14 July 2008

We were all young once, even if for many of us it does seem a long time ago.  In a place like Torbay, with its rather unusual population mix (the highest percentage of over 80’s in the entire UK), it is especially important that we make our community as child friendly as possible, providing every opportunity for children and young people to thrive.  After all, they are our future.

I am hugely proud of the progress that has been made in the last couple of years and applaud our team in Children’s Services.  For the first twelve months as Mayor, I held the position of Lead member for Children’s Services, in order to give a high political profile and oversee improvement in this most important area of the Council’s work.  This position is now held by Councillor Anna Tolchard, supported by a cross party team of five Councillors who are ‘Children’s Champions,’ each responsible for one of the outcomes of the Government’s Every Child Matters Agenda.  This has been highlighted nationally as good practice.

Another feather in our cap was to make the final six in the category for ‘Best Achievement in Children’s Services’ in the recent Municipal Journal Local Government Achievement Awards.  

But the main purpose of this week’s essay is to outline how, exactly, we are making progress in the provision of Youth Services and to dispel the notion that Torbay is only for Fuddy Duddies.

In a nutshell, we have more youth workers than ever before, supporting more youth work and a growing range of places to go and things to do for children and young people.

The Saturday ‘R’ nite at Clennon Valley is a  great success and this is complimented by travelling youth services provided by ‘The Box’ - the youngsters own name for an adapted mini bus - as well as the Safe Bus.

There is youth provision in each of the four ‘clusters,’ providing joined up Children’s Services covering the Bay.  The idea is to have the schools, health and social care all working together so no child falls through the net. Michael Gove MP, Shadow Minister for Children, Schools & Families, was impressed when he visited the Barton Cluster last year.

In the next few weeks we hope to go live with the ‘My Bay’ web site which will provide information and advice on all that is happening for children and young people.

At the moment there is a huge amount of activity, but I am aware that information is not always easy to access.  For example, there is an excellent summer programme of sports, leisure activities, camps and courses hosted by Paignton Community & Sports College.

The Torbay Youth Service lists activities in all three towns, including projects in Torquay at Ellacombe Pavilion, Chill’d Out (Abbey Park), Watcombe Community Centre, Hele Community Centre, Barton Baptist Church, the Acorn Centre as well as Outreach work and street based play development.  In Brixham activities ranging from ‘Music Mayhem’ to a Youth Café, Guitar Lessons, support and guidance are all provided by the Youth Enquiry Service in the town centre.

In addition, I hear about various church groups, cadets, scouts and local groups such as the Chelston Kids Next Door based at St Peters, Queensway, also boxing at the Apollo Centre, Barton.  In Preston the Community Partnership has made youth provision a ‘big thing’ and have funded basket ball nets on Preston Sea Front.  This compliments the up-grade in play areas across Torbay that is now underway.

Each year the Council puts an extra £50,000 into the Youth Service Budget and this year, amongst other things, it will pay for an extra youth worker who will encourage arts, music and drama.

The Torbay Schools Festival is a brilliant event each February, with literally thousands of children and young people appearing on stage.  Many thousands more will have enjoyed the recent Westward Symphony Orchestra Concerts.

The Schools Olympics - sponsored by the Herald Express - and Torbay’s participation in the Devon Youth Games were great events.

There is also a huge amount of drama for young people in the Bay and I greatly enjoyed last week’s Acting Factory production of Aladdin, as well as Paignton’s West Side Story and numerous other productions involving children and young people.  No wonder so many Torbay youngsters seem to find their way to the West End and beyond!

Other Groups include the All Different, All Equal Multi Cultural Youth Group open, obviously, to everybody (aged 11-19) which celebrates the cultural diversity in Torbay and South Devon.  We also have a support group for children (and their parents) with A.D.H.D - much appreciated by those who participate.

We have also increased youth participation, established a Youth ‘Cabinet’ and this week involved a panel of young people in the stakeholders’ presentations for the position of People’s Commissioner.  Last year’s Youth Conference was a great success and I hugely enjoyed working with James Roddy, the Torbay Member of the UK Youth Parliament.

It was pretty clear that James was really after my job - but I have, hopefully, sent him off in the direction of taking our MP’s job, for obvious reasons.  I look forward to meeting his successors Matthew and Daniel.

Our school building programme is something Torbay can be proud of:  we are spending over £80 million on new buildings across Torbay and completely re-building Torquay Community College and Foxhole (to become Kings Ash Primary).  Torbay is one of a handful of Councils to have ‘Pathfinder’ projects underway at both Secondary and Primary level and we are about to consult on a further primary school building programme.

Attainment at G.C.S.E. has greatly improved in the last couple of years; new ‘Diploma’ courses are being made available as part of the 14-19 curriculum and the ‘new’ South Devon College is an inspirational setting for further education.

Of course, there is much more to do and I accept that our teenage conception rate, also a culture of poor school attendance both need tackling robustly.  But it is all a far cry from April 2004 when Ofsted, no less, judged our Youth Service as ‘unsatisfactory’ and in June 2005 found only ‘limited progress… rectifying the previously identified weakness.’

As in so many areas of the Council’s Services, we have come a long way in the last couple of years.

PS.  Anybody interested in volunteering with our Youth Service, offering help with sports events or ‘R’ nite for example, should get in touch with Ali Matthews on 01803 208204.

Nick Bye
Mayor of Torbay

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