Young People’s Champion  
  Annual Report 2024/2025

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foreword by Councillor Alyson Baker

 

As Young People’s Champion, I have had the pleasure of representing North Yorkshire Council at a number of meetings and events over the last 12 months, and it has been a joy and honour to meet and chat with so many children and young people.

 

I continue to attend the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee, and the Corporate Parenting Members’ Group meetings.

 

It is clear that North Yorkshire Council officers, Our Health Care Professionals and Members are extremely passionate and dedicated, who genuinely care about providing the best quality of life and future for all children, young people and their families.  Their work with young people to raise aspirations, increase confidence, improve health outcomes and provide safety is unfailing.

 

I would like to thank everyone who has supported and continue to support them.  I would also like to thank those who have welcomed and worked with our young people arriving from other countries.

 

I would also like to thank those who give their time to be Carers for our Young People.

I wish to thank Sir Stuart Carlton for all he has done for the Youth of the County as he leaves us.

 

Councillor Alyson Baker

Hillside & Raskelf Division

Young Persons Champion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meetings and events attended up to 1 May 2025

 

I’d like to point out that there have been many other occasions where I have supported parents and attended meetings, but I have not gone into detail about these due to their sensitivity and safeguarding issues. 

 

Safeguarding Children in Care Health Professionals Meetings

The Public Health Team informed us that the Council held a parent session with parents and head teachers across schools to discuss vaping issues with young people in schools and how parents can help their children become vape free.

 

We also heard about a touching initiative called HOPE Boxes (“Hold On, Pain Eases”). In unfortunate cases where a baby is being removed from the mother for safeguarding reasons, they both receive a memory HOPE Box, which is designed to help mothers capture important memories of their time with their baby prior to separation, and also promotes the ongoing connection between them and their baby post separation whilst court proceedings are considering the longer-term plans for the child. The boxes contain a poem and letter written by a lived experience group, providing an ongoing connection to other mothers who have experienced similar forms of loss, and helping to mitigate the feelings of stigma and shame. In the immediate aftermath of separation, the boxes also motivate the mother’s contact with her baby through the family time arrangements.

 

Children In Care Health Professionals Meetings

We learned that adoption numbers have declined, whilst at the same time, children in care and kinship and special guardianship have increased. Sadly, there has also been a rise in the number of reversals of adoption (affecting mostly the older children, especially those with behavioural issues).

 

It was reassuring to hear that the gap in STI screening of young people in North Yorkshire is being addressed, and how our partners are trying to secure free prescriptions for all care leavers independent of means testing.

 

We received a very moving testimony from a care experienced parent which affirmed the need for our services.

 

North Yorkshire Healthy Schools Celebration Events at Harlow Carr and East Barnby

 

These were two wonderful events attended by lots of local primary schools, where we all celebrated and shared the achievements of schools who have achieved a Healthy Schools Award. The annual event is held every and is open to all Healthy Schools, and pupils take part in a variety of interactive workshops around the Healthy Schools themes.

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to the following schools:

 

Bronze Award

Colburn Community Primary School

 

Silver Award

Alverton Primary School

Hertford Vale CofE Voluntary Controlled Primary School, Staxton

Bedale CofE Primary School

Gold Award

Heritage Coast Federation - Hawsker and Fylingdales

Lealholm Primary School

Linton-on-Ouse Primary School (Gold Renewal)        

Oakridge Community Primary School

Youth Justice Board

We heard about a skills for work initiative, which was a great platform for some young

people to progress onto additional training, such as gaining a Construction Skills

Certification Scheme (CSCS) card, and achieving Maths Level One, Emergency First Aid

Course, and Event Marshalling Course. 2 young people completed Moped/Motorcycle

Compulsory Basic Training, and one of them successfully purchased a moped via the

Wheels to Work Programme. Young people also carried out a range of repairs in the

community, including repairing and replacing a broken fence for a nursery in the village of

Egton, painting the floor in the sports pavillion in Sleights, assembling a playhouse for an

infant school in Ruswarp, and grass cutting and hedge trimming in several villages.

 

EID Celebrations at Scout Headquarters in Northallerton

It was a lovely sunny day to celebrate Eid with our Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) and the perfect opportunity for them to get together from around the county.  They spent the day outdoors, enjoying a barbeque and playing games.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Virtual School

I regularly attend these meetings and receive updates on how the Virtual School is supporting our UASC community and children in care.

 

Children in Care Health Care Professionals

Harrogate and District Foundation Trust is developing a UASC pathway to ensure they are aware of what is on offer from the NHS and how to access it. One young person in our care has assisted the Trust with developing the Children in Care section on their app.

