Althea Efunshile explains how the government is looking to join up policy-making for young people and ensure their voices are heard.
The Prime Minister set up the children and young people's unit in November 2000, as an innovative attempt to cut across departmental responsibilities within Whitehall, and put the voices and interests of children and young people centre stage in public policy-making.
The unit supports the minister for children and young people, John Denham (who is also a minister of state in the Home Office), as well as a cabinet committee on children and young people's services chaired by the chancellor Gordon Brown. The unit is based within the Department for Education and Skills. Its brief is to deliver better outcomes in the lives of children and young people between the ages of 0 and 19 years old as part of the government's commitment to end child poverty and social exclusion, as well as to put the interests of children and young people at the heart of government. The aim is to help link up existing policy-making, as well as developing newer ways of working.
The first major aim of the unit is to develop an over-arching strategy for children and young people. The strategy proposes a collective vision, not just in terms of conventional indicators, but of what childhood should actually be. It sets up principles underpinning all services for young people.
We have set up our own children and young people's advisory forum, to work with us on strategy and effectively involve young people. Twenty-six young people aged between 11 and 18 have been recruited to advise the minister, and cast a constructive eye over government plans.
We also manage the £380m children's fund and £70m local network fund, funding schemes to combat poverty and social exclusion within communities. Across the UK, partnership projects are tackling exclusion and helping families in deprived areas.
Althea Efunshile is director of the government's children and young people's unit.
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Young people in Cornwall expect action after
Denham visit
A Manifesto for the Youth of Cornwall written by 250 young people was launched on 29 April at the Eden Project in Cornwall. John Denham, minister for young people, attended the launch and met local councillors, police leaders and health officials, all of whom are working with the young people of Cornwall to address the issues raised in the manifesto. Katie Boxall, a member of the Youth Forum, said: "This is the first step in young people expressing themselves and having the opportunity to contribute to the community here in Cornwall. We are looking forward to working with our community leaders to ensure that our agenda will be taken forward."
Strategists hear the voice of youth
A consultation exercise was held from November 2001 to March 2002, asking children, young people and adults what they felt the government's new strategy for children and young people should contain. The results of this consultation are on the website at www.cypu.gov.uk/consultationresults Consultation booklets were designed specifically for children and young people, as well as a postcard competition to tell the Prime Minister the one thing that children and young people needed. These were distributed through cinemas, in conjunction with the Harry Potter film, and schools. The winner, Kirsty Williams, 14, of Grange School, Aylesbury was presented with her Radio 1 prize pack on 3 May. Kirsty said that young people needed more leisure facilities.
Youth action plans
Eleven government departments are developing action plans on how to involve young people in their work. These will be published at the end of May on the CYPU website at www.cypu.gov.uk The departments involved are: Cabinet Office, Department for Education and Skills, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Department of Health, Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Transport, London and the Regions, Home Office, Lord Chancellor's Department, HM Treasury, and the Ministry of Defence.
Democracy needs attention
The CYPU is leading a project to engage young people in the democratic process, on behalf of young people's minister John Denham. On 22 April, a workshop was held at the Curzon Cinema, Soho, where a group of 60 young people presented the minister, other politicians, and representatives of the media, with films and a campaigning document they propose to launch later in the summer. These will be used to educate politicians and journalists about how young people could be involved more in the UK's political system.
UN General Assembly special session
Members of the CYPU attended the special session in New York from 8-10 May. The UK delegation was led by John Denham and Hilary Benn, minister for international development. Two youth delegates, Claire Bradley and Ellen Leaver, both 18, represented young people in the UK. John Denham said: "Tackling childhood disadvantage is particularly important because childhood experience lays the foundations for later life. Action to abolish child poverty will improve the quality of children's lives today, and enable them to reach their full potential tomorrow as adults, breaking the cycle of poverty and disadvantage." The special session was unique in that for the first time ever the general assembly was addressed by children following the Children's Forum from 5-7 May.
