The Wakefield District Partnership have been piloting a number of events to engage young people in the work of the Partnership. Building on approaches agreed as part of its engagement framework the Partnership has been keen to put young people in charge by giving them the opportunity to research and raise issues with partners in different forums.

Rather than relying on traditional means of engagement the Partnership has looked at a range of ways that would encourage young people to play a more active part in decisions and plans that affect their future. This has included supporting the UK Youth Parliament election process which in 2004 was undertaken using internet voting for the first time. In December 2004 young people in the District organised and facilitated a Question Time event which enabled young people from across the District to ask questions and put a panel of key decision makers from the Police, Council, Primary Care Trusts, Groundwork Wakefield and Wakefield College on the spot.

The event, which was based on the TV programme hosted by David Dimbleby,was held to enable the young people who are part of a newly formed Group called Wakies Watch,to directly question the panel on issues that have been raised from across the District as part of the Group's work in consulting with their peers. A video made by the young people was shown to the audience before the ‘Question Time’ session commenced.

The event was hosted by the Managing Director of the Campaign Company, based in Croydon,who has worked with young people across the District in the development of the Partnership’s Community Strategy – Fast Forward. Some of the areas covered by the questions included issues around Neighbourhood Patrollers, drugs/alcohol abuse and young people in foster care.

The event was a success and details of the issues raised and output from the research they had undertaken is being fed into the Partnerships plans. Wakies Watch will continue to provide a youth forum for the Partnership and a means of providing more reliable input from young people. The group are now concentrating their efforts to inform the Partnership about issues around Sex Education, Neighbourhood Patrollers and Public Transport. They have been invited to give a presentation to a school governors’ training session,and are to meet representatives of public transport provider Metro. The Council’s Chief Executive has already addressed some of the issues around Neighbourhood Action patrollers.

In addition, the Thematic Partnerships of the Wakefield District Partnership, have been asked to improve their Joint Action Plans, which are being reviewed as part of the Community Strategy, to ensure that the issues raised are addressed. Funding for work with young people on specific projects will also be considered from the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.

During the Local Democracy Week in October 2004 the Partnership also supported a Speed Debating Event involving Young People,based on the concept of Speed Dating. All secondary schools across the district were invited to participate in the event which was designed to engage young people in the democratic process and the role of local government. Fifteen fast-talking students went head to head with local politicians and partners with each of them having four minutes to quiz one before moving along to the next one.

Whilst the debating was taking place workshops ran alongside, looking at what young people thought the Partnership should be doing for them.