Agenda item

Testimonials were received from:

Lesley Webb Taunton Minster, Church Warden on behalf of the Vicar of Taunton Minster, Tobie Osmond

Andrew Pritchard, Mind in Somerset

Phil Durban. Bishops Lydeard Residents Action Group

Bev Fernades, Taunton Town Council

Tash Scully – Somerset Youth Alliance

The Chair thanked all involved, highlighted the young people work and emphasised the positive impact and achievements, especially for young.

Vicar Tobie Osmond, Taunton Minster, read by Taunton Minster Church Warden, Lesley Webb

Most of my connections and networking have been with the children’s and young people's side of things at the moment, as I cannot make the meetings on a Monday. This being said, I'm looking forward to being able to continue the networking opportunities.

I have been able to put the Police in touch with the Vicar at St Mary's Bridgwater, as the church falls right in the centre of the area where there is the most youth violence in the town and they're beginning to work on a plan.

For the Minister itself it has been an excellent working with Michelle Beck and Jenny Eastwell-Keogh at GoCreate over the town's hosting of the Knife Angel, and what a wonderful experience.

After a meeting where Paul Smith from Bridgwater and Taunton College said that they were looking for projects for some of their students to do, we have come up with a new children's tour of the Minster and a more modern version of our adult's guide and we're hopefully hoping to get these into lots of different languages as well.

One of the Minister’s aims is to be a resource for young people in the town and we are working to convert the old garages from the old vicarage into a space for young people, as always on ancient sites this is just not as easy as we would like it….But it will get built! We will then be able to offer all sorts of agencies that need its space in the very centre of the town - we are very aware of the need. Thank you.

Andrew Pritchard, Mind in Somerset and Connect Somerset

I remember this time last year, I actually zoomed in or teams then watching my son's cricket game, and was amazed that all the different people in the first meeting in the room. I remember we had the little work groups, the breakout rooms and just we were coming up with the different topics, the young people, highways, environment planning, enforcement, flooding, antisocial behaviour.

It's been a brilliant place to network. It's been a brilliant place to have conversations and I think conversations that we've wanted to have in the Taunton community, and it's given us given us that that space, all the different topics. I have to applaud the notes, Pippa, I know I said this earlier, but it just was a delight reading that and seeing all the different things that we've covered and a space for which people can come together.

What I want for the next year is that we can really try and reach out to some of those sceptics out there and say, come along, join us because it has been a space that we've been able to have conversations and I think that has set the pathway for how we can really make a difference in our community.

I hope that this can keep going from strength to strength and thank you to Dawn, John and Pippa and the team because you really have made that possible with everything you do in the background. So thank you.

Philip Durban – Bishops Lydeard Residents Action Group

My name is Philip Durban, I co chair a progressive residents action group in Bishops

Lydeard. Our objective is to engage with groups of residents in Bishops Lydeard to improve the social and environmental infrastructure of our village.

I attended the first Taunton LCN meeting and I was impressed by the action centred Chairing and leadership provided by Cllr Dawn Johnston.

The financial backdrop of local government has not been good over the last year, but despite this there has been a very positive engagement between the new, unitary Somerset Council, town & Parish councils and voluntary and community groups facilitated by the LCN structure.

This has been facilitated by the hard work of Dawn Johnson (Chair) and our lead officer Pippa Hughes.

LCN Young Peoples Group.

I was pleased to be invited to attend the Young Peoples Group by Cllr Bev Fernandes. I am a retired social work manager. Membership of this important group has allowed me to develop contacts that has resulted in direct benefits for children & young people in Bishops Lydeard.

We have a vibrant and hard working children & young peoples voluntary/arts sector here in Taunton. They provide a range of excellent services for young people and are looking for opportunities to extend and develop their services. In this context I have worked with Maxine Anderton (Edventure) & colleagues at Young Somerset to set up 2 engagement events in Bishops Lydeard to consult with young people about the sort of youth provision they need in our village. We hope this will lead to the establishment of new youth services.

Taunton and the surrounding area is benefiting from the development of new, skilled, youth service workforce through the work of Tash Scully (Somerset Spark).

We have been working with our primary school PTA to match fund an upgrade and

improvement of the school nursery class. By sharing details of this funding project in a Youth Group discussion, a helpful comment by Andrew Pritchard (Manager-Mind in Somerset) led me to a possible funding stream through the “Child Care Expansion Capital Grant” (DoE November 2023.

The benefits of the LCN Young People's Group are very clear and are having a direct impact in local communities.

Cllr Bev Fernandes, Chair, Taunton LCN Young Persons Working Group

This working group was set up following the meeting of the Taunton LCN in September 2023 where it became clear that whilst there were many groups working with young people there was a need to identify gaps in provision.

Since that date there have been several meetings of the Young Persons Working Group and I continue to be impressed with the enthusiasm and willingness of those who attend. The group provides the space to network, thereby sharing ideas and opportunities to share funding for projects to improve the lives of young people.

This is an excellent outcome for the Taunton LCN.

Tash Scully - Director, Somerset Youth Work Alliance

The CYP group networking led to better outcomes for young people. As workers knew more of what was available, they were able to support young people into opportunities that meet their needs. We are expanding this to colleagues outside of the network of providers, particularly our school colleagues, to come to an event on the 18^th June enabling them to build relationships with the variety of opportunities to support young people that they work with.

The next steps for the working group are to look at what is available and then look at where gaps are to bring back to the LCN to see if we can join up to secure funding for additional provision to further meet the needs of young people in Taunton area.