Purpose

This report seeks to establish a new post of Apprentice Insight Officer in the Policy and Performance service. Local authorities are facing growing expectations from central government to meaningfully elevate children and young people’s voices into their decision-making processes. To put this into practice effectively, it is proposed that Knowsley Council creates an Apprentice Insight Officer who will support the development and delivery of the Child Participation Strategy, ensuring that there is capacity to support engagement, participation and co-production. The creation of an additional Apprentice post also supports longer term succession planning, by creating a pipeline of talent

Decision

The Director of Corporate Support in consultation with the Executive Director of Resources and Partnerships agrees:

(i)      To fund the establishment of an Apprentice Insight Officer to support the development of a Child Participation Strategy and to ensure that the voices of Knowsley children and young people are incorporated into strategy development across the Council and the Knowsley Better Together Partnership. This should be done by initially creating the following post:

a.    Apprentice Insight Officer, 1.0 FTE, grade B

Alternative options considered

None