Don’t talk about me without me!
Oxfordshire County Council’s Education and Young People (EYP) Overview & Scrutiny Committee is looking for two young people to sit as members of the Committee to bring their own particular insight and expertise.
If you are aged 25 or under and either live in Oxfordshire or work for an Oxfordshire-based organisation representing or supporting young people and would like the chance to make a real impact, we would love to hear from you.
The Committee is made up of backbench councillors (i.e., not members of Cabinet who run the Council) and six non-councillors who meet at County Hall, Oxford, to receive reports and presentations and ask questions of decision-makers with a view to making improving services. After scrutinising the reports, the Committee can make recommendations to the decision-makers suggesting what changes could be made. The decision-makers are then legally required to respond and to explain their response. There are five main scrutiny committees and EYP looks at the following areas:
- All services and preventative activities/initiatives relating to children, young people, education (including Home to School Transport and Special Educational Needs and Disability), and support of families
- The Council’s statutory functions in relation to children’s social care and safeguarding. This includes public health as they relate to children and young people where they are not covered by the Joint Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee
- Matters relating to care leavers and the transition between children’s and adult services
- The welfare of unaccompanied young asylum seekers
- Services for Young Carers. As you can see, the Committee covers a vast range of things that directly affect you. The Committee will probably meet five times during from June 2024 to May 2025, generally on a Friday morning for about three hours. How to apply Those applying should be able to demonstrate that they have
- Some understanding of the Oxfordshire education system
- The ability to take a view on how children’s and education services affect the whole of Oxfordshire
- Willingness to undertake training
- Willingness to undergo a DBS check, if aged 16 or over, or provide one undertaken in the last 12 months, to sign a Register of Interests, and to abide by relevant aspects of the Council’s Members’ Code of Conduct
- Not be a councillor at any level or an MP.
If working with councillors to make services the best they can be for you and for your contemporaries appeals, please email scrutiny@oxfordshire.gov.uk by 13 May 2024 setting out in no more than one side of A4 why you’d like to be involved and what you feel you can bring to the table. If you are shortlisted, you will be invited to have a conversation with a small group of those already involved.
Oxfordshire County Council welcomes applications for volunteering opportunities from all sections of the community. All applicants are equally valued regardless of their gender, age, disabilities, race, ethnic origin, language, religion, sexual orientation or whether they are a caregiver. Following the Council’s recruitment policies for paid employees, we guarantee an interview for disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role. We also guarantee interviews to care leavers who meet the essential criteria for the role. We are also committed to helping and supporting those transitioning from HM Armed Forces to civilian life and guarantee an interview for those demonstrating the essential criteria for the role, within three years of leaving the service.
If you’d like any further information, please email scrutiny@oxfordshire.gov.uk or telephone Richard Doney, Scrutiny Officer, on 07745 210056