Agenda item

Question a) from Youth Councillor Mohamed to Councillor Watts, Leader of the Council:

What impact does Cllr Watts think the vote for Brexit will have on Islington as a London Borough and specifically to the employment, learning and training opportunities for Islington’s young people?

Reply:

Thank you for your question. As a proud Lononder, British Citizen and European, I was heartbroken by the result of the referendum. The question now is how we respond to it.

Leaving the European Union presents massive risks and potential problems for this borough. There are over 30,000 EU citizens living in this borough and central government is refusing to say what their plans are for their future in this country. I think that is a disgrace. These people have contributed to this country and the government should confirm that they have a future in Britain.

The impact on the economy could be very serious, but we don’t know the potential consequences yet as the government has been unclear on its negotiating terms. However, if British companies lose the ability to competitively sell goods to the rest of Europe then that will mean job losses in Islington and the rest of the country. Brexit will also mean a loss of opportunities for young people.  Schemes like Erasmus may come to an end. Young people may find it more difficult to study abroad, and we may not benefit from having European students study in this country.

The government needs to provide clarity to the tens of thousands of EU residents in this borough who feel uncertain about their future in this country, and clarify how businesses, universities, schools and colleges will be affected.

Question B) from Youth Councillor Venetia to Councillor Hull, Executive Member for Finance, Performance and Community Safety:

During the autumn Islington Youth Councillor and elected Member of the UK Youth Parliament Mohamed Abass co-ordinated the annual Make Your Mark ballot, which is the largest consultation of young people in the country.  In Islington over 1,600 young people voted in 10 schools, City and Islington College, Lift and Platform youth hubs and other youth projects. In the top 5 issues young people voted for both nationally and locally, tackling racism and religious discrimination featured as concerns. How is the council tackling hate crime in the borough?

Reply:

Thank you for your question and thank you to Youth Councillor Abass for his important work co-ordinating Make Your Mark. Hate crime is a scourge in modern Britain; it divides communities and it harms cohesion. There has been a spike in hate crime following the EU referendum and in Islington this has particularly manifested itself as a rise in homophobia.

A new hate crime strategy was produced in October. This progressed through the Safer Islington Partnership, to ensure that all of the key players in community safety in the borough could contribute to the strategy. In producing the strategy we consulted the Independent Community-led Hate Crime Forum, which includes residents with an interest in tackling hate crime. The strategy was launched during a very successful Anti Hate Crime Week.

The Strategy has four strands. The first is to raise awareness of hate crime and to increase confidence to report; that means better communications, making more arrests, and then making sure that people hear about it. The second strand is focused on detecting and sanctioning more perpetrators, and this is helped by people being very specific when they report hate crime as this assists the Police. The third strand is supporting and safeguarding vulnerable victims; that means effective multi-agency work to manage risk. The fourth strand is working with the community; not only the Hate Crime Forum but also others.

It isn’t good enough just to have the strategy; we have to take our work out into the community. I recently chaired a meeting at Finsbury Park Mosque on how to tackle hate crime; speakers included Jeremy Corbyn MP, the Borough Commander, representatives of a Polish community centre which had been targeted after the EU referendum, many other representatives of religious and minority groups, a representative of the Elfreda Society to talk about the hate crime faced by those with learning difficulties, the Chair of the Hate Crime Forum, and more. There were 200 people in attendance which I thought was a fantastic display of solidarity by the people of Islington. This council takes hate crime very seriously and I hope that the Youth Council can make a contribution to this work.

Question C) from Youth Councillor Honey to Councillor Caluori, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Families:

Following the range of activities that took place in the summer organised by the IYC and partners and asked what it was like to be a young person living in Islington, what does Cllr Caluori think the next steps will be in making Islington an even better place for young people to grow up, live and learn?

Reply:

Thank you for your question. I’ve had many conversations with the Youth Council about youth provision, employment and education over the last year. These issues are very important to the council; that’s why we decided to protect the funding of youth services. Islington hasn’t made any cuts to youth funding, we’ve actually invested an additional half a million pounds a year in services for the most vulnerable young people.

