Safety allows children and young people the freedom to experiment, succeed, fail, grow, learn resilience and their personal preferences. It gives a sense of connection to community and place, and allows them to focus on their own lives.

Safety can be physical and psychological and one of our first year challenges will be to find ways to understand, create and support safe spaces. This is essential from a young age. Spaces where children can be seen and heard, respecting the fun, joy and freedom of early childhood, and allowing for the experimentation of teenage years, not just preparing mini-adults. 

These following acts of leadership are our commitments this year:

• Alongside children and young people, we will produce a blueprint of what they perceive are the essential components of safe spaces thatprovides them with information and advocacy to access support, notably in schools, the community and public places:

• We will develop a programme of mentors and buddies, giving young people access to supportive adults - allies - in a range of spaces:

• We will create an Ipswich “Urban Room” at Suffolk New College for young people to debate and shape their community:

• We will create a programme of organisations visiting schools and colleges to make children and young people aware of safe and enriching spaces and  opportunities across Ipswich:

• We will seek funding and establish methodology for longitudinal research to sit alongside our 25 year strategy to measure our progress against the proposed "Ipswich Connected Life Model"