Youth Panel established to help increase confidence among young people

We have established a youth panel to find out how it can better engage with young people to increase their confidence in the police complaints system.

The panel, which held its first meeting in London on Saturday (24 March), will help to improve awareness of the IOPC among young people who we know, through research and feedback, have low confidence in the police complaints system and less understanding of our work.

Working with Leaders Unlocked, an organisation which provides young people with a stronger voice on issues that affect their lives, 24 people aged between 16 and 25 have been recruited from across England and Wales and attended on Saturday.

IOPC Director General Michael Lockwood said:

“This is an exciting opportunity for the youth panel to really inform how we improve awareness among young people and also to firmly establish their voice within the IOPC.

“It is vital we bring this group on-board so we can shape how we communicate with them and also ensure we are responsive to young people’s concerns.

“These young people will decide upon the values and mission of the panel themselves, meet regularly and ultimately report back with their findings towards the end of the year. I very much look forward to hearing and acting on their views.”

Director of Leaders Unlocked Rose Dowling said:

“We've worked proactively with grassroots organisations to recruit a highly motivated team of young adults from across England and Wales to join the IOPC Youth Panel.

“The Panel members are from very diverse backgrounds and localities, and they will bring different perspectives to the project, yet they are all united by a common goal to make a real difference to trust and confidence in the police complaints system. We are very excited to see what this Panel achieves over its pilot year."

The group is made up of representatives from among other places, Brighton, Newport, Birmingham, Dartford, Liverpool and Blackburn will record a digital diary during the course of the year documenting their developments.