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Our letter to the Education Secretary, and why we need YOUR help!
*Seany*
Deactivated Posts: 51 Boards Initiate
Hi guys,
Long post here here, but please do read it as it's really important!
The Background
Some of you may have seen or heard Michael Gove’s comments at the recent Education Select Committee where he indicated the Government’s intention to give the responsibility for youth policy to local authorities rather than central Government.
Government holds 'select committees' on a variety of different topics, and their purpose is to make sure that various different departments (in this case, the Department for Education) are spending money wisely, implementing policies sensibly and explaining their policies clearly.
What does it mean?
As you can imagine, youth policy is a large policy area. It's currently decided on nationally because many of the service providers and organisations that work within it are national organisations, and there needs to be consistency across the country in how young people are treated and engaged with. Moving these decisions to local authorities (ie - local councils) means that different areas may do things very differently which makes it very difficult to co-ordinate a fair and effective approach to young people's rights, services and levels of involvement in decisions.
Aside from this, we're worried that government delegating youth policy to local authorities means that they don't see it as important enough to be a national issue.
YouthNet, along with many other organisations across the youth charity sector, are concerned about the impact that this will have on young people. YouthNet’s Chief Executive, Emma Thomas, has contributed to and signed a letter in response which you can see on our website.
We need you!
It's all very well for us to respond to these issues, but what really matters is how you feel about it - after all, the only reason we exist is for you guys. So, what we want to do is post another letter to the Education Secretary, but this time it'll be from young people - voicing their concerns. We'd like you to sign it and help us put it together.
So, we are also putting together two questions to ask young people to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to so we can provide Government with some simple statistics to show how young people feel - these will help us to shape how the letter from young people will look.
The first question could be along the lines of ‘Do you feel Government do enough to support young people?’ or 'Do you think youth policy should be also be a priority for national government, much like health, employment, policing, and other areas government deals with?'
The second, however, is up for grabs and we want you to help shape it. What do you want to make sure Government know about? What other question would you pose to your peers to find out how they are feeling? Think about simple questions that you think other young people will understand and be able to give a yes/no answer to.
We have a very tight turnaround on this, so if you could respond by the end of Thursday 31st Jan we would be really grateful.
Long post here here, but please do read it as it's really important!
The Background
Some of you may have seen or heard Michael Gove’s comments at the recent Education Select Committee where he indicated the Government’s intention to give the responsibility for youth policy to local authorities rather than central Government.
Government holds 'select committees' on a variety of different topics, and their purpose is to make sure that various different departments (in this case, the Department for Education) are spending money wisely, implementing policies sensibly and explaining their policies clearly.
What does it mean?
As you can imagine, youth policy is a large policy area. It's currently decided on nationally because many of the service providers and organisations that work within it are national organisations, and there needs to be consistency across the country in how young people are treated and engaged with. Moving these decisions to local authorities (ie - local councils) means that different areas may do things very differently which makes it very difficult to co-ordinate a fair and effective approach to young people's rights, services and levels of involvement in decisions.
Aside from this, we're worried that government delegating youth policy to local authorities means that they don't see it as important enough to be a national issue.
YouthNet, along with many other organisations across the youth charity sector, are concerned about the impact that this will have on young people. YouthNet’s Chief Executive, Emma Thomas, has contributed to and signed a letter in response which you can see on our website.
We need you!
It's all very well for us to respond to these issues, but what really matters is how you feel about it - after all, the only reason we exist is for you guys. So, what we want to do is post another letter to the Education Secretary, but this time it'll be from young people - voicing their concerns. We'd like you to sign it and help us put it together.
So, we are also putting together two questions to ask young people to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to so we can provide Government with some simple statistics to show how young people feel - these will help us to shape how the letter from young people will look.
The first question could be along the lines of ‘Do you feel Government do enough to support young people?’ or 'Do you think youth policy should be also be a priority for national government, much like health, employment, policing, and other areas government deals with?'
The second, however, is up for grabs and we want you to help shape it. What do you want to make sure Government know about? What other question would you pose to your peers to find out how they are feeling? Think about simple questions that you think other young people will understand and be able to give a yes/no answer to.
We have a very tight turnaround on this, so if you could respond by the end of Thursday 31st Jan we would be really grateful.
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Comments
A bit too loaded perhaps? Still true though.
But yeah, maybe something about the concept of free schools, which AFAIC are the biggest education issue today.
Firstly, thanks to those of you who replied above. I appreciate the deadline was really tight, but it's always useful to hear your thoughts.
Secondly, below is the letter that's been drafted with the input from young people across the charity youth sector - we'd like to know if you want to make any changes to it, and what those changes would be - please leave your comments and suggestions below. Please do this by 6pm on Monday 4th Feb!
Thirdly, the questions we wanted to ask have now been drafted up and are in this poll. We'll use the results from it to insert into the letter. Please fill out the survey by 6pm on Wednesday 6th Feb. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to get as many responses as possible, so please also get your friends or other young people between 11 and 25 that you know. You can find the survey here.
I've already made a few suggestions on improvements to the letter at our end (mainly grammar!), so don't be afraid to be critical of it if you think it needs improving.
1) You put your futures first and only then mention what he's interested in (the future generations). That makes them seem an add-on to your vested interest and DfES isn't really interested in your interests (unless you're a teacher) (or alternatively just make the letter from young people who attend and not the workers)
2) I'd be much more positive about local Government; it does much more than allocate resources, try and appear like you're agreeing with the thrust of his reforms and you're just suggesting some useful tweaks that make it work better.
3) personally I'm really cynical about surveys done by the organisation (where they can set the question and basically ask a mate to fill in a form)
4) I think that ?every child arrives at and spends their time in school fulfilled, happy and learning? seems a misreading of his view. A quick google search shows that it's more his ambition than his belief. Common sense suggests that if he did believe that he wouldn't be putting in place his reforms. Taking an SoS out of context isn;t the way to his Civil Sevant's hearts
5) In fact I'd drop the entire bit on schools attainment, which only seems to be in to show you can use the internet to search basic stats
6) The bit on youth clubs is fine, but it doesn't really give me any compelling reason why Government should be in the lead rather than local Government (in fact none of it does)
7) You called his understanding limited (which is Civil Service code for thick as pig shit) and come over as totally condescending, which is not the way to get a very very senior politician on side.
8) The bit about recent data shows is also totally over the top - I assume you mean there's been some Parly Question (unless you have access to his diary), but better to say something like 'We understand that you haven't had time in your busy schedule to visit a youth project' which doesn't sound so pompus. Also try and be more specific, suggest something specific (but not a date), though leaving it open to do something else. You may get extra kudos if its in his constituency (but sometimes not, I worked for one Minister who regarded it as a transparent attempt to play on her heartstrings)