Young people, from Coventry, were able to quiz council bosses about how the local authority plans its budget, at a special workshop, designed to empower youth voice.
The group were invited to the Council House, as part of Coventry City Council’s commitment to a Child Friendly Cov and the region-wide My Tomorrow campaign, which aims to give young people more opportunities to influence policy-makers.
Councillor Richard Brown, the Cabinet Member for Finance, was there to listen and answer questions from the group, who learned about the Council’s difficult financial situation, before the young people talked about their priorities for the next year.
Cllr Brown said the event, on Monday 4 November, was an opportunity for young people to feed into the Council’s pre-budget consultation, which takes the form of a survey called Your Voice Counts. The survey results will help shape proposals for next year’s budget, amid mounting pressure on the 700 services delivered by the local authority.
The interactive workshops, titled, ‘A conversation with’, are part of a series of young people’s conversations with key decision makers on a wide range of important topics.
Monday’s workshop was the second of these and detailed how Coventry’s core spending power had fallen by £1.5 billion, in real terms, over the last 14 years. That’s £100 million on average each year – equating to £655 less for every household in the city since 2010.
18-year-old Audrey David, who took part in the workshop, said: “I think it’s been very tricky for the Council, and it’s made me sympathise with their job and how it’s such a small budget. It’s really difficult to look at everything and prioritise and consider other people’s views as well.”
She added: “I think these types of campaigns like My Tomorrow are so important. I think it’s a perfect opportunity for students like ourselves to be heard and I think it’s a very interactive way that we get to speak out, because an online survey is just not something I’ll do, unless school is asking me to do it.
“We also get to speak to the councillors directly, and they get to hear what we think first-hand.”
Cllr Brown was joined on the panel by and Sukriti Sen, Coventry’s Director of Children and Education Services, and Matt Burrows, the Council’s Strategic Lead for Policy and Communications
Cllr Brown said: “The conversations have been really enlightening and very informed, and I think they are just starting to understand how difficult some of the prioritisation is, because we all want to do everything, but we can’t.”
“We have had cuts since 2010 by previous governments so it’s really down to the bare bones of what we can do, and every other council in the country is in the same boat – facing the same challenges.
“We just have to get work hard and find new ways to provide services to people, but to hear young people’s ideas and build that into our plans, is so important.”
The event was organised by Coventry City Council, in conjunction with the West Midlands Violence Reduction Partnership (VRP), and was the second in a series of workshops, with the first focusing on crime and policing.
