Our purpose
The Young Safeguarders group are young people aged 13-19 who support the Plymouth Safeguarding Children Partnership (“the Partnership”) to make sure that the voices of children and young people are heard. This includes making sure that the information they read and the policies and procedures that affect their lives are fair and make sense to young people.
Our responsibilities
- to help in the quality assurance work of the Partnership such as ‘learning walks’ and checking that what we say in The Ten Wishes is carried out. This means making sure that the things we are looking at are done as well as they can be and that young people have a voice that is heard
- to review information given to the Partnership by Children’s Services, Education, Health and the Police so that comments on what is going well and suggestions for improvement can be passed onto the groups that do the work for the Partnership
- to raise both our concerns and the concerns of our peers in relation to safeguarding
Sometimes there may be time and space for the Young Safeguarders to be approached for their views and seeking the views of other young people, on wider areas of work. We will do this if we have time but the Partnership work will usually come first.
Accountability
- the Young Safeguarders are doing work that helps communities in Plymouth. The group will write a report each year that the Partnership will consider. What the group have to say will be considered in meetings the Partnership holds every three months as well
- the Young Safeguarders group is supported at all times by youth workers in the Participation Team
Meeting frequency
- the Young Safeguarders group will usually meet once every two weeks for one and a half hours
- there will be times when extra meetings are arranged to allow for additional pieces of work to be carried out
Young People’s attendance and what that means for meetings
- Plymouth City Council Participation Team supporting the running of the Young Safeguarders reference group
- young people aged 13-19 are recruited to the Young Safeguarders from membership of services they are using. For example, education, youth centres, children’s services or participation groups
- group members do not have to attend every meeting, because one of the core youth work values is that working with others should be our choice
- the right people have to be at a meeting for it to go ahead. What that means for work with the Partnership is that at least three young people should be present