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Meeting Details

Children & Young People Thematic Board
17 Nov 2015 - 12:00 to 13:00
  • Documents
  • Attendance
  • Visitors
  • Declarations of Interests

Documents

Agenda

Agenda
Notification
Committee Members
Membership
Councillors Henry, Bibby and McCartin (Renfrewshire Council); L O'Brien, Barnardos; F McBride, Children 1st; N Burns, Police Scotland; D Leese, F MacKay (both Renfrewshire Health & Social Care Partnership); A Lowe, Renfrewshire Child Protection Committee; J Melrose, Renfrewshire Children's Panel; L King and N Harkness (both Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration); P MacLeod, D Hawthorn, E McLean, G McKinlay, J Trainer, S Bell and S Glasgow (all Renfrewshire Council); P Nelis, Scottish Fire and Rescue Services; S Graham, Renfrewshire; S Graham, West College Scotland; and R Deucher, University of the West of Scotland.
Standard Items
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A JOINT MEETING WITH THE JOBS AND THE ECONOMY THEMATIC BOARD.
Further Information
Please note that lunch will be available for Members from 11.30am in Corporate Meeting Room 2 prior to the meeting.  No food is allowed in Council Chambers.

This is a meeting which is open to members of the public. 

A copy of the agenda and reports for this meeting will be available for inspection prior to the meeting at the Customer Service Centre, Renfrewshire House, Cotton Street, Paisley and online at www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/agendas. 

For further information, please either email
democratic-services@renfrewshire.gov.uk or telephone 0141 618 7112.
Members of the Press and Public
Members of the press and public wishing to attend the meeting should report to the customer service centre where they will be met and directed to the meeting.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS WAS A JOINT MEETING WITH THE JOBS & THE ECONOMY THEMATIC BOARD
Present
Councillor McCartin (Renfrewshire Council); L O'Brien, Barnardos; K Miller, Engage Renfrewshire; F MacKay and H Cunningham (both Health & Social Care Partnership); N Burns, Police Scotland; J Melrose, Renfrewshire Children's Panel; P MacLeod, D Amos, D Hawthorn, J Trainer, G McKinlay, S Bell, and S Glasgow (all Renfrewshire Council); L King, Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration; P Nelis, Scottish Fire and Rescue Services; M Gilligan, Skills Development Scotland; M Dunn, University of the West of Scotland; and A Dick, West College Scotland.
Chair
Councillor R Glen presided.
In Attendance
Y Farquhar, C MacDonald and A Conboy (both Renfrewshire Council).
Declarations of Interest
There were no declarations of interest intimated prior to commencement of the meeting.
Items Of Business
Apologies
Apologies from members.
Councillors Henry and Bibby (both Renfrewshire Council); F McBride, Children 1st; D Leese, Health & Social Care Partnership; A Lowe, Renfrewshire Child Protection Committee; E McLean, Renfrewshire Council; R Deucher, University of the West of Scotland; and S Graham, West College Scotland.
Declarations of Interest
Members are asked to declare an interest in any item(s) on the agenda and to provide a brief explanation of the nature of the interest.
Report by Alastair Ewen, Youth Services Manager, Children's Services, Renfrewshire Council.
1
A report was submitted by the Alastair Ewan, Youth Services Manager, Renfrewshire Council relative to the Children & Young People Youth Engagement Event which took place on 31 August, 2015 at Gleniffer High School.

Children’s Services facilitated a youth engagement event with young people from Gleniffer High School enabling them to meet Board members and for the senior pupils to identify various issues and prepare presentations to share with the Board. The young people were supported to express their views and explore, in discussion with Board members, possible ideas and solutions to combat those concerns.

Key themes included youth voice, health and wellbeing, jobs and training, employment, access to community facilities, social isolation and impact of poverty. The students were advised that the Board would look at the points raised; develop an action plan; and respond to the students within two weeks. A summary of the issues identified were compiled, action points were developed and these were passed back to the students. A summary of the issues identified and action points were set out within the report.

The report noted that the feedback from young people who participated in this event was very positive and they recommended that similar opportunities be offered to young people across Renfrewshire in the future.

