Agenda and minutes

-                      Apologies

-                      Declarations of Interests by Members in Items on the Agenda for this Meeting.

Mr Hayton welcomed everyone to the meeting, particularly the Kent Youth County Council and Thanet Youth Council presenters.

All county councillors present introduced themselves.

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes were agreed.

Kent Youth County Council and Thanet Youth Council members will talk about their role and the local issues in Thanet that matter to them.  Their presentation will focus on the sports and leisure facilities available in Thanet for young people as well as the accessibility of bus and train services.  Officers from Kent County Council and Thanet District Council have been invited and will be available to answer questions.

Thanet KYCC members, Amy Wright, Chelsea Monks and Alice Cope introduced themselves and began by describing the role and work of KYCC. 

KYCC is a non-party political organisation that focuses on the issues of young people.  Any young person aged between 11 and 18 years, living within KCC boundaries may vote and stand for election.  There are 48 seats available, four from each of the 12 local district or borough councils within the KCC area.  Community seats for young people not in education or with disabilities have been introduced this year.  Candidates may stand for election in either the district or borough where they live or go to school, college or work and are elected for one year with the option of continuing for a second year to support newly elected members.

KYCC members work closely with officers and elected members of KCC, informing them of young people’s issues and concerns.  They also attend other local meetings to get heard about issues that matter to them.  Some attend Youth Advisory Group meetings, local youth forums and regularly meet with the Kent Youth Service Senior Management Team to support and advise them in order to improve services for young people.

Each local authority is able to send representatives to the UK Youth Parliament – KYCC has elected seven of its members to the UKYP to take Kent issues to the national sitting.

Some KYCC members have been involved in deciding how the Youth Opportunity Fund distributes money to different groups of young people to make a difference to their lives.    For example, the Youth Capital Fund has given money to buy mini buses, skate parks like the one in Ashford and youth centres across the county.  Over £1.2m has been allocated.

KYCC is also involved in an Exchange programme called 4Way Youth Exchange with Estonia, Finland and Germany which enables members to visit and share experiences with young people from these countries and find out more about their youth participation.  Other activities include team building and developing skills for the future.

Nigel Cross, Youth Developer from Thanet District Council then spoke about the work of Thanet Youth Council members.  (Unfortunately the TYC member planned to speak had been taken unwell.)  Thanet Youth Council has been established for 11 years, is independently funded by the Lottery and, like KYCC is non political.  To be a member you have to be aged 11-20 years and live in Thanet. The main forum comprises 25 people with a Chair and Vice Chair and its aim is to promote the benefit of young people in Thanet by enabling them to develop citizenship skills and to be represented within the democratic and decision-making processes of Thanet.   TYC is based at the Quarterdeck Youth Centre in Margate and they have a number of sub groups covering transport, sport, etc and get involved in various consultation events e.g. the Safe Citizen Conference at the Winter Gardens attended by 300 young people.  Other activities include team building, public speaking,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Victoria Pomery will give a presentation on the latest developments at Turner Contemporary, focusing in the work they are doing with young people.  Recently Turner contemporary made a successful bid to the Department for Business Innovation and Skills entitled Time of our Lives, an intergenerational project that aims to promote greater community cohesion between older and younger people.  Working with the local community this project will help develop a major exhibition entitled Teenager planned for the new gallery in its opening year in 2011.

Victoria Pomery talked of the exciting new building, designed by Chipperfield Architects, now taking shape, with completion on target for 2010 and the opening in Spring 2011.  The building programme began in December 2008 and you can see photographs of the gallery’s progress by visiting: http://www.turnercontemporary.org/design.  And while the new building will still be a local gallery for Margate, it will also be able to function on a national and international level.

But as well as building a major new gallery, Turner Contemporary also runs an exciting and challenging programme of historical and contemporary art, presenting a wide range of exhibitions and learning opportunities to promote the understanding and enjoyment of visual art.  There have been numerous projects over the past few years, e.g. a Celebration of Pattern.

Turner Contemporary works will all age groups.  Inspiring Spaces was a project that consulted with young people’s groups to determine what young people would like from new and existing buildings.  Information provided from this was used to plan the new gallery and as a result the building will have many function rooms as well as a communal space.

