Takeover Day 2012

Takeover Day 2012

Takeover Day gives children and young people the chance to work with adults for the day and be involved in decision-making. Children benefit from the opportunity to experience the world of work and make their voices heard, while adults and organisations gain a fresh perspective on what they do.

The hope is that this will help break down barriers between generations and encourage children's active involvement in their communities.

On Takeover day this year, 23rd November we were lucky enough to be joined by ten young people from St John Payne School in Chelmsford from years 7-11 along with two young people from the Children in Care Council. Karen Hammett and Alan Critchley spent some time with them discussing the ESCB and our need to engage more directly with young people. The group proved themselves to be clear, knowledgeable and articulate about what was needed. They talked about the pervasive nature of subtle and persistent bullying and how this, under recognised aspect, chips away at confidence and self-esteem and how it can be difficult to report. They also talked about social media with one young person describing her "whole life being on show". Between them they came up with some good ideas for managing this. The third aspect that they raised was what they termed "news hype", this follows recent news stories and mean that they often feel unsafe almost no matter where they go. They worry about the risk aversion and feel that their lives are under a shadow.

They presented these thoughts to Dave Hill, himself accompanied by two young people. Dave being in role as Chair of the ESCB communications sub-committee. We were given ideas of how we can better communicate with children and young people and these with the proposed actions from the day will be written up, shared with the young people who were present for accuracy and inclusion, and then presented formally to the Communications sub-committee. Some tangible ways that ESCB can be influenced and can communicate better and more directly with young people will come from the day.

Our thanks to the young people from St John Payne and the Children in Care Council!

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