Agenda item

The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1.0      Purpose of Report or Summary of main Issues

1.1             The purpose of this report is to update members in relation to the Motion on Recent Violence and Public Disorder considered at the May meeting of committee and to outline how this would be facilitated, resourced and managed.

2.0       Recommendations

2.1       The Members of the Committee are asked to recommend that, in accordance with the Council decision of 4th May, the Chief Executive exercise her delegated authority to:

                                       i          Note that the Motion will be considered at the next meeting of the Belfast Area Outcomes Group for CYP as the most appropriate forum of the relevant statutory agencies and third sector organisations to inform a consistent, young person led approach for future summer periods;

                                     ii          note the recent engagement with BHSCT and DfC to discuss any future discretionary funding to support youth engagement and intervention and commitment to continue the collaborative, flexible, co-design model successfully delivered by the BAOG and Locality groups for CYP Covid response programme support;

                                    iii          note ongoing arrangements to support continued, proactive, engagement with Trade Unions to ensure safety of our staff

                                    iv          note historic and ongoing engagement with Department of Engagement and Youth Service officials to support the ongoing process for the formation of a NI Youth Assembly; and to seek assurances that Youth Citizens' Assemblies will be considered as an engagement model to make recommendations for the city on addressing poverty, inequality, eradicating paramilitarism, integrating communities, expanding opportunity and tackling the climate crises

3.0       Main report

            Key Issues

3.1       The Council, at its meeting on 4th May, considered the following motion which had been moved by Councillor Smyth and seconded by Councillor Mulholland.

3.2       ‘This Council condemns the recent serious violence and public disorder that took place not only in Belfast, but across Northern Ireland.  It condemns paramilitarism, the use of violence for political ends and the exploitation of young people and working class communities.  We were deeply troubled to see images of children and young people involved in violence and deplore the risk of another generation seeing violence as a response to political frustrations. Whilst matters have thankfully settled over the past 2 weeks, we still believe that the underlying issues prevail and the threat of violence is near too far away from the surface in Northern Ireland.

            As the main political body of this city, we have a moral and ethical duty to do everything we can to protect our citizens, particularly those young people at risk of being manipulated into street violence, as well as our duty of care to front line council staff carrying out daily essential services. We must also move away from simply offering condemnation and begin to look at solutions that will offer our young people hope and invest in their futures. This Council will: commit to supporting all elements of the Youth Service, including our own Belfast Youth Forum; and will convene an urgent meeting of the relevant statutory agencies and third sector organisations to develop a consistent, young person led approach for the coming summer period; engage with relevant departments to ensure that discretionary funding is made available to support youth engagement and intervention; engage with Trade Unions to ensure safety of our staff and; will support the ongoing process for the formation of a NI Youth Assembly; and seek assurances that Youth Citizens' Assemblies will be considered as an engagement model to make recommendations for the city on addressing poverty, inequality, eradicating paramilitarism, integrating communities, expanding opportunity and tackling the climate crises.’

3.3       The Members of the Committee recommended that, in accordance with the Council decision of 4th May, the Chief Executive exercise her delegated authority to agree that a report on how this would be facilitated, resourced and managed be submitted to a future meeting.

3.4       Council is committed to the work of the Belfast Youth Forum and continues to facilitate this with dedicated officer support and an agreed programme of joint BYF and P&C committee meetings where YF members present progress reports on their campaigns, outline any emerging issues and present recommendations in order to agree related action.  The next joint meeting of the BYF and P&C committee is 22nd June 2021.  Recruitment for the next cohort of members for the BYF will begin in September 2021.

3.5       Officers meet with senior officials from the Youth Service in the city on a regular basis in order to discuss issues and agree collaborative action. We will continue to work with the EA Youth Service at both a city and neighbourhood level to support all elements of the Youth Service.  

