The Kent Youth Charter

The Youth Charter has been developed as part of a commitment by KCC, and sets out six principles of how young people want staff to engage and work with them.

Young people in Kent wrote and agreed the six Youth Charter principles. They want all services working with young people in Kent to adopt the Youth Charter, so we have produced a range of resources to support organisations to do this.

The principles of The Kent Youth Charter

You should expect that all staff and volunteers will:

Respect you and be kind

• Find out about you, from you.
• Be relaxed with open body language.
• Help you to feel welcome.

Include you and accept you

• Accept everyone’s differences and individuality.
• Be a place that you want to come.
• Find out and act upon your needs.

Listen, understand and act upon what you say

• Make enough time for you.
• Give you opportunities to share your views.
• If we say we’re going do something, we will do it, and show you the outcomes.

Be honest and work to build your trust

• We will be clear about our intentions.
• We will be honest about what we’re going to do.
• We will work to build a trusting relationship with you.

Support you to grow and learn from your experience

• Staff are trained to work with young people.
• Staff understand the community and know where to seek help.
• Staff have knowledge of what opportunities are available to you.

Let you lead and make decisions

• Give you a voice about the things that affect you.
• Ensure you understand your right to make choices.
• Help you feel valued by listening to your views and opinions to make decisions together.

Coproduction is all about how young people’s voices help to influence the design, delivery and evaluation of the service offered.

To support you in adopting the Youth Charter Coproduction e-learning is now available to all professionals working with young people.