My friend and mentor Jeff Dunn, who has died aged 69 of prostate cancer, was a teacher who established and ran the Liverpool Schools’ Parliament, a forum that brings children together to debate issues that affect them.
The parliament has allowed hundreds of young people from the Merseyside area to work with decision-makers on political matters, and has led to some important changes – such as the establishment of Liverpool’s MyTicket initiative, a subsidised travel scheme for under-16s.
Meetings of the parliament are often held in the council chamber of Liverpool town hall, and Jeff also arranged for young people from low socioeconomic backgrounds to visit the European parliament and the international criminal court.
Jeff was born in Wheatley Hill, County Durham, to Bob, a school caretaker, and his wife, Lydia, who managed a bakery. He went to AJ Dawson grammar school in Co Durham and then completed a history degree at Liverpool University, before becoming a primary school teacher at Croxteth school in Liverpool in 1976.
After spells at Carr Lane and Broadgreen schools in the city, he joined Liverpool city council’s education department, where he came up with the idea of the Liverpool Schools’ Parliament. Once it was given the go-ahead, he became responsible for setting up and running it, and until his retirement in 2019 was its director.
He and I met in 2013, when I was a pupil taking part in the parliament’s deliberations, and I was immediately impressed by his commitment to giving young people a voice, engaging them in decision making and helping them to become informed citizens. He did this all while never sharing his opinions, instead encouraging those he worked with to form their own views.
Aside from his work with the council, in his spare time Jeff volunteered as a trustee of several charities, including the Michael Causer Foundation, a charity for young LGBT people.
Despite encouraging many young people to extraordinary heights, he usually remained in the background and his efforts often went unrecognised, although in 2020 he became a Citizen of Honour of the City of Liverpool.
His legacy lives on through all of the remarkable things that the children he inspired are now doing as adults.
He is survived by his sister, Glynis.
