Barnet Children and Young People Plan

Vision to be a family friendly London borough

A place where children and young people excel and enjoy living

Barnet has a large and growing number of children, young people and families and we want to make sure the borough is an excellent place to live for children and their families.

Working together with the children and young people and our partners (voluntary community sector, police, education & health services) we have developed a new Children and Young People’s Plan 2019 to 2023 

Our approach supplements the ambition to be the most ‘Family Friendly Borough’ by 2020’ and has been formed with young people at the heart of conversations to drive out the best outcomes.

This will enable Barnet Council, its partners and young people to work in a more responsive and empowering way to ensure our young people lead happy and fulfilling lives.

Key outcomes supporting our aspiration of a Family Friendly Barnet include a series of mental health initiatives to support children and young people, enhanced plans to prevent young people from getting involved in violence, crime and anti-social behaviour as well as increasing schools in Barnet that are good or outstanding. 

About this plan

The plan captures the priorities, needs and aspirations of the local population and sets out how, together, we can make Barnet an enjoyable place for children and families to live. 

The plan sets out 7 key outcomes for children and young people:

• Safe and secure, children and young people are safe and protected from harm
• Family and belonging, families and children can be together and part of a community that encourages resilience
• Health and wellbeing, children are supported to achieve a healthy start in life, enjoy a healthy lifestyle and to build resilience
• Education and learning, children and young people can learn about the world around them
• Culture, our attitudes and behaviours enhance the way we work with children and young people
• Cooperation and leadership, we include children and young people in decision making
• Communication, information is shared effectively to children, young people and families across the borough

These outcomes act as a framework to make our vision a reality. 

Our Plan continues our focus on increasing resilience, helping families to help themselves. It outlines how we will work together to provide efficient, high quality and best value services.

Regular reports on each outcome will be presented to the Children’s Partnership Board throughout the year for review and scrutiny. These will highlight progress towards our objectives.

Children and young people demographics in Barnet

Barnet is part of a successful and thriving London economy and has the largest population of any borough:

• the population of Barnet is estimated to be 394,000, which is the largest of all the London boroughs
• 98,900 children and young people aged 0-19 remains the second largest in London and this group makes up a quarter of the borough’s overall population
• the borough’s overall population is projected to increase by approximately 6% between 2018 and 2030 taking the number of residents to approximately 419,200