Staffordshire Council of Voluntary Youth Services MAKE YOUR MARK 2020 EVALUATION REPORT SCVYS 42a Eastgate Street Stafford. ST162 2LY Tel: (01785) 240378 1. Introduction Make Your Mark is an annual consultation for young people aged 11-18 run by the British Youth Council (BYC) and UK Youth Parliament (UKYP). This year, UK Parliament held a larger role in delivering Make Your Mark, and hosted the ballot page on their UK Parliament Week page. Young people vote to determine which issues are most important to them from a shortlist of ten, which have also been determined through a process led by young people. Members of Youth Parliament (MYPs) are invited to submit manifesto motions prior to the Annual Conference. This year the conference was held in September and was completely virtual. All the proposed motions were debated and voted on to establish which are added to this year’s manifesto. After the conference, MYPs were then asked to vote on the ten most important issues to them, and these made it onto the Make Your Mark ballot paper. 2. A year like no other Due to the on-going Covid-19 pandemic, all voting in 2020 was conducted online. There was an expected drop in engagement due to online voting not normally being a popular option (it was removed as an option in 2019). The uncertainty of whether the normal calendar for MYPs would be available also meant that the process was delayed from the usual period of late August until late October, and instead run for a shorter period during November. Any local authority, school or youth organisation working with 11-18-year olds is invited to take part in Make Your Mark. Pre-registration was available, however due to there being no ballot papers, there was no requirement for this. 3 schools in Staffordshire signed up before the consultation started. 3. Understanding the data The ballot this year was split into two sections (see appendix 1). The first section allowed young people to select one national issue that was important to them. The second section was a list of issues that local authorities have the power to change and was compiled with the support of the Local Government Association. This is a further change from the free text local issue that was introduced in 2019. Young people were asked to provide a postcode (and if they wished to identify their school or youth organisation) so that as many votes as possible could be allocated to a local authority area. When applied this information shows that 600 young people took part in Staffordshire. 528 voted for a UK wide issue and 547 voted for a local issue. In other words, not all young people utilised both of their votes. The breakdowns of the results of the voting can be found in the appendices including comparisons by district, county, region and national. The different approach taken again in 2020 means that SCVYS is unable to fully compare the 2019 and 2020 figures with previous years when SCVYS has overseen an increase in local voting. (2016 – 2,998; 2017 – 6,648; 2018 – 7,076) In the UK there were 181,366 UK issue votes and 176,356 local issue votes. In the West Midlands, there were 7,717 UK issue votes and 7,767 local issue votes. 2 4. Local organisations involved and total votes cast Young people from the organisations below participated in this year’s Make Your Mark ballot across Staffordshire: 1. Endon High School 7. Staffordshire Scouts 2. Erasmus Darwin Academy 8. The Rawlett School 3. Fountains High School 9. Westwood Academy 4. Girlguiding Staffordshire 10. Wolgarston High School 5. King Edward VI School Lichfield 11. Staffordshire Federation of Young 6. Madeley School Farmers Clubs SCVYS also asked their membership and partner organisations to share the link widely with their networks. The following organisations utilised social media to promote the ballot: 1. Burton Albion Community Trust 8. Staffordshire Libraries 2. Brereton Volunteering Youth Group 9. The Rawlett School 3. Burton Youth for Christ 10. Rugeley Youth Council 4. ESO CIC 11. SARAC 5. Staffordshire Family Hubs (all 12. The Voice Project districts) 13. Staffordshire Federation of Young 6. In It Together Farmers 7. King Edward’s School Lichfield As young people were asked to provide a postcode as well as their school/youth organisation, there are votes included from schools that are not in the Staffordshire area, where the young people provided their home postcode which was within Staffordshire. The total turnout of votes is as follows: Area Total UK Issues Local Issues Staffordshire 600 528 547 Cannock 24 20 23 East Staffordshire 12 10 11 Lichfield 80 74 69 Newcastle 21 18 21 South Staffordshire 116 99 112 Stafford 28 26 28 Staffordshire Moorlands 158 146 141 Tamworth 161 135 142 2 5. Overall