Agenda and minutes

Those present were welcomed to the meeting and asked to introduce themselves.

Councillor Members of the Youth Cabinet are asked to consider whether they have an interest in any of the matters on the agenda and, if so, to formally declare that interest. 

There were no interests declared at the meeting.

The Minutes of the Last Meeting held on 12 December are attached.

It was agreed:

That the Minutes of the last meeting held on 12 December 2014 be approved as a correct record

Lizzie Cooke explained that the initial concept of the Youth Market had been to provide entrepreneurial skills to young people by giving them the opportunity to produce and sell goods. Barclays Bank had been approached and were offering training for the groups involved.

The dates that Barclays have offered were 25 March and 2 April to be held at Bolton Business Group at the bottom of Walmersley Road

There had been a number of discussions in relation to the venue of the markets. The Fusiliers’ Museum was an option that was now being considered and Heather would be contacting licensing with regard to any licence requirements.

It was also explained that there had been discussions that the event could be some sort of a youth festival.

The Cabinet were asked to decide whether they wanted to continue with the Youth Market or expand to a Youth Festival.

It was agreed:

1.                That the Youth Cabinet would support a Youth Market event.

2.                That Cara would organise the training in conjunction with Barclays and Bolton Business Group.

It was explained that the Circles of Influence were two events for young people to attend (Primary and Secondary schools age) to discuss provision of services for young people in Bury.

The next Circles of Influence events were in the process of being arranged and those present were asked how the topics the be discussed should be decided and how promotion of the events should be carried out.

It was suggested that school governors should be invited to comment, a representative could attend school assemblies, colleges and youth clubs to promote the events.

Suggestion boxes could be placed in schools asking for suggestions on what should be discussed and all of the members of Youth Cabinet would be asked to speak with their friends about issues concerning young people.

The Participation Strategy is attached.

It was reported that the Children’s Trust Boards Participation Strategy was in the process of being refreshed.

The current Strategy was attached to the agenda to show the Youth Cabinet how it looked and what it contained.

A number of questions were asked:-

• What is the best way to include young people in developing the Participation Strategy?
• How do we ensure that young people are happy with the strategy?

Those present were asked to break into groups and discuss how the strategy should be developed and the following points were raised:-

India commented that the Children’s Trust attended every Youth Cabinet Meeting to give an update and questioned whether this was required.

Councillor Jones referred to the Strategy that was attached and stated that this wasn’t broken and was a good starting point for the refreshed document.

Jamie Walker asked how the Board would engage with the generic person rather that somebody that had a label. Not everybody was part of a group and they shouldn’t be excluded.

Heather reported that there were currently a lot of changes ongoing within the Health Service.

Healthwatch Bury was a new organisation that represents the patients and as such this would include young people. Healthwatch Bury had asked that they be given the opportunity to talk with young people and the Youth Cabinet and explain the work that they do.

It was also reported that the Clinical Commissioning Group were also looking to start a conversation with young people about the services that they commission.

All of the young people present were asked to decide whether they felt the age at which you can vote should be lowered from 18 to 16.

A debate then took place with a vote at the end and the majority agreed that the voting age should be lowered.

A further debate took place around the issue of whether voting should be compulsory.

The young people debated the issue and voted at the end. 100% of the young people agreed that voting should not be compulsory.

Heather referred to the debates and asked whether this should be an item on each agenda with a different topic being discussed.

It was agreed

1.                That a debate take place at each meeting of the Youth Cabinet.

2.                That where possible the Youth Cabinet meetings will take place in the Council Chamber.

The young people were asked what topics they would like to debate in the future and the following suggestions were put forward:-

• Euthanasia
• Capital punishment
• The death penalty
• Whether young people get enough say in the big decisions in their lives
• Media
• Abortion
• 10 hour school day
• Religious issues in society
• Homophobia
• Sexism
• Discrimination
• Legal drinking age
• Legalising cannabis
• Plastic Surgery on the NHS

It was explained that at the next Youth Cabinet meeting on 3 April 2014 a new Chair and Vice Chair would be elected. Heather asked the current Chair, Tom Sharman to explain the role of Chair so that those present could decide whether they would like to stand.

A question was raised as to the eligibility of the young people and a discussion was had in relation to this.

The discussion was whether the current Chair should be allowed to stand for a further term?

How was the Vice Chair elected?

It was agreed:

1.                That the current Chair should not be eligible to stand.

2.                That the Vice Chair should be the candidate with the 2^nd highest number of votes.

It was reported that the 2014 Walking Rainbow would be taking place on 13 July 2014. All those joining the walk should meet outside the Town Hall by 1pm on that date.