Children are the Future

It was an absolute pleasure listening to the young students of South Park Primary School. Working in Redbridge and having been involved in engagement meetings, it was great to hear what the younger generation think about our local area.

The event started with a video of the children answering questions like “What neighbourhoods mean to them”, “What they think is bad about the area” and “What they like about the neighbourhood”.

It was great to get such a deep insight into understanding what children have to say about living in Redbridge. The children raised issues such as flytipping, dog fouling, homelessness, temporary accommodation and anti-social behaviour. I believe these are things that Redbridge Council, residents and organisations need to work together to develop solutions for to make our Borough safer and cleaner, as well as a community our future generations can be proud to call home.

Children need to have more of a voice in our local area. It is what they want. During the talk, the students raised the idea of having elderly and younger residents coming together in local community centres to find solutions to local issues. This was something that was really thought provoking. Children bring creativity, fresh ideas and an entirely different perspective to how they view Redbridge. There is a lot of work the Council and other local organisations could potentially do to engage with the younger generation. On the back of this event, the scrutiny team are already working with the school to engage our youngest residents more.

It is clear that children are well aware of most of the issues we face as a borough. They also look at resolving them with optimism and creativity. With this in mind, we need to continue to educate the younger generation of local issues and engage with schools across the borough to develop solutions.