In 2007 Members of the Children’s Services Scrutiny Forum in Hartlepool agreed to the co-option of six young people onto the Forum, these six young people are currently drawn from Hartlepool Young Voices, the School Council Forum and the Youth Parliament. There were two main drivers for co-opting young people onto the Children’s Services Scrutiny Forum. One was the Councillors serving on the Forum who wished to have the views of young people fed directly into the scrutiny process and the other was the production of ‘The Participation Strategy’; Hartlepool Borough Council’s response to the Government’s ‘Every Child Matters’ initiative.

 Young people co-opted onto the Forum receive media training and the young people through the youth organisation Hartlepool Young Voices, organised ‘team building’ workshops to help build relationships between the young people and the existing Members of the Forum. Both Hartlepool Borough Council and Barnardos have supported the young people co-opted onto the Forum and recently one of the young people who was co-opted back in 2007 has now taken on the role as Participation Adviser, to directly help and support the new intake of co-opted young people.

 The Children’s Services Scrutiny Forum felt that the natural progression, of the engagement of young people with the work of the Forum, should be by the young people choosing one of the topics to be investigated by the Forum during the 2008/09 Municipal Year.

 Councillor Jane Shaw, Chair of the Children’s Services Scrutiny Forum said:-

 “As Chair of the Forum I was delighted when the topic of ‘Appropriate Accommodation for Homeless Young People for Whatever Reason’ was presented to the Forum as the topic the young people wanted the Forum to look into.

 Throughout the investigation the young people were instrumental in not only presenting the views of the young people of Hartlepool, but also shaping the recommendations that were presented to Cabinet, alongside an action plan that will deliver on those recommendations.

 I had the privilege of accompanying the young people down to the House of Commons for a meeting with our local MP Iain Wright, who was at the time Parliamentary under Secretary of State in the Department for Communities and Local Government; which covers homelessness. The young people asked Iain some very searching questions in relation to the scrutiny investigation and fed Iain’s responses back to the Forum.

 The young people co-opted onto the Forum adds value and enables the Forum to be a critical friend to decisions that will ultimately affect the young people of Hartlepool.”