3.6       Within Priorities for Youth, the policy document which prescribes EA Youth Service work, participation is a key objective. To support the development of the Youth Voice, Youth Services are working in partnership with district councils to develop council wide, voluntary representation by young people and have confirmed that this approach has been heavily influenced by the recognised good practice in the Belfast Youth Forum model.  We are currently working with Youth Services to agree how our Belfast Youth Forum can work collaboratively with this regional model.  The Youth Voice groups will form part of the participative structures across Northern Ireland and will be recognised by Government Departments as a key component in this area.  A network of the youth voice groups will be developed, with a conference held each year to discuss, share, support the issues and the work developed by the young people in each area.  We hope to host the 2021 conference in Belfast in the autumn.

3.7       We have also been engaging with the Head of the Children and Young People’s Strategy Team in the Department of Education on the broader Participation Network project which aims to support as many young people as possible to get their voice heard.  This includes plans for the formation of a NI Youth Assembly.  This work has been delayed due to Covid however we have indicated our interest in the Belfast Youth Forum supporting the Department in a genuine co-design process alongside Youth Voice groups in other councils and the broad range of local community led youth forums and groups.  We have pointed to the Citizen Assembly model as a way to engage a broader range of voices on specific discussion topics.  We will also raise this with colleagues in the BCC Community Planning team to consider as an engagement methodology which would complement the views of the Belfast Youth Forum.

3.8       Members will be aware of council’s historic and pro-active representation on the Belfast Area Outcomes Group which has been mandated by the regional Children and Young People Strategic Partnership to implement outcomes based planning for the Belfast Trust area. The membership of the Belfast Outcomes Group reflects that of the CYPSP with representation from statutory agencies and the voluntary and community sector. The Belfast Outcomes Group works to enable the improvement of support and services for children and young people in ways that ensure the participation and involvement of children, young people, families and communities in an integrated planning process.

3.9       The Chair of the BAOG was invited to join the Living Here Board in order to support the achievement of the CYP priority objectives agreed in the Belfast Agenda and to improve the strength of the CYP voice in ongoing delivery. In recognition of BAOG as the key city partnership for CYP, the Board agreed that BAOG should lead on the design and delivery of a fully integrated, interagency approach to early intervention.  The BAOG have also led on our CYP Covid response programme for children and young people along with the Colin Locality group from the SEAOG to ensure full coverage across the council area.  The programme combined available funding from council, BHSCT and DfC and was co-designed with voluntary and community group representatives to ensure it met evidenced need and was delivered locally.

3.10      In late May 2021, the co-chairs of the Living Here Board met with representatives from the BAOG to consider the positive learning from this collaboratively planned and delivered response and to agree a process to develop future delivery action plans.  A senior representative from DfC was invited to the meeting in order to promote continuation of this collaborative, flexible and CYP informed approach to ensure alignment of any further available financial support.

3.11      On that basis, it is recommended that the BAOG is the most appropriate partnership structure to provide a considered multi stakeholder response to the Motion.  The next meeting of the group is 15th June and the Motion will be considered as part of the agenda.

3.12      Given the timing of the recent Motion, it has not been possible to design any specific age appropriate, meaningful engagement sessions with children and young people in order to design a consistent youth led approach for the 2020 Summer period.  As noted, officers are working with colleagues in EA Youth Service and other agencies to consider how best to collaboratively plan for the coming summer period and to consider how to ensure a more consistent, youth led approach for following years.

3.13      Colleagues in BCC Community Safety continue to participate in regular meetings with relevant key agencies including PSNI, EA Youth Service and Translink through the Citywide ASB Tasking group which covers West, South & East Belfast.  Currently the meeting is primarily an exchange of information around ASB Hotspot locations with some areas experiencing more issues that others. Given the increase in issues, there is a separate meeting focusing on North Belfast with the same remit.

3.14      The Council regularly engages with the TU in both formal and informal ways at a corporate, departmental and service levels.   Our TU engagement covers a range of issues, including risk assessments and staff safety and we work collectively in the consideration of staff related policy and procedures.

3.15      Financial and Resource Implications

            None.

3.16      Equality or Good Relations Implications/

            Rural Needs Assessment

            None.”

            In accordance with the Council decision of 4th May, Members of the Committee agreed that the Chief Executive exercise her delegated authority to adopt the recommendations as detailed at section 2.1 of the report.