Citizens' Panel: Supporting children and young people in the borough

It is a key priority for Kensington and Chelsea's Children's Services to ensure that more local people are shaping the services we provide. We are developing our three-year Children and Young People's Plan and wanted to hear from Panel members about how they think we can better support the children and young people in the borough.

We wanted to hear from Panel members about what they think works well and what Children’s Services could improve on. We recognised that many of you have children and young people in your lives so have views on what is best for them and that those of you without children still have views on how the lives of children and young people in the borough can be improved.

Children and Young People’s Plan - Three quarters (75 per cent) of Panel members felt that a Children and Young People’s Plan was very important with a further 21 per cent thinking it was important. Panel members felt mental health, education and physical health were the top priorities for the Children and Young People’s Plan.

Views of those with parental responsibility – Thirty-six per cent of respondents stated that they had parental responsibility. Of these, 73 per cent agreed they are able to support their child/children’s learning and development whilst 51 per cent agreed their child/children feel safe and supported in Kensington and Chelsea. There was less agreement (22 per cent) that they feel listened to and taken seriously by the Council and that the Council encourages parental involvement in the design and delivery of services (21 per cent).

Kensington and Chelsea as a place to live Sixty-nine per cent of Panel members think that Kensington and Chelsea is a good place for children and young people to grow up and live. Panel members viewed things to do (77 per cent), a diverse population (66 per cent) and quality of schools as the top positives for children and young people growing up in the borough.

Concerns about children and young people - The top concerns for Panel members when thinking about the young people they know were poor mental health (63 per cent) and young people not getting opportunities to prepare them for work (61 per cent). Thirty per cent of Panel members felt that the Council could do more to promote understanding and conversation around gender identity, whilst 41 per cent disagreed. Fifty-nine per cent of Panel members felt that more could be done to enable young women and girls to live their lives and participate fully in the borough, whilst nine per cent disagreed.

Better engagement - Only six per cent of Panel members felt that young people have a voice in decisions made by the Council that affect them. Seventy-three per cent of Panel members felt better engagement in the Council’s delivery of children’s services could be delivered through offering creative apprenticeships, whilst 65 per cent felt it could be done by young people’s representation in the Council’s decision-making forums.

Results of the survey have been shared with the Lead Member for Family and Children’s Services and are set out in the accompanying Summary Report. Reassuringly, many of the areas where residents have reflected strong views are already a focus for Children’s Services or the wider Council. Their views will add weight to efforts to improve employment prospects and pathways for young people, improve mental health and wellbeing and tackle mental ill health, and develop further our approach to co-production and co-design of services and priorities including with parents.

These views will also inform the final set of high-level priorities in the Children and Young People’s Plan. Delivery of these will sit within service plans or more detailed thematic plans. We aim to improve accountability for delivery of the Plan post publication with periodic check ins with residents and young people through the three-year life cycle of the Plan using a variety of engagement mechanisms such as focus groups and drop ins. The Children and Young People’s Plan will be published in November 2022.

Panel newsletters scheduled throughout the year gives us scope for follow up later on when more consideration has been given to these results by the Lead Member and relevant officers.