To receive Notice of Motion subitted under Standing Order No.12
UNICEF’s Child friendly status is relevant to Communities and Cities alike. It emphasises that consultation is vital to developing our communities, including where children and young people can:
· Have a say about decisions that affect them
· Express their views freely and are encouraged and supported to do that
· Access good health, education, transport, and other services
· Feel safe, prioritised, and protected from discrimination and harm
· Enjoy public spaces and meet other children and young people freely.
This Council resolves to investigate UNICEF’s Child Friendly City programme to allow Rushcliffe to become a recognised Child Friendly Community and to show that Rushcliffe is a place where children feel safe, are heard, cared-for, and able to flourish.
Councillor R Jones
Minutes:
The following Notice of Motion was proposed by Councillor Jones and seconded by Councillor S Mallender
“UNICEF’s Child friendly status is relevant to Communities and Cities alike. It emphasises that consultation is vital to developing our communities, including where children and young people can:
· Have a say about decisions that affect them
· Express their views freely and are encouraged and supported to do that
· Access good health, education, transport, and other services
· Feel safe, prioritised, and protected from discrimination and harm
· Enjoy public spaces and meet other children and young people freely.
This Council resolves to investigate UNICEF’s Child Friendly City programme to allow Rushcliffe to become a recognised Child Friendly Community and to show that Rushcliffe is a place where children feel safe, are heard, cared-for, and able to flourish.”
Councillor Jones informed Council, in moving the motion, that he was asking for a policy commitment to investigate the UNICEF Child Friendly Community programme with the aim of ensuring that all children were able to thrive, play and learn in a safe environment, where their voices were heard and could make a difference. Establishing a youth council for Rushcliffe, which was already under investigation, would be one key step in supporting this wider programme.
Councillor Jones stated that UNICEF worked with councils in cities across the UK to help incorporate children’s rights in their decision making. The charity offered training to councils to raise awareness of how decisions made by councils could impact upon children and how to ensure those impacts were positive and reflective of children’s voices. Councillor Jones recognised that it might be determined that after investigation this programme was too demanding but asked for that to be an informed decision following investigation rather than a presumption. He concluded by stating that children had the right to dignity, to be heard, and that they should be able to access the services and support they needed without fear of discrimination and called upon the Council to support the motion.
In seconding the motion, Councillor S Mallender stated that UNICEF would support any local authority that committed to this programme, providing support over a three-to-five-year programme not just to the Council but to its partners. Councillor Mallender informed Council that some aspects of the programme were more suitable for a county council or unitary authority but that did not mean that the Borough Council could not make a difference to young people in the Borough. She considered that the voices, needs, priorities and rights of the child should be an integral part of the policies and decisions of the authority and the Council’s involvement in this programme would ensure children of the Borough were represented and able to influence the decisions that affected them. Council noted that the UNICEF Child Friendly City programme was an international programme and so some aspects including access to shelter and food would thankfully not be relevant to this Borough. However, the Borough could work towards the elimination of discrimination, work in the best interests of children, and ensure that the views of children were respected, listened to and taken into account in decisions that affected them.
Councillor Brennan informed Council that the Conservative Group had reviewed the publicly available information on the UNICEF Child Friendly City programme and had concluded that very few people would take issue with the main purpose of this motion. However, Councillor Brennan argued, that many of those things were already available to the young people of Rushcliffe, with a wide range of open spaces and parks, support for both the Young and Positive Futures programmes, and the Council was currently looking into establishing a youth council for Rushcliffe. Councillor Brennan advised that this programme operated in over 3,000 cites internationally and was designed to operate in complex urban environments providing children with opportunities that they might not otherwise have. It was not immediately clear how Rushcliffe could engage in this programme and whether this additional burden in terms of funding and administration would add much to what the Council already offered young people in the Borough. Councillor Brennan informed Council that she felt it was right to ask officers to look into the detail of the programme and to talk to others who have been involved, to establish the benefit to Rushcliffe’s young people. In order to provide officers with the scope to recommend not getting involved, if after investigation, it was considered that it was not appropriate to the Borough, Councillor Brennan proposed a small amendment to the motion:
“This Council resolves to investigate UNICEF's Child Friendly City programme to consider if Rushcliffe should apply to become a recognised Child Friendly Community and to show that Rushcliffe is a place where children feel safe, are heard, cared-for, and able to flourish.”
Councillor Moore seconded the amendment and reserved the right to speak.
Councillor Jones thanked Councillor Brennan for her support and accepted the amendment.
There was no further debate on the amended motion and on being put to the vote the motion was carried.