 

This is Me Festival at Ripon Rugby Club

Attending this fantastic event is one of the highlights of my year, organised by Nidderdale Children’s Resource Centres. This is a wonderful day which is getting more successful year on year, enabling young people with complex health needs, disabilities and autism to experience the “festival atmosphere” in a safe, family friendly and totally inclusive environment.  I look forward to attending this year’s festival.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Executive Meetings 

I have attended and asked several performance monitoring questions at Executive meetings throughout the year, including:

 

·         I am very concerned about the low attainment of home educated children, and asked how we can support these children and their families. I was informed that this is something the Council is addressing (whilst acknowledging their restricted powers).  I will continue to keep updated on this issue.

·         I asked what actions will follow from the Addressing Poverty Within the School Setting Project. I was pleased to hear that a new Poverty Proofing Toolkit will be launched.

·         There is an alarming rate of childhood obesity across the county, especially amongst the very young children. I asked if the Healthy Schools Programme could be extended to also include nursery schools and could we include a venue in the Selby area to add to the excellent ones held in Whitby and Harrogate. I note that we have found a venue in the Selby area and hope to have a healthy school event there soon!

 

Northallerton Methodist Church

I attended a service here on Education Sunday and spoke about my role as Young People’s Champion and gave information about the Standard Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE). This was well received and gave the congregation a lot of food for thought, as many were not aware of the range of support we give to young people in our care, and our responsibilities towards all young people in North Yorkshire.

 

Corporate Parenting Members’ Group

Once again, we have covered a range of issues at these meetings throughout the year and heard reports that keep us up to date with how the Council and our partners are supporting all of our children in care. I was particularly interested in hearing how children placed in kinship foster care (i.e. placed with family members or friends) generally progress better than placed in a non-kinship environment.  I greatly appreciate all of the work that our officers and partners are doing to try and make this happen, and if this is not possible, how they try and maintain some form of contact with siblings.

 

Care Leavers Celebratory Event at York University

This was a fantastic event held in August and gave the opportunity for over 50 of our care leavers to come together. We celebrated their success and heard about the support they have received, whilst also hearing about the challenges they have encountered.  We honoured their resilience, strength and achievements.  During the event, hand-made quilts by volunteers from Quilts for Care Leavers were presented to the young people. Designed to be wrapped around their shoulders – like a quilted hug – Quilts for Care Leavers was first started by Maggie Lloyd-Jones in Leeds in 2018, following a 30 year career as a solicitor in the field of child protection and safeguarding. In addition, the young people were given hot water bottles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were also a varied range of crafts and activities for attendees to enjoy including cake decorating, flower arranging, as well as a great bingo session.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Youth Council Meeting

The Youth Council meeting was held at County Hall, and I had the honour of speaking to some very articulate young people who have firm views on a range of issues that they feel extremely passionate about.

 

Remembrance Service at Ripon Cathedral

Once again, I had the privilege of attending this wonderful event organised by the Service Children’s Champion, Angela Campbell. One of the most moving parts of this year’s service was when serving personnel and their child read out letters between Military personnel in the first world war and their children. In addition, we had a sneak preview of the service children’s choir who would be attending the Albert Hall to perform in the Festival of Remembrance.

 

Pride Event at Carlton Lodge

I was honoured to allocate some of my locality budget to this event, which gave our LGBTQ+ young people a chance to get together and have some fun and participate in a variety of activities.

 

Care Christmas Lunch in Northallerton

I visited the Care Christmas lunch in Northallerton, and it was wonderful to see our young people getting in to the festive spirit!

 

Care Experience as a Protected Characteristic Task and Finish Group

As Young People’s Champion, I was invited to be part of this task and finish group which explored the implications, benefits, and challenges of North Yorkshire Council recognising Care Experience as a protected characteristic.  We met with officers from all directorates and considered how adopting the characteristic would impact on the areas of education, employment, housing, and health.  I found it extremely insightful listening to the experiences and challenges faced by young people from a care background.

 

Multi Agency Looked After Partnership (MALAP)

As Lead Member for Corporate Parenting Principle 5: To promote high aspirations, and

seek to secure the best outcomes, for those children and young people – I am pleased to

see that there continue to be very strong partnership working across the county.  We

are still seeing an increase in the number of children in care and the number of UASC

settling in the county, and have heard about all the pro-active work that the Virtual School

is doing to support them. I was delighted to hear that 23 young people have progressed

onto university during 2023/2024.

 

Autism Strategy

I attended this virtual workshop on the Autism strategy, which has eight key priority areas, linked with the national strategy and local priorities. The key priorities are:

 

·         employment

·         housing

·         carers

·         assessment, diagnosis and support

·         health and care

·         adult and youth justice

·         inclusive communities

 

There are over 6000 people with autism in North Yorks, and it was interesting to note that there are more males than females. This a huge number and I look forward to seeing how the strategy progresses.

 

 

Councillor Alyson Baker