The Children’s Participation team supports several children and young people such as SEND Youth Forum, Elected Young Mayor, Elected Member of UK Youth Parliament, Youth Council, Children in Care Council, Young Advisors. These forums give children and young people the opportunity to tell the council and its partners about what life is like growing up and going to school in North Tyneside.
There are also opportunities for those children and young people who are not part of these forums to get involved in decision making through other work with services and schools around participation.
The team also provides advocacy to children and young people in care to help them tackle difficulties they are having regarding decisions being made about them. We want children and young people:
- to have their voices heard
- to have their views taken into account
- to have their views taken seriously
- to have a say in how our services run
- to have rights in line with Article 12 of the UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) which states that they have the right to be heard and involved in decisions that affect them