Agenda item

Kate Ellis, Major Development Director and Michael Hurtley, Development Officer:

a)    confirmed that engaging with young people was important not only as part of our corporate and leadership responsibility in the city, but also because they would become the leaders, innovators, workforce and champions of Lincoln in the decades to come

b)    highlighted that 38% of the overall population of Lincoln (100,049) were under the age of 25. This illustrated just how important it was that we continue to improve and develop ways of representing and seeking the views of such an important section of Lincoln’s resident population

c)    advised that the City of Lincoln Council had engaged with young people in a range of areas and provided an overview of that work in recent years. This included the variety of ways in which the Council had sought to include young people in decision making and on specific projects and schemes undertaken by the Council and was detailed at 2.2 of the report

d)    outlined youth engagement in sustainability and climate commission including regular consulting with Lincolnshire Youth Council and other youth groups on the content of the Lincoln 2030 Climate Action Plan

e)    advised that the views of young people were specifically sought concerning economic growth, in particular the Western Growth Corridor (WGC) sustainable urban extension. As part of the public consultations, CoLC held an event at the Think Tank that was specifically aimed at young people and students in the city

f)     reported that the CoLC had a successful apprenticeship scheme which had been in place for over 25 years. This had provided opportunities across the organisation for young people in Lincoln to gain qualifications, experiences and development of their careers

g)    highlighted that Councillor Helena Mair acted as Young Person Advocate for CoLC and confirmed an annual report was produced to detail work carried out that year

h)    added that future strategies for engaging young people in the work of the Council was detailed at 3.2. In addition, it remained a key aspiration to increase those efforts and to ensure new and innovative ways to engage with young people and ensure that their voices and ideas were used to inform Council policy initiatives in the future

i)     invited questions and comments from members of the Committee

As a result of discussion between members, officers and guest speakers, the following points were made: -

·         The report gave clarity on housing economic growth, but additional information was sought regarding activities for young people as it was felt that ‘play’ was important for young people.

·         University students were not always registered as they only resided within the City for a short period of time. Consideration was given to their potential enthusiasm to engage in decisions affecting the city as their concentration would be centred elsewhere in furthering their education and participation in social activities.

·         Members queried how we dealt with students within the city and considered if communication with the Student Union would be beneficial regarding what was lacking in the city.

·         Consideration of figures and the spread of young people gave important reason for us to engage with that group of people, linked to economic growth. It was agreed that it did not matter if an induvial moved to Lincoln or were born and raised within the city.

·         It was important to consider how we engaged with young people who were from Lincoln but did not attend the University in what they wanted to see from us and how we worked with other organisations within the city.

·         It was noted that we had numbers from those within the local area who accessed higher education and such figures would be provided to members after the meeting.

·         Owing to the number of transient residents representing a significant portion of the population, it was important to listen to them.

·         Studies had suggested that approximately 42% of students made their decision to embark on a graduate degree based not entirely on the University or course itself but the environment in which they would live.

·         Reference was made to section 3.2 of the report which outlined strategies for engaging young people in the work of the Council in the future. It was confirmed that the work had begun, and consideration had been given to how we would secure more young people on board.

·         The Chair gave thanks to Michael Hurtley for an informative report.