Newham Council is partnering with the Recorder until March 2022 to celebrate Year of the Young Person - marking the achievements of young people and highlighting the services and support aimed at them.

Newham Council is working with the Metropolitan Police, schools and colleges in the borough to deliver a series of youth safety initiatives.

The council said it is committed to working together with its partners, which include the police and schools, to improve safety for children and young people who live, work or study in Newham.

At the end of last year, the council launched its youth safety schools offer in partnership with the police.

The offer included a range of youth safety workshops that are being delivered in Newham’s schools and colleges by a variety of professionals including the police, the Royal Navy, the Royal London trauma centre and the British Army.

Since launching this initiative, the council said more than 40 workshops have been requested by schools and colleges, with topics including knife crime, gang awareness and gender-based violence.

Alongside these workshops, school ward panels made up of students, school staff and the police, are being rolled out across Newham’s secondary schools and colleges.

They have representatives from children and young people across all year groups and seek to ensure that communities are represented.

The panels, which meet every term, give children and young people the opportunity to have an open conversation with the police and voice their concerns in a safe environment.

Sgt Rob Sewell, of Newham’s safer schools team, said: “The panel idea, which was first trialled successfully at New Vic Sixth Form College, has increased student confidence in policing.

“These panels are intended to model how young people can continue to engage with police in adult life through safer neighbourhood panels.

“The panels adopt a ’you said, we did’ approach, giving children and young people the opportunity to hold the police and other professionals to account on matters they have raised.

“The feedback we have had is that they feel that they are being listened to."

These initiatives aim to empower and better inform students and young people about youth safety, the council added.

A spokesperson said: "They also provide a great opportunity for children and young people to influence decision-making and achieve change in the areas that matter to them."