Wiltshire Council- down with the kids

Wiltshire Council has been praised for its year old area board system, which allows individual communities – including their vocal youth – to take control and influence decisions.

In a speech to the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) on June 30th, the former children’s commissioner, Professor Sir Al Anysley-Green, praised Wiltshire Council for its interaction with the county’s youth via its innovative area board system.

The council introduced area boards last year when five councils moved to a unitary authority. The county was divided into community areas, with each one represented by a board made up of councillors and officers. The board meets in public every six weeks and makes decisions with the help and input of local people.

WILTSHIRE SKILLS FESTIVAL

In other news relating to young people, Wiltshire Skills Festival at Wiltshire College Lackham last week was attended by 1,500 school students and more than 90 of their parents.

Getting friendly with goats, stonemasonry, fire fighting and radio interviews were just some of the hands-on activities at this year’s event.

Wiltshire skills festival 2010, organised by the council's Connexions team, Wessex Chamber of Commerce and Wiltshire College, gave young people the chance to talk to employers and colleges, and find out more about a wide range of courses and careers available to them locally.

Wiltshire’s VTalent volunteers, who are on a year-long volunteering programme with the council, interviewed young people about the festival and their hopes and dreams, in the Connexions Big Brother Diary Room. Young people from Wiltshire’s youth website and online radio station, Sparksite, also reported on the day.

Exhibitors included Heart FM, Somerset Care, City of Bath College, Wiltshire Care Ambassadors, JTL Training, Protocol Skills, FNTC Training & Consultancy, Aimhigher West, NHS, DSTL (Defence Science and Technology Laboratory), STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics ), Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service, National Apprenticeship Service, Wiltshire College, Avon Vale Training, Academy of Music & Sound, The Army, Royal Air Force, Royal Navy,  Wiltshire Council, Swindon College, New College Swindon, Young Chambers of Commerce, Connexions Wiltshire, Sparksite and Spark Radio.

Festival organiser Maggie Dalton, from Connexions Salisbury, said the event was a success: “By talking to exhibitors they (young people) are able to find out the qualifications needed for particular careers, and the courses they should aim for. They can also learn the wide range of careers opportunities that exist within major employers’ organisations such as the Armed Forces and the NHS.”

Click here to find out more about the Wiltshire Skills Festival

ST. JOHN’S TO TAKE PART IN THE HUGE HEALTH DEBATE TODAY

Today, eight Wiltshire secondary schools, including St. John’s, will come together to discuss issues around health and to compete for the Debating Bowl. “The Huge Health Debate” is being held at County Hall in Trowbridge.

The annual Great Debate brings together students aged 14 to 19 from schools across Wiltshire to debate a range of topical issues with a health-related aspect.

The event is organised in partnership between Wiltshire Council and NHS Wiltshire.

Students from St. John’s and St Edmunds Girls’ School in Salisbury, will be debating whether “the school experience trains people to be compliant subjects rather than engaged and questioning citizens”.

Subjects being debated by other schools include:  the suggestion that “sex education is the business of the family not the school”, whether “bullying is an inevitable fact of life – it’s more useful to learn to cope with it than to try to combat it”, and the statement that “pampered teenagers in the 21st Century do not know how well off they are”.

Jane Scott, leader of Wiltshire Council said, “It is always a pleasure to see young people in the council chamber debating issues that affect them, and to hear the conviction and the fluency with which they present their ideas.”