Agenda and minutes

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

There were no declarations of interest made at the meeting.

The Minutes of the last meeting held on 13 October are attached

It was agreed:

That the Minutes of the last meeting held on 13^th October 2016 be approved as a correct record.

Radcliffe Skate Park

Heather informed the cabinet that Councillor Walker had met with the youths involved in the skate park renovation.

Heather will report at the meeting

Kathleen from Community at Services Pennine Care NHS Trust attended the meeting with updates on the NHS school nursing app. It was explained that the app would include information regarding Health and Wellbeing issues or any things you might have to ask a school nurse. Designs had been submitted from young people across the area.

The best features of the designs submitted were collated into three final app designs. Kathleen informed the cabinet of the removal of any red crosses from any of the final app designs. This was down to copyright infringement laws. The red cross also symbolises hospitals, and the idea of the app was to move away from the thought of hospitals.

The cabinet were presented with plans of the three designs and asked to give their feelings on all three; which design they preferred, what aspects of each they liked, and what improvements could be made to each if any.

The Cabinet thought that Option 1 was good for its bold text and its straightforward look. Cabinet members thought the clinical look of the design was appealing.

Option 2 was liked for its bright colours and its attraction for younger audiences. The images used for icons proved popular as they were clear and the cabinet knew what they would represent.

Option 3 looked most suited to the age group it was targeting. Cabinet thought that its bright colours for logos stood out and the layout of the website was good for younger children too. Some comments were made of the colour scheme being maybe too childish, but the cabinet were made aware of the colour scheme again.

The cabinet were then asked to vote on which scheme they preferred. The results are as follows:

Option 1: 2 votes

Option 2: 4 votes

Option 3: 7 votes

Kathleen asked the cabinet for any amendments which could be made to the selected design. The cabinet suggested perhaps changing the “P” in the title of the app so it stands out from its background.

Another alteration the cabinet suggested was straightening the icons out instead of having them overlap each other.

It was also suggested there be an icon containing a boy and a girl who could possibly lead to a page on relationship advice.

Councillor Cathcart reported to the cabinet that the service he works for, Early break, are making an app which is targeting children years 5 and onwards. The aim of the app is to identify how the user is feeling and how they could potentially be helped in their emotional wellbeing. The app should hopefully recognise the mood of the user and show them how they can calm down.

Councillor Cathcart presented the cabinet with a document containing potential names of the app and wanted the help of cabinet in picking one.

The members of the Cabinet agreed that they weren’t really keen on any of the suggestions set out and thought that Let’s Emotify would be better than Let’s Moodify.

New suggestions made by cabinet were also welcomed.

Cabinet came up with suggestions such as “Do You Get Me?” and “M.E - my emotions”.   

Heather will report at the meeting

Circles of influence is a conference held every year where the young people of the area gather to discuss the biggest issues facing them today. Cabinet were presented with the key themes outlined in the conference and asked to pick the biggest issues facing youths today and asked how they would combat it. The issues outlined were:

1. Young people feel that they leave school without the necessary skills to succeed in life
2. Young people feel that they are not getting the right help at the right time. There is a feeling that situations are left to escalate before professionals intervene.
3. Young people feel that racist bullying is the most common type of bullying
4. Many young people are struggling to manage stress and have a negative sense of self
5. Young people feel waiting times and waiting lists for health services are unacceptably long
6. Many young people have never seen their school nurse and do not know how to contact them or what services they offer
7. Young people want to access people for help and advice and do not want to e reliant on websites
8. Health services need to be in a safe, comfortable space where young people do not feel judged
9. Young people are concerned about the negative stereotypes associated with them
10. Some young people found the circle discussions tiresome
11. Young people want assurance that professionals will respond appropriately to their issues, ideas, and suggestions

The cabinet split into groups to discuss and decide which the biggest issue of the previous was and how to deal with it.

Group 1 believed issue 4 was the biggest issue facing the young people of Bury. This was because all of the list can come from having a negative self worth. The group believed it is difficult to combat the issues, because they believe learning about how to deal with stress could make one more stressed.

Group 2 believed number 1 was the biggest issue. They believed that in their SRE lessons they do not learn of skills which are needed to make the youngsters more independent. These skills such as washing, cooking and paying bills are all wanted so they can learn to be less reliant on parents. They believed 1 lesson a month could help with maturity and independence.

Molly reported to the cabinet that when she was last at Youthforia, she was shocked to learn that SRE wasn’t mandatory on a school’s curriculum. Bilal told the cabinet that some MPs were pushing to make it mandatory on every school’s curriculum.

Councillor Keeley will introduce the debate.

The members present debated this topic. Opening speeches were made and arguments for and against were discussed.  After the debate those present were asked to vote and it was agreed that the House of Lords should not have elected members.

The next meeting of the Youth Cabinet will be held on Wednesday 15 February 2017 from 5pm at the Town Hall.

It was reported that the next meeting of the Youth Cabinet would be held on Wednesday 15 February 2017.