NOTTINGHAM CITIZENS: SPRING ROUND-UP

Welcome to the Nottingham Citizens Spring round-up.

Below you'll find updates on;

• Young People's Manifesto
• Fair Work & Mental Health
• General Election strategy
• Training opportunities
• Membership updates

Young People's Manifesto

Congratulations to the many, many young people from across Nottinghamshire who participated in our #YPManifesto23 campaign these past 6 months. Together, they listened to thousands of their fellow young people and organised a manifesto to take to political candidates ahead of this month's local elections. Focusing on Mental Health, Cost of Living and Safety, they did public business with politicians and secured commitments around their proposals for change at our 19th April Pre-Election Accountability Assembly.

Some notable wins include commitments to;

• work with Multi Academy Trusts in the city and build a cost-of-living action plan to  poverty-proof our schools
• ensure all community schools have a named senior leader for mental health and wellbeing
• actively support the Citizens UK campaign calling for mandatory schools-based counselling
• prioritise a school-travel safety campaign for 2023.24
• work with Nottingham City Transport to better understand young people's experiences of feeling unsafe on public transport and put an action plan together

Congratulations to Cllr David Mellen who has since been confirmed as the leader of Nottingham City Council for the next electoral term. Our young people look forward to meeting with him in the coming weeks to develop the relationship and to progress these and other commitments made on the night.

Fair Work 

With thanks to Rosa Waddingham (Chief Nurse, Nottinghamshire NHS Integrated Care Board) for working with us to initiate a new system-wide real Living Wage action team. Starting with an initial meeting of partners on the 8th June, this team will work to build a plan to ensure that every worker within the system is paid at least the real Living Wage.

Other successes we celebrated at our April 19th assembly included Greenwood Academies Trust (GAT) decision to be the first Multi Academy Trust in the country to apply for Living Wage accreditation. They recently uplifted almost 700 employees to the RLW and are working towards their accreditation which will ensure all third party contracts are paid at the RLW rate, as well as a commitment to the annual rate rise. Congratulations GAT!

We are also delighted to announce that long-term target Nottingham Forest are now recruiting for match-day roles at the RLW rate. Stay tuned for our celebration video...

Mental Health

Conversations with senior leaders at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust are ongoing as we work together to improve the patient and carer journey. In response to our policy intervention proposals, to date the Trust have;

- formed a Mental Capacity Act steering group to look at improving the use of advanced statements

- worked on ensuring carer awareness training is an essential part of clinician training

- implemented a check-list to ensure improvements to patient information transfer, and agreed to auditing this

We continue to work on interventions such as a named family liaison for patients loved ones and an easy process for communication, as well as discussions around collecting the views of carers upon discharge to chart progress.

General Election (GE) strategy

The presence of permanently rooted city-wide alliances, like Nottingham Citizens, allow us to take action on local issues as they arise. We also know that many of the deep systemic problems we face locally ultimately require a national fix. Therefore, next year's GE gives Citizens UK, with our 18 chapters and almost 600 member organisations, an ideal opportunity to build the power we need to make the change on issues that affect communities across the UK. 

As Nottingham Citizens, we will be playing our part. Together, we want to;

1) unite around an emerging Citizens UK manifesto. We are particularly focusing on elements of the manifesto where there is local energy;

• Migration Justice. We'll be hosting an initial conversation on Thursday 6th July, 18.00 to bring together people who want to take action around the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers on both a local and national level. This gathering is for allies, and those directly affected by migration justice issues. For more information and to register click HERE
• A Real Living Wage in social care. Building on our ongoing local action, we'll be supporting a national push to demand dignity in the pay packets of care workers. Speak to Pete to find out more.
• Racial justice in education. Building on our own work locally which has been pushing on teacher training and improved BAME representation across the education sector, we've teamed up with several other chapters to build a UK-wide campaign. Speak to Heidi to get involved.

Other areas of focus, such as Climate Justice and Schools-Based Counselling, are being championed by other chapters, with opportunities for Nottingham leaders to engage should they wish.

2) Meet with MP's and parliamentary candidates in 6 Notts constituencies between now and the election - Nottingham North, Nottingham South, Nottingham East, Gedling, Rushcliffe and Broxtowe. We'll be looking for local leaders to join us in hosting fun, creative actions to help us build relationships with politicians and bring the Citizens UK agenda for change to them.

3) Voter registration;

• we will support every organisation in our membership to build a voter registration plan for the GE. We are running a 'Learning Thursday' on voter reg' on Thursday 29th June, 16.00. Sign-up for information HERE
• Citizens UK have developed a '100% registered' accreditation which will equip organisations to build a plan to ensure everyone in their institution is registered to vote. This also provides a great opportunity to talk about the issues at stake in the election and to engage people in both local and national Citizens UK campaigns.

Community Organising Training

There are many opportunities both locally and through Citizens UK nationally for people to be equipped with the tools they need to take action on the injustices in their communities;

• with the General Election in mind, throughout the summer we'll be running 'Learning Thursday' sessions (16.00-17.30) equipping local leaders to participate in voter registration, voter ID and MP engagement. Register HERE for regular updates on how to access these sessions, which are also available to non-member organisations. 
• Citizens UK 3 and 6 day National Training opportunities are coming up in the autumn. Contact an organiser for dates and costs (heavily subsidised for member organisations)
• Our next 1 day 'Introduction to community organising' will be on Saturday 21st October. Info and registration HERE

Membership Updates

Finally, a big Nottingham Citizens welcome to three new member organisations who have joined in recent weeks. Welcome to Nottingham College who join our alliance with a desire to invest in the leadership development of their young people and staff, as well as a passion to engage the college in social justice work beyond the walls of their campuses.

In a similar vein, we welcome Bluecoat Academy (Aspley) into the alliance and look forward to developing youth leadership across the school and engaging your young people in our local and national campaigning. 

Lastly, we are also delighted to welcome the Nottingham Student Partnership into the Citizens UK family. This unique new collaboration between NTU SU and UoN SU will be a platform for the Nottingham student body as a whole, increasing their involvement in decision-making in the wider city. We'll be working alongside their part-time student organisers who will be active in student residential areas, using the tools of community organising to work with local people for change.