Medway Council’s Young Commissioners are celebrating after being presented with an award of excellence for their work for young people.

The group of commissioners, who act as a voice for young people in Medway and dedicated their time to helping improve and develop the services offered to young people in Medway, have been awarded with a Diana Certificate of Excellence for their work. The young commissioners were presented with the award by the Children’s Commissioner Maggie Atkinson, who later tweeted

'Great meeting with Medway Young Commissioners. They are properly consulted by their borough and have real influence.  Awesome youngsters!'

The Diana Certificate of Excellence recognises the outstanding contribution of young people, aged 12 to 18 years old, work together to improve their communities, organisations or schools.

The group supports the work of the Medway Children’s Trust and since forming in 2009, they have helped develop educational packs on homelessness, given their views on marketing literature targeted at young people and helped shape services such as student health in schools, career advice and school improvement.

Medway Council’s Portfolio holder for Children’s Services Cllr Les Wicks, said: "The work of our Young Commissioners in helping to shape the services we provide and letting us know how we can help them is invaluable.

"They are a dedicated and inspirational set of young people and their involvement means they can have more ownership and responsibility in forming the services that will benefit them. I'd like to thank them for their hard work and enthusiasm and congratulate them on this well deserved award."

Maggie Turner, Chief Executive of the Diana Award, said: “The Diana Certificate of Excellence is for young people who make a positive change within their communities or schools. It identifies young role models that challenge negative stereotypes of young people, and encourages them to develop their full potential.”