Recently Turner Contemporary made a successful bid to the Department for Business Innovation and Skills entitled Time of our Lives, for an intergenerational project that aims to promote greater community cohesion between older and younger people.  Working with the local community this project will help develop and feed ideas into a major exhibition entitled Teenager planned for the new gallery in its opening year in 2011.   This exhibition will reflect on what it’s like to be a teenager both now and throughout the past with a video contribution from Tracey Emin describing the difficulties and issues she faced as a teenager.

The new building will have lots of spaces with different activities taking place, demonstrating that art has real relevance and value to everyone.

Q.    Can young people join in now?

A.     Yes, contact Esther Collins at Turner Contemporary on 01843 280261

Q.    How long have these projects for being going on for and how do I get involved?

A.Time of our Lives began in September and runs until the end of March 2010.

   You can find out more about all of the projects currently taking place with contact details by visiting the Turner Contemporary website at: http://www.turnercontemporary.org/learn

Q.We have never heard of these projects you need to publicise them more.

A.We are looking at new social media technologies, e.g. Twitter and Facebook to get the message out.

Mr Hayton thanked Victoria for her presentation and was very encouraged by the exciting programmes taking place now and planned for the future.  The new Turner Contemporary Gallery fits well into the regeneration of Margate and there is no doubt that it will act as a catalyst and attract further investment in the area.

Kent BSF Programme, established in 2006, aims to rebuild or renew its secondary schools over a period of 10 – 15 years.  An update will be given on the building programme in Thanet.

Adam McKeown, KCC’s BSF and Academies Communications Manager began his presentation by describing the background behind the largest capital programme in schools for over 50 years.  Kent will have £1.8 billion of investment to re-build and develop schools, many of which were built pre-war and designed for different learning era.

The BSF programme is not just about buildings but how education can transform young people and raise aspirations and attainment. It is about recognising that there are different needs and different learning styles from vocational to academic study.  It is about making today’s schools fit for purpose in the 21^st Century so that they can support personal development through new technology and the new multi-media curriculum, with schools working together and sharing resources.  And it is about placing schools at the heart of communities to encourage all age learning and to further stimulate and support economic and community regeneration.

Esther Larner, KCC’s WAVE 3 Project Manager then spoke in detail about the build programme in Thanet.  The WAVE 3 programme is in its construction phase and includes:  Charles Dickens School, Dane Court Grammar, King Ethelbert and St George’s School. A feature of the new building programmes is to provide an alternative way of teaching, with buildings that have a central area or ‘heart’ from which other disciplines branch off.  In addition, KCC and its partners are working with the construction companies to increase the amount of local labour used, including 38 apprenticeships, encouraging working experience placements and with 70% of the supply chain being Kent-based.

The WAVE 4 programme is in the consultation phase involving workshops with head teachers, governors, teachers, parents and pupils and once this is completed, construction is planned to start in 2011.  This programme includes:  Northwood Centre PRU, St Anthony’s Special School, Ursuline College, Chatham House and Clarendon House Grammar School Federation, Hartsdown Technology College and The Foreland Special School, Stone Bay Special School, Laleham Gap Special School, Hereson Boys and Ellington School for Girls.

For more detailed information on these programmes please visit: http://www.kent.gov.uk/education-and-learning/schools-and-sixth-form/schools-for-future/

Q.       Could you explain where Children’s Centres fit into this?

A.       The 70+ Children’s Centres are new spaces that bring together children and parents and have been part of the consultation process, interviewing parents and identifying the lack of out of school activities, lack of vocational education, etc.

Q.       What will happen to this programme if there is a change in government?

A.       WAVE 3 and WAVE 4 are guaranteed to go ahead as the money has already been ring-fenced.

Q.       What environmental guidelines have been followed?  KYCC has its own environmental sub group.

A.       No design would be approved without first looking at the environmental elements of the build, e.g. sustainable materials/products, heating, ventilation all have to comply with stringent standards.

Q.       Dane Court does not appear to have any opening windows but only air conditioning.

A.       Dane Court will have opening windows.

Q.       How much influence and impact do  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Recommendations of the Board to be announced.

The recommendations of the Thanet Local Board for Small Community Capital Projects grants for 2009/10 totalling £46,700 were as follows:

There were no questions raised.

None.

Mr Hayton thanked all the speakers for their interesting and informative presentations.  He also thanked the public for attending and closed the meeting.