weekend
s
After
school
Holidays
After
school
Holidays
Holidays

12
(days)
52

13,400

68

3,250
2,000

9
20

1,900
3,300

33

6,900

112
112
30

After
school
Holidays
Holidays
Holidays

7
7
9

950
950
1,900

8 -11

30

Holidays

20

3,250

11-17

15

20

4,200

8 - 17

30

After
school
Holidays

1,950

11- 17

12

Weekend
s

1,650

8 - 17

72

Weekend
s/
Holidays

1,100

8-17
11 - 17

12
15

550
1,600

8 17

10

Holidays
Weekend
s/ After
school
Holidays

1,200

8 - 17

204

Evenings

3 Nights

2,000

30

4,550

Creative Writing
Lego and
Minecraft
activities
The Works
Family Fun
session

school choir, dance or drama club etc. for a

slot on the 2 performing arts nights.
Fun creative writing sessions.
Libraries host themed Lego and Minecraft
activities
BMX, scooters and skateboard activities inc.
transport to centre
cardboard box sledging, water slide, loom
bands, arts & crafts, water fights, hill rolling,
face painting, rope swing and cooking over a
fire pit

8 - 11
8 - 16

20
15

Holidays
Holidays

10
6

150
1000

8 - 17

30

Holiday

300

8 - 17

50

Holiday

350

The groups were then asked to feedback their thoughts on the process of deciding how
much was spent, on what and where and what they found difficult.
There was a range of responses at the end of an hour, some groups overspent; some
didnt spend much, some groups spent on just a few things, others on a range of different
activities. The difficulties reported back were that it was hard to please everyone; the
money didnt go as far as they had thought.

FRIDAY NIGHT PROJECT

THURSDAY NIGHT JUNIORS
POETRY WORKSHOP
MINI BREEZE
HERD FARM
GROOVE PROJECT
MULTI SPORTS
LETS GET BAKING
LETS GET CREATIVE
SPORTS CAMP
SUMMER OF PLAY
SAILING
LEARN TO SK8
SKY BOARD AMBASSADORS
AIREBOROUGH PERFORMING ARTS
CREATIVE WRITING
THE WORKS
DRAMA PROJECT
FAMILY FUN
MIGHTY CHEFS
BOILER ROOM
INTERS YOUTH CLUB
LEGO & MINECRAFT

Results and findings

I collated the responses from all the groups and charted them below in terms of popularity
and the number of particular sessions of a project identified.

Popularity

20

18

16

14

12

10

0
Popularity

Cost
16,000
14,000
12,000
10,000
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
Cost
FRIDAY NIGHT PROJECT
THURSDAY NIGHT JUNIORS
POETRY WORKSHOP
MINI BREEZE
HERD FARM
GROOVE PROJECT
MULTI SPORTS
LETS GET BAKING
LETS GET CREATIVE
SPORTS CAMP
SUMMER OF PLAY
SAILING
LEARN TO SK8
SKY BOARD AMBASSADORS
AIREBOROUGH PERFORMING ARTS
CREATIVE WRITING
THE WORKS
DRAMA PROJECT
FAMILY FUN
MIGHTY CHEFS
BOILER ROOM
INTERS YOUTH CLUB
LEGO & MINECRAFT

See above cost chart which looks at how these particular projects compare in terms of
cost.
All the young people attending were then asked to pick 1 of 3 themes as their own
preferred choice for the type of activity they would like to see provided from the Youth
Activity Fund. Arts, Play or Sport.

Play
Sport
Arts

Popularity of Arts, Play or Sport was Play 5, Sport 17 and Arts 32.

Finally the students were taken on a tour of the university by under graduates. This was
organised by Phil Hardy the Childrens University Coordinator at Trinity. The tour allowed
these young people to have a look at what a University has to offer and they were
encouraged to ask the Trinity students questions throughout.

The schools who attended were;

Horsforth Cluster
West End Primary
Horsforth School
Westbrook Lane
Newlaithes Primary
Broadgate Primary
St Margarets
Aireborough Cluster
Queensway
Yeadon Juniors
Tranmere Park
Benton Park
Guiseley School
St Oswalds Primary
St Peter & Pauls Primary
St Marys Catholic Comprehensive School
Extended Service North West Cluster
Ireland Wood Primary
Ralph Thoresby
Otley, Pool & Bramhope Cluster
Prince Henrys Grammar School

9
8
7
6
5
4
3

Series1

2
1
0

Age and gender of attendees

aged 7
aged 8
aged 9
aged 10
aged 11
aged 12
aged 13
aged 14
aged 15
aged 16

M 25 / F- 31

Male
Female

Interested in joining Youth Panel Y-39 N-17

Yes
No

What they enjoyed best (A 27, C15, E6, L8)

Activities
Councillors
Everything
Lunch

What could be improved.(A9, F7, N28, S3 V9)

Activities
Food
Nothing
Stay with friends
Various

Actions to take forward

This draft report to be taken to the Children Services and Family Health sub group
meeting for comment.

Identify those students interested in joining the Youth Engagement Panel and invite
them to the next meeting.

Use the engagement feedback to inform the next commissioning round for Youth
Activity Fund.

An approved copy of the report to go to schools who participated in the event

An approved copy of the report to go to the Outer North West Youth Engagement
Panel for comment.