Agenda item

On 26 January 2024 Medway Youth Council (MYC) delivered its annual conference that addressed issues related to identity, with specific attention to young people’s experiences of homophobia and racism and how they are tackled. The report made key recommendations from young people about how this should be dealt with within and outside schools.

Discussion

The Vice-Chair of Medway Youth Council (MYC) presented the report on the annual conference which highlighted issues related to identity with a specific focus on experiences and responses to tackling racism and homophobia. The objectives of the conference were to raise awareness and educate on the impact of these issues to young people.

Members raised several comments and questions which included:

• The work of the MYC was commended as it continued to be inspirational.
• It was vital that we work together collectively to break down barriers.
• The profile of the work done by MYC to be raised by all elected members at every opportunity and to encourage more schools to take part in future conferences.
• It was encouraging that the MYC continued as it always had done to tackle difficult topics.
• The MYC to be cautious about the resources they signpost young people to due to the controversy surrounding some companies they referred to in the report in recent years.
• It would be valuable to share the report with headteachers of primary schools to raise awareness and tackle issues earlier in the school phase.

Support provided in schools – in response to a question on what support was provided in schools, the Vice- Chair of MYC said that young people of a broad age range experienced the problems highlighted at the conference. Whilst some young people expressed that their behaviour was not always intentional, the impact however, was resounding as it affected all aspects of mental and physical health. There had been some positive feedback from schools on how the information gained from the conference could be utilised in school to tackle issues.

The Assistant Director of Education and SEND added that the Council provided support to schools on Personal Social Health and Economic (PHSE) curriculum and also work with school councils to help address issues. Details of some of the work on tackling racism in schools was presented to the Committee last year.

Officers said that schools were aware of the racial incidence reporting tool where they could clearly record incidences. The support schools received was in line with their curriculum approach and PHSE programmes which was provided through every school phase.

Managing Inconsistencies- concern was raised regarding the amount of young people that stressed the inconsistency in management of the concerns raised and it was asked what could be done to improve training and monitoring. Officers said that schools were responsible for ensuring their staff received the appropriate training to enable them to effectively manage all types of issues. There was national guidance on responsibilities set in school legislation. There was some disparity in what was reported as an official incident and there was work ongoing on identifying where there were consistency issues and challenging schools where appropriate.

If was further asked what the process was once an incident was raised and what could be done to encourage schools to use the reporting tool. The officer said whilst reporting of these incidences could not be mandated, the use of the tool was promoted through the headteachers forums. When an incident is reported, the school make a decision based on their individual school policy on how the situation should be managed and the Council adopts a monitoring role. If a number of incidences were reported in a specific school, conversations would take place and support would be offered.

Raising awareness- in response to a question on how elected Members could assist in raising awareness, the Vice-Chair of MYC said it was important for conversations to take place on problems faced and highlighting that homophobia and racism do exist in our community. The key was raising awareness of the issues and working to tackle them together collectively.

Officers said that there was a challenge in Children’s Social Care on what their response should be on tackling issues of homophobia and racism and as a result had undertaken to work on better understanding of these issues and stigma. The message in the report would be utilised to inform how children in care could be better supported. Further exploration of the education safeguarding role would also be undertaken.

It was further asked if Children in Care and Foster Carers were aware of the MYC. Officers said that Children in Care were aware of MYC, and the service worked closely with strengthening the relationship. They also explored how to utilise the MYC to upskill the Children in Care Council but acknowledged that more needed to be done to better understand and respond to particular issues and experiences.

Outcome of conference – it was asked if the outcome of the information gathered from the conference has been shared with schools and how their views were being captured. The Vice-Chair of MYC said that the report had been sent to all schools that took part, but it was unknown what actions the schools would take regarding the information presented. It was hoped that the report would be shared with pupils and that some feedback could be gathered and shared with the MYC.

Home Education – concern was expressed that the experiences of young people could lead to an increase in elective home education. Officers agreed that the snapshot was concerning, and this would be presented to the headteachers forum for robust discussions to take place on the seriousness of the issues and the importance of tackling them.

It was commented that schools needed to be challenged to think about their curriculum and how to tackle discriminations in all subjects and not just through PHSE.

Decision:

1. The Committee noted the Medway Youth Council (MYC) Annual Conference Report 2024.
2. The Committee recommended that officers present the report at the headteachers forum.
3. The Committee recommended that the report be shared with Foster Carers, Children in Care, and all Primary Schools in Medway.
4. The Committee requested that a report be presented to the Committee in a year on tackling issues of racism and homophobia in schools.
5. The Committee suggested that officers explore how schools and social work teams can further support young people with their experiences.