Youth Strategy 2024 - Annual Update
Perth and Kinross Council · 12 November 2025
Back to Learning and Families Committee — 12 November 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Our vision is a Perth and Kinross where everyone can live life well, free from poverty and inequalities Committee or Board: Learning and Families Committee Date of Meeting: 12 November 2025 Report Title: Youth Strategy 2024 – Annual Update Report Number: 25/304 Report Author: Linda Richards, Service Manager (FBSCommittee@pkc.gov.uk) Organisational Lead Arun Singh, Strategic Lead – Children, Families and Justice 1. Purpose 1.1 The purpose of this report is to update Committee on the progress made on the Youth Strategy 2024, approved at the Learning and Families Committee on 23 October 2024 (Report No. 24/294 refers). 1.2 Sections 1. Purpose 2. Recommendations 3. Background/Context 4. Main Issues 5. Proposals 6. Conclusion 7. Impact and Value Assessment 8. Appendices 2. Recommendations It is recommended that the Committee: 2.1 Recognises the progress that has been made; and 2.2 Requests that the Strategic Lead - Children, Families and Justice provides a further annual progress update report to the Learning and Families Committee in a year’s time. 3. Background/Context
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3.1 The Youth Strategy 2024 is intended to support young people to be the best that they can be. The Youth Strategy 2024 and action plan was approved by the Learning and Families Committee on 23 October 2024. A detailed update on the actions is attached at Appendix 1. Some of the highlights are detailed in the remainder of Section 3 below. 3.2 We have continued to develop safe spaces across schools and communities which young people have taken great advantage of. The spaces are in all of the locality youth work organisations and in schools where the locality youth workers are based. These are drop in spaces and can act as a quiet time for young people who are distressed or a place where they can gain support. 3.3 Young people told us that they wanted support on how to manage a home. Rock Trust, Scotland’s youth homelessness charity, are developing a tenancy support programme which will support young people to gain practical skills. An initial pilot programme is currently being completed in Perth and Kinross with care experienced young people. Feedback from the pilot programme will then be reviewed. This will influence the further roll out of the programme to the champions boards (groups of care experienced young people who are coming together for support and to influence change) and then be implemented further in schools. 3.4 Young people have contributed 4,886 volunteering hours across various organisations in Perth and Kinross. We are looking to develop a celebration of this volunteering contribution to mark the occasion and thank young people for their commitment, which will contribute towards a positive image of our local young people. 3.5 We are working with partners from youth work organisations, media and other corporate parents to explore the development of a local media campaign aimed at reshaping public perceptions of young people which will highlight their positive contribution to their communities. 4. Main Issues 4.1 An action in the plan was to create a youth forum which would bring together young people from across the Perth and Kinross Council (PKC) area to act as a representative voice and influence policy making. This was proposed in line with the United Nations Convention on Rights of a Child (UNCRC). Unfortunately, despite many attempts to encourage young people to attend, there was little appetite to commit on a regular basis. In place of the youth forum, we have developed youth voice groups in localities with our youth work partners. The intention is for the leaders of these groups to act as a conduit between the young people, and a partner led forum. The leaders will gather views from the young people and provide feedback to PKC Officers. 4.2 The partner led working group has met once to date and comprises of 34 youth work organisations which meet four times a year. The organisations attending will be responsible for promoting the voice of the young people they have contact with and giving feedback about the actions taken. The group will discuss, and address issues affecting young people, share updates and progress on actions within the Youth Strategy 2024, strengthen collaboration
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between organisations, and establish links with education colleagues to support the learner participation strategy. The work of this group will be reviewed in a year’s time to ensure effectiveness. 5. Proposals 5.1 It is proposed that the Committee recognises the progress made against the action plan for implementation of the Youth Strategy 2024 and continues their support regarding the implementation of the Youth Strategy 2024. 6. Conclusion 6.1 This has been a busy year for the implementation of the Youth Strategy 2024, and it would not be possible without the collaboration of many organisations. 6.2 This collaboration should be celebrated and reflects the vision of PKC in terms of working in partnership with communities. The main beneficiaries are, of course, the young people, and what can be seen from the action plan, is the progress that has been made against the actions identified by them. 7. Impact and Value Assessment 7.1 This report has been classified as being an operational report and as such does not require a full Impact and Value Assessment. 8. Appendices 8.1 Appendix 1 – Youth Strategy Action Plan – Update August 2025