Agenda and draft minutes

Councillor Members of the Committee are asked to decide whether they have an interest in any item on the agenda and if so to formally declare that interest.

There were no declarations of interest made at the meeting.

Councillor Jones, Cabinet Member Communities and Emergency Planning and Tom Hoghton, Community Safety Manager will report at the Meeting.

Tom Hoghton, Community Safety Manager attended the meeting to report on the Police and Crime Survey that was carried out across Greater Manchester.

It was explained that the survey was carried across the whole of Greater Manchester and surveyed 3500 households every quarter. The exercise had been carried out in 4 waves and had surveyed 14,000 so far across the GM conurbation

Tom explained that each of the Greater Manchester town’ information was separated out so that each borough could see the information relating to its own residents.

The survey had taken the views of 1400 Bury residents but did not include young people.

Tom explained that he wanted to carry out a similar exercise in Bury with young people and with questions that were more relevant and suitable to a younger demographic.

It was recognised that with the current COVID 19 restrictions in place and changes being made to how people currently lived their lives this may skew the figures as issues around feeling safe would be different currently.

Those present were given the opportunity to ask questions and the following points were made:

Emma explained that relationships would be different with different cultures and this would need to be factored in. It was also recognised that younger people had different issues in relation to crime such as knife crime being more predominant with the under 18 age group.

Tom asked what would be the best way to capture information and it was suggested that this could be done more anonymously if it was carried out using social media rather that in a school or college setting.

Tom was thanked for attending the meeting.

Those present will be invited to talk about their experiences of lockdown, good and bad, and how it has affected them.

The young people present were asked to share their experiences of the lockdown that had come in in March due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

Rhiannon explained that she was confused by the mixed messages around the current restrictions. At school, young people were able to sit in a classroom with 26 other people but were not allowed to meet up with anybody outside of school.

Emma felt that anxiety due to the lockdown or due to returning to an education setting should be considered and standardised support put in place.

Councillor Morris referred to lessons on line and asked what the young people’s experiences of this were.

Emma explained that not all young people had access to a laptop. Some schools and colleges were renting laptops out at £6 per week but it was felt that this wasn’t viable for some people. It was also explained that some people had access to technology but it was old and slow so causes issues keeping up.

Phoebe explained that schools had expected everybody to have kept up with their lessons but as some people were excluded due to technical inequalities it hadn’t been possible. This had then added more stress when returning to the classroom setting.

Emma explained that the physical measures that had been put in place in schools and colleges could be anxiety inducing.  

It was difficult to social distance in a school setting as the corridors were quite narrow.

Rhiannon explained that the transition from high school to college had been really difficult with the restrictions in place. Moving onto college was daunting during normal times but in the current climate it had been stressful.

Emma explained that travelling to and from school and college was causing issues as there were fewer seats available on buses but no more buses to help with this. This meant that she had been late for college a number of times. It was also stated that not all buses were complying with social distancing and were packing people onto them.

Emma stated that the decisions around the GCSE and A Level grades had been really stressful. There had been no support from the school she was leaving or the college she was joining and she had felt like she was in limbo.

Sara referred to the way that the results had been assessed with 40% being downgraded and what this would mean for future prospects.

Councillor Morris referred to the physical activity strategy and the fact that physical activity had increased during the lockdown. Councillor Morris asked whether this was the experience of the young people at the meeting.

Harriet reported that she had become more active in some areas, she had started to play rugby but had stopped walking as much as she used to walk to college and would use stairs at college a lot.

Emma stated that she had started to run more.

The role of other organisations such as the Combined Authority and mental health services was discussed.  ...  view the full minutes text for item YC.3

GCSE and A level grades should be awarded on teacher assessment alone in 2021.

Those present debated the following issue:

Should this new academic years exam results be based on teacher assessment alone.

At the end of the debate a vote was held and;

It was agreed:

That the exams for the 2020/2021 academic year should not be based on teacher assessment alone.

The Youth Cabinet is due to meet on the following dates:

4 November 2020

8 February 2021

19 April 2021

The future dates of the Youth Cabinet were reported as:

4 November 2020 – 5.30pm

8 February 2021 – 5.30pm

19 April 2021 – 5.30pm