Agenda item

Committee considered a report which provided six month monitoring period information in relation to the Committee’s review on the Authority’s Perception of Young People.

Committee had agreed to undertake a review of the Authority’s Perception of Young People as part of their 2018/19 work programme following consideration of a range of topics suggested at the Annual Scrutiny Conference.

The aim of the review was to establish the Council’s current approach across frontline services when interacting with young people and to ensure the Council portrayed a positive image to them.

The review found that the Council was doing good work with young people and it had been slightly difficult to find what could be taken forward as detailed recommendations.  However, two areas were picked up on and the Committee agreed two recommendations which would hopefully assist the Council in maintaining and further enhancing its positive approach when dealing with young people.  Executive had approved the recommendations and the report acknowledged progress to date by officers implementing them. 

To date, 1 out of the 2 recommendations had been achieved.  The remaining recommendation was on track and would complete within the original twelve month monitoring period.

With regard to Recommendation 1.1, the Physical Activity & Sports Development Team had welcomed this recommendation and invited Members’ feedback on any further ideas for marketing the different levels of leisure activity available to communities to encourage buy-in from across the District.

A Member acknowledged that there were many activities provided by the Physical Activity & Sports Development Team but felt they required more regular promotion on the Council’s Bolsover TV website.

An example of one of the activities was Extreme Wheels and Members agreed that this had made a positive impact on young people in their communities.  However, it was acknowledged that outdoor facilities were needed for Extreme Wheels and not all parishes had this provision.

In response to a Member’s comment regarding funding, it was noted that match funding may be available to parish councils for some of the activities including Extreme Wheels.  It was suggested that Members could raise this funding query at the Parish Council Liaison meetings.

The Scrutiny & Elections Officer would also pass Members comments on to the Physical Activity and Sports Development Manager with a view to arranging an informal meeting with Members if necessary.

With regard to Recommendation 2, a survey had been undertaken across all 6 secondary schools within the District with the aim of gauging young people’s views on how they currently accessed the Council’s services and if there were any issues.  Also how young people sourced information about the Council’s services and activities and how they felt the Council could improve on how it communicated with them.

Overall, 174 respondents had completed the questionnaire from across 2 of the schools.

The survey showed that social media was the preferred method for young people to find out about local activities or services which the Council offered.  Printed sources such as In Touch and the Parish Gazettes were less popular.  Some responders would like to see more posters around their schools (notice boards) and other preferences were School Social Media and TV adverts, which would boost coverage of local activities or services.  School take-up of Bolsover TV could be considered by the Council’s Communications department in liaison with the schools.  A further suggestion from the survey was to consider the use of a text alert service.

Members discussed the responses and other sources of advertising, for example, the use of banners and emails.  Also, that the 2 televisions in the Go Active Cafe could be used periodically each day for the streaming of Bolsover TV.  Extreme Wheels staff could hand out leaflets about other leisure activities to young people when they were out in the District and it was suggested that the Council had a dedicated Facebook page aimed at young people only to advertise the leisure activities.

The survey had further showed that 79% of respondents had confirmed that they found Council services easy to access. 

The Scrutiny & Elections Officer advised the meeting that the results from the survey would be provided to the Council’s Communications Manager and would also be included on a future agenda of the Youth Council

A further 6 month monitoring report would be presented to Committee at its meeting on 6^th March 2020.

Moved by Councillor Tom Munro and seconded by Councillor Anne Clarke

RESOLVED that (1) progress against the review recommendations be noted,

            (2) the findings of the review be made public in accordance with Part 4.5.17(3) of the Council’s Constitution,

            (3) officers continue to implement the recommendations and submit a final report in six months’ time highlighting any exceptions to delivery.

(Scrutiny & Elections Officer)