Working with young people > Whole Setting Approach > The Kent Youth Charter > Developing The Youth Charter

Developing The Kent Youth Charter

To develop The Youth Charter, a list of statements were produced by a group of Virtual School Kent apprentices.

These statements were then ranked in importance by young people; 29 groups of young people were involved in the initial consultation, including a range of schools, youth hubs and community organisations.

The young people were asked 4 key questions:

  • What behaviours are needed for successful participation and which are the most important?
  • What do the behaviours mean to you and how will you know they are happening?
  • What should The Youth Charter be called?
  • What are the best ways for practitioners to engage with you?

A workshop was held in February 2020 with young people from Kent Youth County Council, SpeakOut @ HeadStart Kent and the Children in Care Council.

Using the results of the initial consultation, the young people worked together to write and agree the six principles of The Youth Charter.

 

Background to The Youth Charter

The Youth Charter has been developed as part of a commitment by KCC to improve meaningful service user participation.

There is a lot of excellent work happening across Kent, supporting young people to have a voice in the services which affect them. The Youth Charter has been developed by 29 groups of young people from a range of these services and projects including:

  • Virtual School Kent
  • HeadStart Kent
  • The Voluntary and Community Sector
  • SEND services
  • Kent Youth County Council
  • and a number of schools across the county.

During 2020 and 2021, young people worked hard to write and agree six principles of how they wanted staff to engage and work with them, as well as ensuring it is clear how they can raise issues when a service doesn’t meet The Youth Charter principles.  The Youth Charter has now been adopted by KCC and is being implemented across Children and Young People’s Services.

Young people have told us they want all services working with them to adopt The Youth Charter; we have produced a range of resources to support organisations to do this which you can access here.

For more information please contact: Hannah Patton, Hannah.Patton@kent.gov.uk, 03000 422168.