Agenda item

Cabinet Member: Councillor Alisa Flemming

Officer: Robert Henderson

Key decision: yes

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions.

RESOLVED: To

1.    Recognise and commend the excellent work of the Young Mayor, William Awomoyi, and Deputy, Shea Williams, in the last year;

2.    Reinstate Croydon’s membership with the British Youth Council to ensure that Croydon’s Young People are represented at the UK Youth Parliament;

3.    Note the extension of the current Young Mayor’s Term to March 2020 to fall in line with British Youth Council Membership and UK Youth Parliament (at paragraph 3.13 of the report);

4.    Note that the ongoing commitment and resource to sustain and support the Young Mayor’s role and for the benefit of Croydon’s children and young people (at paragraph 3.20 of the report); and

5.    Note the suggestions and ongoing considerations for the Young Mayor and Deputy to be provided with more direction on how to spend the Young Mayors fund while still allowing them to be creative (at paragraph 3.9 of the report).

The Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Learning noted that since the election of the first Young Mayor and Deputy Young Mayor in 2018, they had done a fantastic job of raising the profile of young people in the borough.

The Deputy Young Mayor, Shea Williams, attended and informed Members that she and the Young Mayor, William Awomoyi, had attended over 30 events since being elected in March 2018 and had sought to raise the voice of young people in Croydon. They had also been ambassadors for Croydon for a variety of campaigns; including Choose Your Future.

While the Deputy Young Mayor stated that the events had been great, it was felt that there could be more focus on both hers and the Young Mayor’s manifesto pledges. It was noted that they had been given a £20,000 budget; however this had been spent on the Young Mayor’s Dragon Den scheme rather than on implementing other manifesto pledges. The Deputy Young Mayor recognised that the scheme had been fantastic, but stated that they would like support to implement their pledges and to raise the profile of young people further.

The Cabinet Member thanked the Deputy Young Mayor and Young Mayor for their work in raising the profile of young people. It was noted that it had been the first year of the Young Mayor initiative and it was recognised that additional learning from other authorities was beneficial. As such, the council had looked at other authorities; including Lewisham which had elected Young Mayors for a number of years, to ensure the Croydon Young Mayor scheme was improved further.

The Policy and Projects Officer informed Members that an extensive review of the Young Mayor scheme had been undertaken which was part of a wider youth services review. From the review it was recommended that Croydon reinstate its membership of the British Youth Council, and that the Young Mayor’s term be extended to March 2020. The extension of the term would enable the Young Mayor’s term to run concurrent with the term of the Youth Council, and would enable Young Mayors to take advantage of all of the programmes run by the Youth Council.

It was noted that following the review the support team for the Young Mayor would be extended from one officer to a team of four, and the budget would be increased to £25,000 to support the delivery of manifesto commitments. Whilst there would be three different areas for funding, the aim was that this would provide more direction on how the money could be spent whilst also allowing creativity.

Members were informed that costs associated with the changes would be absorbed within the current budget and would facilitate ensuring that the role and the function of the Young Mayor was right.

The Leader noted that the recommendations in the report would assist the council in addressing the concerns raised in relation to the role and support of the Young Mayor and strengthen the role further.

Members supported the recommendations to further strengthen the role of the Young Mayor and congratulated both the Deputy Young Mayor and Young Mayor for all their work in raising the profile of young people across the borough.

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions.

RESOLVED: To

1.     Recognise and commend the excellent work of the Young Mayor, William Awomoyi, and Deputy, Shea Williams, in the last year;

2.     Reinstate Croydon’s membership with the British Youth Council to ensure that Croydon’s Young People were represented at the UK Youth Parliament;

3.     Note the extension of the current Young Mayor’s Term to March 2020 to fall in line with British Youth Council Membership and UK Youth Parliament (at paragraph 3.13 of the report);

4.     Note that the ongoing commitment and resource to sustain and support the Young Mayor’s role and for the benefit of Croydon’s children and young people (at paragraph 3.20 of the report); and

5.     Note the suggestions and ongoing considerations for the Young Mayor and Deputy to be provided with more direction on how to spend the Young Mayor’s fund while still allowing them to be creative (at paragraph 3.9 of the report).