This summer, Ofsted sought the views of a sample of children and young people in every local authority across the country through a survey called Tellus2. In Torbay, 641 children and young people from nine primary (11 classes) and four secondary schools (26 classes) took part in this survey.

The results of the Torbay survey indicate that:

•   Torbay children do generally enjoy school and see it as a priority to do well and have the same levels of aspiration as the rest of the country in terms of further education or employment.

•   Torbay pupils are generally happy living in Torbay and less troubled than others living in different parts of the UK, in respect of their futures.

•   Torbay children are in line with the national position regarding the healthy living message with good numbers eating healthily and taking regular exercise, although more can be done.

•   The majority of the children are satisfied with the health messages they received, with higher than national numbers happy with the quality of this information, especially on alcohol awareness.

•   Torbay does not have a nationally distinctive culture of drug or alcohol abuse but the messages from young people regarding this area are a reminder of the need for further concerted action.

•   Torbay does not have a nationally distinct problem with community safety.

•   Torbay reflects the national position in which the majority of young people feel that their views are not taken into consideration when decisions are made about the local area.

•   Worryingly a significant minority of children report that they have been the victims of bullying.

Cllr Anna Tolchard, Cabinet Member for Children's Services said: "In Torbay we aim to give every child the best possible start to life and help them to achieve the five 'Every Child Matters' outcomes. The views of children and young people are central to the services we provide and we aim to address all the issues that are of concern to them.

"In the past year alone we have made some very positive steps towards meeting our key priorities. The Cluster Teams are now up and running providing support, advice and information for children, young people and their families across the Bay. Local schools have also made significant achievements in the latest round of examination results demonstrating a massive improvement particularly at Key Stage 4."

The Children's Trust makes every effort to listen to the views of children and young people. Feelings over a lack of engagement are being addressed with a new and more ambitious plan. Youth conferences and schemes will be launched to tie in with the youth parliament and school councils, that will in turn feed into the decision making structure of the Children's Trust.

A new Participation Strategy is due to be launched at the all staff conference on Thursday 15 November which details how the partnership will engage children and young people. A group of young people called 'Engaged' have also produced a young people's version of the strategy to inform others how they can get involved and why it is important that they do.

Pioneering local work to monitor obesity suggests that this is only an issue for a minority of pupils. The partnership will continue to monitor this issue and offer support. Over 50 percent of Bay schools have achieved Healthy Schools Status which demonstrates an on-going commitment to the physical health and wellbeing of students in the Bay.

Safer Communities Torbay produced a successful campaign called Know the Code and this has raised the profile of alcohol awareness in the Bay. The campaign uses highly stylised graphics and is easily recognisable. The campaign has been extended to incorporate other messages including fire safety and anti-social behaviour. Young people indicate a good awareness of drug and alcohol issues demonstrating the Know the Code messages are working.

An anti-bullying roadshow is due to tour the Bay over 4 days (6-9 November) ahead of national Anti-Bullying Week 2007 (19-23 November) to demonstrate the negative impact of bullying to young people in years 6 and 8. The council is concerned about the significant minority of children for whom bullying is an issue and aims to do all it can to tackle this issue.

Children's safety concerns are amongst the issues being addressed by the partnership.