Warrington Youth Present Views To Minister

Warrington North MP HELEN JONES accompanied Children’s Minister Beverley Hughes to Connexions on Monday.  The visit saw the minister officially open the centre and talk with a number of local service providers including the PCT,  the Youth Service,  the Phaze Team,  local heads,  YOT,  the Voluntary Sector and Connexions.  Beverley Hughes also met representatives of the Young Peoples Reference Group and they were able to give the views of Warrington youngsters to the recently published Green Paper Youth Matters.

Over 200 young people,  aged between 13 and 19,  had completed a questionnaire.

The results made interesting reading:

• 87% of young people either agreed or strongly agreed that they would like financial help to access leisure activities;
• 82% of young people either agreed or strongly agreed that they should have a say on what local activities are available;
• 74% of young people either agreed or strongly agreed that there was not enough to do outside school,  college or work;
• only 14% thought their views would be listened to.

HELEN JONES said:

“  This is a valuable piece of research carried out by our youngsters and I was delighted that the minister could hear them for herself. 

 I have long argued that our young people need to be consulted and should be a part of the decision making process were it involves them.  The fact that such a small percentage believe that they are not listened to indicates that we have a lot of work to do.  Two thirds of respondents in Warrington wanted to be involved and that should be encouraged.  "