Young people's vision for Liverpool

LIVERPOOL is bidding to join the Unicef Child Friendly City programme; putting young people at the heart of everything it does. The City Council is to submit an application to the child rights organisation to work towards the status, to cement and further Liverpool's work to ensure that children's rights are reflected in the policies, programmes and budgets of it and partner organisations.

Child Friendly City is based around 11 'rights' including influencing decisions, participating in cultural events, being protected from exploitation and enjoying green space and nine components including developing a City wide children's rights strategy and supporting independent advocacy for children.

The City wants to improve the way providers of services in the City work for and with children, so that they have a say in decisions that affect them, experience services that are designed with and for them, know what services are available to them and feel safe and prioritised.

Consultation is already underway with a wide range of young people across the City; and they recently they met with Council leaders including Director of Children's Services, Steve Reddy, Deputy Mayor, Cllr Wendy Simon and Cabinet member for children's services, Cllr Barry Kushner to give their views.

The group includes members of YPAS (Young People's Advisory Service), the Children in Care Council, Liverpool Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) Young Advisors, Merseyside Youth Association, Barnardo's Young Carers, Liverpool Schools Parliament and Liverpool Arabic Centre.

Mayor Joe Anderson said:- "Our children are the future of our City and our success is dependent on them being given the best possible opportunities and gaining the skills and confidence to achieve their potential. We're not starting from scratch here as there is already a huge amount of work going on to enable children's voices to be heard. We have protected children's services as much as possible from the impact of austerity, such as by keeping all of our Children's Centres open and making care leavers exempt from Council Tax and spending ₤11 million on supporting families in crisis with emergency payments.  But we need to do more to embed this approach across the whole City, and the ask to our partner organisations will be for them to work with us and commit to spending more on services for children and ask employers to commit to pay parents a minimum living wage."

The University of Liverpool has already committed to work as a research partner on Child Friendly City, to help drive evidence based policy changes and also support meaningful engagement and participation with young people.

An online survey has been launched to gather views from young people about what they would like to see from a Child Friendly City; it can be found online.

Councillor Barry Kushner, Cabinet member for children's services, said:- "We are ambitious about being a Child Friendly City and want to make a real difference to the young people of Liverpool. Partnering with Unicef will galvanise the work that we are doing and have planned, helping define and prioritise our work.We are listening to our young people and their families, building on our existing work to understand what a Child Friendly City would mean to them."

Jess Garside, a young advisor for the LSCB, said:- "Child Friendly City status would mean a lot to us in Liverpool. It's really important that children and young people are able to express their opinions and views.  They are the future generation and they are the ones who are going to make the changes. No matter the ethnic origin, religion, sexuality or disability everyone must be treated equally."

Megan Sullivan from the Children in Care Council said:- "I feel we have an effective Children's Rights and Participation plan for children in care and it should be rolled out to all kids in the City. A child friendly City should be were children feel safe, heard, nurtured and are able to flourish."

Award Winners Crafty Expansion

ROLL up, roll up and prepare for an award winning craft and vintage fair to take over HAPPA, at Shores Hey Farm. Crafty Vintage has been running events across Lancashire since 2011; specialising in showcasing an eclectic mix of collectibles, vintage art and crafts from local independent traders while also promoting live music and entertainment. On Sunday, 30 September 2018, will head to over the hills to the award winning farm for a day filled with collectors, creators and crafters along with live music, DJ's on vinyl, international street food, cabaret and magic shows.  The event is open to all and runs from 11am to 4pm.  Laura Johnson, who runs Crafty Vintage alongside husband Dave and son Dan, said:- "We are delighted to be bringing the Crafty Vintage back to Shores Hey Farm which was also a Visit Lancashire Award Winner for Best Small Visitor Attraction in 2017. It is really exciting to return again after our last event was such a huge success at Easter earlier this year."

Crafty Vintage already hosts regular fairs across Lancashire and Cumbria at venues including Clitheroe's Holmes Mill Brewery, Preston's Brockholes Visitor Centre and Penrith's Lowther Castle. In 2017 more than 30,000 people attended their events and since its inception Crafty Vintage has won a series of awards including Laura being named Lancashire's Tourism Superstar 2017.  Laura Johnson commented that:- "Crafty Vintage is so popular with both stallholders and visitors because our aim is always to promote and work with smaller local independent retailers. We have great fun working with these people and one of the great things about working with new venues like HAPPA and in a new area is that we get to attract a whole new host of stall holders. Crafty Vintage absolutely prides itself on welcoming stall holders from the local area, so we welcome new exhibitors to contact us to be part of our day at the Horse and Pony Protection Association and look forward to meeting people from the Burnley area who want to come and enjoy a great day out."