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Students from our Politics Department here at Hereford Sixth Form College’s gave up part of their recent half-term holiday to join other young people from across Herefordshire to take part in a Consultation event

 

The Consultation, held at Hedley Lodge, Belmont, Hereford, was co-ordinated by Amanda Edwards of Herefordshire Council.   Along with students from College some 40 young adults and children took part, welcoming the opportunity to express their opinions on, and suggest Improvements to, services available to them in the County.

 

The morning session was spent outlining problems encountered in Herefordshire, ranging from unreliable public transport in rural areas, to insufficient leisure activities. The discussions also addressed the lack of safe, ‘decent’ housing for young people.

 

Bill Badham, the event facilitator, agreed with many of the delegates that, whilst Herefordshire doesn’t have major problems in the provision of services for the young, the fact that there are issues of concern is a problem in itself.

 

The day’s discussions focused on communicating to Council members and service leaders that the majority of young people living in Hereford are not affected badly by the services but there is a significant minority who are not well-served.

 

The Head of Integrated Services and Inclusion, Anne Heath, along with other Council representatives, joined the Consultation for the afternoon session. Following a summary of the morning’s discussions from Bill Badham, Anne Heath disclosed that all of the Council’s youth-related services are under review. Officers are in the process of drafting a strategy for improvement to services for young people in Herefordshire. This strategy is intended to identify the standards to which service provisions should conform, in order to provide quality services and meet the demands of children and young adults.

 

Anne Heath indicated her hopes that the strategy will come into effect in the summer next year (2008). Contributions to this strategy exercise will be welcomed and may be fed into the review process until Spring 2008. Proposals for consideration can be delivered via the Herefordshire Youth Council or by contacting Herefordshire Council Youth Services direct.

 

Later in the day, discussion groups considered a number of ‘next step’ suggestions. These included suggestions that youth representatives should be involved in staff appointments within the youth services; and that an increase in the number of younger employees should be considered.

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The Consultation ended on an optimistic note, with Council representatives reiterating their aim to bring about change and improve services for young people, and acknowledging that the input of Herefordshire’s youth was key to the proposed improvements properly serving the constituency for which they are intended.

 
The young participants ended the day feeling the Consultation had been a very valuable first step. The sense of being consulted and being heard was welcomed, and left delegates looking forward to being involved in further Consultations on future developments.