Minutes
Minutes of the YOUTH HOMELESS PARLIAMENT STEERING GROUP MEETING HELD 6TH SEPTEMBER 2013
AT THE BOARDROOM, FAZELEY STUDIOS, DIGBETH, BIRMINGHAM
PRESENT: Jean Templeton, St Basils, Chief Executive (Chair)
Amy Butterworth, Forum Housing, Engagement Team Manager
Sam Clarke, Centrepoint, Senior Participation Officer
Anna Cooley, Foyer Federation, Services Manager (East Sussex)
Helen Denyer, St Mungos, Area Manager - Bucks, Herts and Oxon
Anita Edwards, DCLG, Homelessness and Support
Maria Emerson-Smith, St Basils, Regulations & Governance Officer and Special Projects Manager (Minutes)
Val Keen, DePaul UK, Interim Director of Services
Sarah Macfadyen, Crisis, Policy and Parliamentary
Helen Mathie, Homeless Link, Head of Policy
Vida Paittoo, DCLG, Homelessness & Support Division
Liam Preston, YMCA England, Parliamentary and Policy Officer
Tamzin Taylor-Rosser, St Basils, NYRG / Youth Homeless Parliament Coordinator
Anna Whalen, St Basils and Homeless Link, Youth Homelessness Adviser
1. WELCOME, APOLOGIES AND INTRODUCTIONS:
The Chair opened the meeting and welcomed everyone.
Apologies were received from Ms Callan Biggs, NYRG / Youth Homeless Parliament Trainee
2. MAIN ITEMS
a) Background to Youth Homeless Parliament
The Chair provided the meeting with a verbal update regarding background to the Youth Homeless Parliament.
The following key highlights were provided;
· The Youth Homeless Parliament is in part a development from the National Youth Reference Group (NYRG). The NYRG was established in 2007 and set up as part of the National Youth Homelessness Scheme. It was initially intended to be a six month pilot and is today in
year six of operation – due to its success. NYRG exists to provide advice and consultations/ feedback to organisations and Local
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Authorities on what works for young people in relation to services, service development and service delivery. NYRG is made up of over fourth young people from organisations across England.
· Jack Dromey, Birmingham MP and Shadow Housing Minister invited one hundred young people from eight organisations including NYRG to meet Ministers at the Houses of Parliament on 13th December 2012. Each organisation was invited to work with their young people and develop a manifesto which they presented on the day. The manifestos included young peoples’ top priorities. On the day, young people had an opportunity to debate their priorities and present these to Ministers/ MPs and held a questions and answers session. Overall the day was very successful.
· In May 2013 MP Mark Prisk, MP Don Foster and MP Jack Dromey met with young people who had also attended the first Youth Homeless Parliament meeting - as an additional direct consultation. MPs reported that they valued the diversity of young peoples’ experience and have invited the young people to attend the next Ministerial Working Group which is expected to take place in October 2013.
· At the ‘End Youth Homeless Alliance’ launch, MP Mark Prisk announced that St Basils were being funded to set up and establish the first Youth Homeless Parliament. The funded allocated for this purpose is £20k for financial year 2013/14.
· It is expected that there will be one key annual event for the Youth
Homeless Parliament – which will take place around December each year whilst the project is funded. Other activities may involve specific consultations and dialogue with Ministers and Government departments.
b) Aims and Objectives of the Youth Homeless Parliament / DCLG project Plan
The Chair led a discussion on the aims and objectives of the Youth Homeless Parliament. Members provided the following contributions and agreed the aims and objectives as follows;
The Youth Homeless Parliament is:
o A national group of young people who have experienced homelessness who can influence national policy by providing a sounding board for Ministers to inform and challenge them
o An ‘authentic’ group who will use their own experience to inform government about what works and what doesn’t and to ‘bust’ myths and stereotypes about youth homelessness
Main Activities of the YHP will be:
o Making presentations and contributions at Ministerial Working Group meetings
o Attending and presenting young peoples’ priorities at an annual Youth
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Homeless Parliament meeting held at the House of Commons
o Providing individual consultations/ feedback on Policy developments and specific consultations within the spirit and scope of the project
ACTIONS:
YHP Twitter account to be set up by St Basils - to assist with communication between organisations, YHP Steering Group Members and Youth Homeless Parliament Members.
NYRG Members to meet and develop YHP logo/ branding.
c) Partnership – commitment and support
Anna Whalen led a discussion regarding what a successful Youth Homeless Parliament would look like. Members discussed the scope and range of the project and the importance of ensuring it is proportionate to the resourcing available. There was a further discussion regarding the need for regional variation and in particular, Foyer Federation and YMCA England which can access smaller and more rural young people to make sure they are represented.
Members raised the matter of young peoples’ training and development needs in relation to the YHP. The Chair clarified that the £20k funding is for specific outcomes and one of these is around training such as; public speaking, delivering key messages, understanding how parliament operates, etc. The Chair agreed to provide the Steering Group with a breakdown of the funding available at the next meeting. Members agreed that where possible they would use their own internal resources to provide their young people with training and support. In addition, St Basils will provide a training resource pack for young people which can be used by all organisations. Sam Clarke from Centrepoint offered her training resources to be shared with YHP Members.
It was also agreed that Policy organisations such as YMCA England and Homeless Link can utilise the YHP as a conduit for policy reviews and feedback and can keep YHP up to date with key policy issues.
ACTIONS: St Basils to produce training resource pack for organisations to use when delivering training/ briefings to young people who will become YHP Members.
All organisations to utilise their own internal resources and provide training to young people who will become YHP Members where possible.
Tamzin Taylor-Rosser to contact Sam Clarke with regards to sharing training resources.
Tamzin Taylor-Rosser to look into and provide Members with further information with regards to the mentioned ‘Dare to Lead’ programme and the ‘Parliamentary Outreach Service’.
Vida Paittoo to provide NYRG Members with details of the Eland House Open Day – ‘One Department’.
St Basils to provide YHP budget breakdown to Members at next meeting – to be discussed further.
Tamzin Taylor-Rosser to provide Liam Preston with regional areas where there is low NYRG/YHP membership.
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d) Organisational Membership
Anna Whalen led a discussion on the overall membership of the YHP.
Members agreed the following YHP Membership structure;
o 12 young people from each of the 8 organisations represented - will join to form the YHP for December 2013.
o The NYRG would have 20 YHP Membership places – given that the NYRG represents young people from across England and could be tasked with ensuring young people from specific regional areas are included.
Members agreed to use the ‘model’ for the Youth Homeless Parliament main event, which was used successfully in 2012:
· Advance preparation with young people (undertaken by individual organisations)
· Develop Manifestos which would be presented in Parliament
· Houses of Parliament Debate
· Breakout Groups – Clarification of prioritisation of issues from the manifestos
· Present Priorities to Ministers
· Questions & Answers Session with Ministers
· De-brief/ Feedback to YHP members
ACTION:
Tamzin Taylor-Rosser to prepare advance preparation manifesto template and send to partner organisations
e) Moving Forward – The next stages
Members agreed that those present would form the ‘Membership’ of the Youth Homeless Parliament ‘Steering Group’, plus Callan Biggs who is the NYRG/YHP Trainee.
ACTION:
Maria Emerson-Smith to arrange further Steering Group meeting to take place prior to the main event and Steering Group Members to bring x1 YHP member to next meeting
3. ANY OTHER BUSINESS:
None.
4. SUMMARY OF ACTIONS ARISING FROM THIS MEETING:
The key actions were summarised.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING – TBC.
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