Results The top issues for Staffordshire and the UK are below, with total number of votes cast for each issue. Spoilt ballots are not included. Staffordshire UK Issues Local Issues Free University 135 Homelessness 113 Support our Mental Health 127 Domestic Violence 107 Take Action on the Climate Emergency 68 Access to Training and Jobs 86 Stop Plastic Pollution 62 Young People’s Voices 63 Tackle Child Poverty 55 Childhood Obesity and Food Poverty 51 Tackle Discrimination and Hate Crime in 33 Leisure and Culture 50 the UK Increase Racial Awareness in the 27 Access to Technology and Broadband for 27 Curriculum learning Protect Human Rights 21 Transport 26 Votes at 16 0 End the Health Postcode Lottery 24 Include Young People in the decision 0 Improve Places to Go and Things to Do 0 making for the Covid-19 Recovery UK UK Issues Local Issues Free University 44,230 Domestic Violence 39,606 Support our Mental Health 37,244 Homelessness 37,818 Stop Plastic Pollution 18,122 Access to Training and Jobs 21,997 Tackle Child Poverty 17,673 Childhood Obesity and Food Poverty 14,922 Take Action on the Climate Emergency 16,894 Young People’s Voices 13,341 Increase Racial Awareness in the 15,655 Access to Technology and Broadband for 12,577 Curriculum learning Tackle Discrimination and Hate Crime in 12,540 Leisure and Culture 11,254 the UK Protect Human Rights 9,383 Improve Places to Go and Things to Do 8,971 Include Young People in the decision 5,173 Transport 8,289 making for the Covid-19 Recovery Votes at 16 4,452 End the Health Postcode Lottery 7,581 6. What aspects could be improved? Due to the nature of this year’s ballot, it is difficult to take some learning as it is hoped that next year, the delivery method will have returned to normal and the consultation will fit back into the regular year. It is worth noting that South Staffordshire has one of the highest turnouts for the county, a district that in the past engagement has been a struggle in. This is in part due to young people who attend school in the West Midlands, but live within the South Staffordshire district. In East Staffordshire votes were particularly low, however SCVYS has been undertaking some additional research and consultation in the district over the last 2 years, and there is a risk that “engagement fatigue” has set in with both individuals and the organisations who support them. There is also learning from the engagement with schools, and the change of timing was in many ways unhelpful. Although September would have been incredibly difficult for schools returning to full capacity in the midst of a global pandemic, meaning that engagement was maybe less likely, the shorter time scale in November aligned to ongoing Covid-19 related challenges meant that there was never going to be an ideal time to ask schools to support this process. Some schools have pushed the ballot with their students; however, others have not, and therefore building on growing buy-in to the consultation in recent years has proved impossible as well as being totally understandable with the additional challenges of this year. It is difficult to know how this can be addressed as more schools move away from local authority influence towards academy trusts, etc. 7. Next Steps and comment SCVYS will explore a variety of options for localised resources for schools and youth organisations, such as lesson plans and activities, to support more meaningful engagement in the 2021 ballot. This will be done in consultation with schools to understand what would be valuable for their setting and cover a range of delivery methods (i.e. assemblies, tutor time, lesson time or homework) There are currently no formal plans for a House of Commons debate as is usual following Make Your Mark, due to restrictions and social distancing guidelines. The BYC and UK Youth Parliament are hoping to hold a debate of the top five issues but we are yet to receive information about this. The results will be shared with Staffordshire Families Strategic Partnership Board as well as other relevant partnerships, and a partnership response requested. With Young People’s Voices taking 4th place in the local vote, it would be positive to explore the potential of bringing decision makers and young people together (whether digitally or in person) at some point for constructive dialogue on shared priorities. Interestingly, young people did not vote for their own involvement in decision making around the recovery process post Covid-19 or around determining what kind of youth services should be available, whereas they did vote for increased support for leisure time activities such as art, sport and music. SCVYS will also be keen to explore whether some form of Youth Debate can go ahead.