DECIDED: That the report be noted.
Presentation by Mary Crearie, Director of Development & Housing Services, Renfrewshire Council.
2
A presentation was given by Ruth Cooper, Economic Development Manager, Renfrewshire Council relevant to the Wood Commission Report and Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce.

The presentation outlined the background to the Commission’s Report; highlighted International Best Practice; and summarised the findings, recommendations, key themes and milestones. The presentation also outlined the collaborative and partnership work that had been undertaken to progress the recommendations as well as how the results would be measured.

Discussion took place on the work being undertaken by the Skills for Success Group. The Board agreed that a joint action plan should be developed by the Skills for Success Group and that the Joint Action Plan should become a central part of their actions.

DECIDED:

(a) That it be agreed that a joint meeting of the Children and Young People and Jobs and Economy Thematic Boards be held annually;

(b) That progress be reported and reviewed across the 39 recommendations of the Wood Report;

(c) That it be agreed that a January conference/ workshop be held each year to facilitate wider collaboration, networking, sharing good practice and highlighting targets, funding, new initiatives and progress;

(d) That it be noted that the first conference will take place in January 2016 and a report on the event submitted to the next meetings of the Jobs & the Economy and Children & Young People Thematic Boards; and

(e) That it be agreed that the Skills for Success Group develop a joint Children & Young People and Jobs & the Economy action plan relative to the Wood report with feedback being given to both Thematic Boards at a future meeting.
Discussion led by Stephanie Graham and Allan Dick, West College Scotland.
2(a)
A presentation was given by Allan Dick, West College Scotland relative to the West Region Developing Young Workforce Group.

The presentation outlined the strategy; key milestones; progress to date; and highlighted employer engagement. It was noted that one of the key recommendations from the Wood Commission report was the establishment of Regional Invest in Young People Groups. The three year plan had been agreed and funded by the Scottish Government.

Allan advised that the West Region Group was in the process of being established with West College Scotland acting as host employers and the next steps for the Group were outlined.

The Board agreed that once the Group was established they would be invited to attend both the Children & Young People Thematic Board and the Jobs & the Economy Thematic Board to talk through their plans.

DECIDED:

(a) That it be agreed that the West Regional Developing Young Workforce Group, once established, be invited to attend both the Children & Young People Thematic Board and the Jobs & the Economy Thematic Board to talk through their plans; and

(b) That the presentation be noted.
Discussion led by Lead Officers.
3
Maurice Gilligan, Area Manager West, Skills Development Scotland (SDS) gave a verbal update on the School Leaver Destination Report and the SDS report “Participation Measure for 16 – 19 Year Olds in Scotland”. The report was published on 27 August 2015 and reported on the learning, training and work activity of 16-19 year olds in Scotland.

He advised that a new Participation Measure for 16 - 19 year olds had been developed to provide a more comprehensive and detailed understanding of the activities young people were taking part in. The information was based on activity for 16 -19 year olds rather than just school leavers, who only account for a quarter of the 16 - 19 year old population.

The Participation Measure was developed in partnership with the Scottish Government to improve the quality of information currently available and focus resources and policies to help young people make a successful transition towards employment. He advised that the data gathered would inform policy planning and allow stakeholders and local authorities to improve their service delivery. It would also help provide a more tailored service for young people.

The new measure showed that the proportion of 16 -19 year olds participating in education, training or employment was 87.6%. The highest participation rate was amongst 16 year olds at 95.6% with the vast majority being school pupils (82.5%). The lowest participation rate was amongst 19 year olds at 77.8%, although some of this difference was due to some data being unavailable for 19 year olds. It was noted that this should improve in future years with further development of the statistical information. 
 
Until the new Participation Measure was fully embedded, school leaver data would continue to be used in Scotland Performs. SDS would continue to provide Scottish Government with data on school leaver destinations at the initial and follow up stage and this data would be extracted from the CSS shared data set.

It was intimated that the next publication of initial school leaver destinations by SDS would be in December 2015 with the National Statistics being published in June 2016. However, as part of the development of the participation measure SDS would consult stakeholders about their continued role in publishing the initial destination statistics in the context of the increased number of organisations publishing similar information.

DECIDED: That the verbal update be noted.

Declarations of Interests

Member NameItem Ref.DetailsNature of DeclarationAction
No declarations of interest have been entered for this meeting.

Visitors

Visitor Information is not yet available for this meeting