Agenda item - Power of Youth Charter

Report of the Executive Director Families Children & Learning (copy attached)

RESOLVED: That the Committee

(i)             Noted the purpose of the Charter and agreed to sign up to this on behalf of the Council;

(ii)            Agreed to regularly monitor progress made towards actions it would take to deliver on the Charter commitments;

(iii)          Agreed to Councillors being invited to mentor young people wanting to learn how to be more involved in local politics and offer opportunities to shadow them where appropriate.

59.1    The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director Families Children & Learning regarding the Power of Youth Charter. The report was introduced by the Integrated Team for Families Manager and was accompanied by Ben Skinner and Louise Brown who are members of the Youth Council and who explained why they felt the Charter was important. The Committee were advised that the word ‘appropriate’ was missing from the end of Recommendation 2.3.

59.2    Councillor Lloyd said he supported the initiative to mentor young people and felt that it would be beneficial to all parties.

59.3    Councillor Allcock said he was in favour of mentoring and asked Louise and Ben whether they felt young people would want to have some input into other Committee run by the Council, and how people from disadvantaged backgrounds could be included more. Louise said that many children were interested in politics and suggested that going into schools to speak to pupils to talk about youth participation, and publishing information on social media would be useful. Young People would be interested in joining all the committees. Ben agreed and said that it was important to bridge the gap between the Youth Council and the Council, and more information on the Council’s website would be very useful.

59.4    Councillor Hills also supported the idea of mentoring and said that it would be beneficial to everyone to have young people’s voices heard when decisions were being made at committee meetings. It was important to encourage as many children to be involved and asked what social media platform would be best to use. Ben suggested that all social media platforms could be used, but many young people used Instagram and noted that the Youth Parliament had an Instagram page.

59.5    Councillor McNair said he would be happy to mentor a young person.

59.6    Mr Muirhead said that the voluntary youth sector full supported the Power of Youth Charter and meaningful engagement with young people would have lasting gains for everyone in the City.

59.7    RESOLVED: That the Committee

(i)             Noted the purpose of the Charter and agreed to sign up to this on behalf of the Council;

(ii)            Agreed to regularly monitor progress made towards actions it would take to deliver on the Charter commitments;

(iii)          Agreed to Councillors being invited to mentor young people wanting to learn how to be more involved in local politics and offer opportunities to shadow them where appropriate.