We know that having funding isn’t enough and we need to make that investment count. We’ve been meeting with young people about how youth funding should be spent, and I’d like to put on record my thanks to the Youth Council for helping to organise the consultation event at Lift Youth Hub where we heard the views of young people from across the borough. There are so many wonderful things to do at our youth hubs but too many people are missing out; it may be because they don’t know about it, some don’t want to travel, and others don’t want to go to activities unless their friends are going.  These views are going shape our future youth offer, so that there are more smaller activities going on closer to where people live, that can be a bridge to the activities we hold in our hubs; we are also looking at improving our communications, so young people can be ambassadors for youth services and tell their peers about what’s available.

Following the important work of our Fairness Commission and Employment Commission, in the New Year we will launch the Islington Fair Futures Commission, which will focus on how to make Islington the best place to grow up for all young people. For those born into wealth Islington is one of the best places in the world to grow up, there are huge cultural, sporting and artistic assets in the borough; but for a lot of young people there are barriers to accessing those things which prevents them achieving their full potential.  The Commission will listen to young people about what those barriers are and how we can remove them.

Question D) from Youth Councillor Tega to Councillor Caluori, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Families:

In October the Children’s Society highlighted that Head Teachers have seen a noticeable shift in the underlying causes of mental health difficulties for children and their families; specifically caused by debt. The Children’s Society highlights that the problem of debt is putting the mental health and well-being of children at risk.

How does Cllr Caluori think schools and colleges in the borough are encouraged to teach young people about managing money and avoiding debt as part of the curriculum for life?

Reply:

Thank you for your question. Anyone who has been in a family with serious debt knows the impact that can have health and wellbeing. At a consultation event I attended in the summer young people asked how they could access training on how to manage money; this is clearly an important issue to a lot of young people. Financial education is mandatory in secondary schools, with pupils learning how to solve problems involving percentage changes and calculating interest. Our secondary schools should also teach career progression, personal finance, taxation, money management and enterprise as part of the PHSE agenda to better prepare students for adult life. In our primary schools, this strand is taught using schemes of work such as ‘You, Me, PSHE’ using materials that have been created for this purpose by our Health and Wellbeing Team, but this isn’t compulsory.

I would find it really helpful if I could talk to the Youth Council about young people’s experiences of financial education in schools and if you think this is being delivered in the right way. If it isn’t working, then I think we need to have a conversation about how we can encourage our schools to do this better in future.

Question E) from Youth Councillor Tega to Councillor Burgess, Executive Member for Health and Social Care:

How does Cllr Burgess think that the Mental Health Charter will improve the mental health of children who are in families experiencing debt?

Reply:

Thank you. As part of our work to develop our local Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Transformation Plan, Islington Clinical Commissioning Group and its partners asked Islington young people to work with us to develop a Charter to set out how they think things should look by 2020 – This provides us with an indicator of what success in transforming CAMH services locally would look like to young people.

The Islington Mental Health Charter sets out very clearly what Young People want to see delivered by local CAMHS services; this is not just restricted to NHS provided services but by the voluntary sector, schools, youth provision and also recognises the important role that leisure services play in increasing the emotional health and well-being of young people in Islington.

The Charter has ten points and whilst it does not specifically focus on debt, what it does focus is on the need for increased access to services and support that is timely and responsive and able to be delivered in a range of ways.  In particular young people have told us they want to feel able to talk to teachers and other school staff members and feel that they are knowledgeable and comfortable in talking about mental health.

Whatever the issue for  young people in Islington, whether it’s about debt or something else we need to ensure we have a trained and supported workforce across the whole system who are able to respond to the emotional health needs of young people and that young people are able to access that support at the right time.  The charter sets out these aspirations which we are committed to delivering.

We are very aware of the impact of both poverty and debt as family risk factors for mental health, and these were highlighted in our Annual Public Health Report in 2015. The link to wider determinants such as debt is responded to partly through delivery of Mental Health First Aid training, which is available free of charge to all partner organisations and has been promoted through the Islington Debt Coalition. Other services that support families in debt would include welfare rights services, which are available in many children’s centres, and the SHINE hub which offers support with bills and energy debt as well benefit checks.

The Youth Council presented a photograph to the Mayor to thank her for her support for the Youth Council.