Young people's workshops - July 2022

We asked

We asked young people for their views on several topics to help us unpack key findings from the young person survey (YPS) 2021-222. Topics covered included learning more about young people’s experiences of living in Barnet, their satisfaction with the local area, if they felt Barnet is a Family Friendly borough, understanding and exploring: their top three concerns: feeling safe in the borough; their top personal safety concerns and their health and well-being.

You said

Six workshops were delivered in July with 63 young people across the borough participating. Young people provided useful insights on what they like about the borough, voiced their concerns while exploring the potential reasons behind the YPS results. The importance of raising greater awareness of services and building relationships with young people was highlighted in all sessions.

We did

We analysed the insights gathered from the workshops and shared key findings with relevant stakeholders. This report was also presented to the Barnet Children’s Partnership Board in November 2022, and included the following recommendations:

Adopt a holistic approach to deepen understanding: as there are many perspectives on the reasons behind the YPS results, the findings from this engagement should be contextualised and considered with other insights to drive improvements. Focus areas to include, but not limited to:

supporting schools to effectively deal with sensitive issues such as racism and homophobia
improving understanding of different types of disabilities and mental health issues to foster greater empathy
enhancing relationship with Barnet Carers Centre to ensure the views and experiences of young carers inform service improvements.
identifying ways to raise greater awareness of what the council does to support Barnet residents, especially young people.

Share and incorporate findings to improve services: ensure that findings from this research are presented at relevant meetings or boards (for example, the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Partnership Board) and incorporated into the development of the Children and Young People’s Plan.

Work is underway to incorporate the recommendations to improve the lives of children and young people in the borough.