Emma Connolly, Assistant Marketing Assistant, 01962 846243 [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 This report makes recommendations for the promotion of Local Democracy Week and seeks to identify appropriate funding.

1.2 This supports aims 1, 4 and 5 of the Corporate Strategy - Maximising life opportunities, Building strong and safe communities and Improving services by raising awareness of the democratic process associated with local government and Hampshire County Council.

2 Background

2.1 Local Democracy Week ran from 18 to 24 October and this year's theme was `Making your mark'. The aim was to engage the under 26s in local democracy with the knock-on effect of encouraging them to vote.

2.2 The Local Government Authority's research states that only 2% of young people think that their local council has any `power' and 50% think that their council has no direct control or relevance to their lives. We're constantly fed with the phrase "apathetic youth" but is this really the case? Research shows that young people are actually very passionate about the issues that affect their lives, the problem being the perceived disconnection between the issues young people care about and the political agenda - the view that `politics is not for me' and a lack of understanding of the role of political institutions. With this in mind it was extremely important that Hampshire County Council were involved in Local Democracy Week, to:

i. challenge young people's perception of our Councillors

ii. challenge our own perception of young people

iii. raise awareness of the political process

iv. show how local democracy is relevant to them

v. arm young people with the knowledge they need to make an informed choice, which will encourage them to vote.

3 Proposals

3.1 The County Council undertook a range of activities in Local Democracy Week. The first being `Bring your Councillor to school day' whereby two Councillors, Councillor Pat West and Councillor Kirk, visited a school in the Andover area and got involved in all parts of the school day - ending with a debate about Local Democracy giving students the opportunity to air their views. Andover was selected to pilot initiatives following the Cabinet youth priority work. The press were invited to cover this event.

3.2 We also launched a competition called `The future is in your hands'. This competition aims to help young people make the link between their local area and local democracy. We have asked young people if they were given £1,000 how they would improve their local area, putting themselves in the shoes of a local politician. The best ideas / projects will be given the funds to get them off the ground. There will be two categories 13 - 16 and 17 - 19 with £1,000 available in each category.

3.3 The competition was launched in Local Democracy Week and the prizes will be awarded in the new year. Posters and letters were sent out to all secondary schools and youth groups, to raise awareness.

4 Legal implications

4.1 None.

5 Financial implications

5.1 Through this initiative we set out to engage with young people and interest them in local democracy, and project has already proved to be considerably successful. We therefore request that the Leader agrees to £2,000 be allocated from the P & R Grants budget to fund the prize.

6 Personnel implications

6.1 None.

7 Impact assessment

7.1 Race and equality impact assessment has been considered in the development of this report and no adverse impact has been identified.

8 Crime prevention issues

8.1 None.

9 Views of the Local County Councillor

9.1 The Leader has agreed this scheme in principle.

9.2 Cllr Kirk and Cllr Pat West supported `Bring your Councillor to school day' by attending the event at the John Hanson School.

Recommendations

1 Through this initiative we set out to engage with young people and interest them in local democracy, and project has already proved to be considerably successful. We therefore request that the Leader agrees to £2,000 be allocated from the P & R Grants budget to fund the prize.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background documents

The following documents discuss facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and have been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB: the list excludes

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

List documents here or type `none'.

LGA website.