Agenda and minutes

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Items
No. Item

YC.2

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Minutes:

No interests were declared at the Meeting.

YC.3

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 59 KB

Minutes:

It was agreed:

 

That the Minutes of the last meeting held on 7 June be approved.

YC.4

MATTERS ARISING

Minutes:

There were no matters arising

YC.7

MAKE YOUR MARK

Minutes:

It was reported that the UK Youth Parliament's Make Your Mark Campaign gives a unique opportunity to reach out to young people who go on to be opinion formers and leaders of the future. This year, through school, online and through our grassroots the UKYP will be reaching out to young people once again. Last year young people from every corner of the country took part in the annual Make Your Mark ballot.  

 

The ballot will decide what Members of the UK Youth Parliament should debate and vote on to be their campaign for in 2019. The debate will take place in November 2018 within the House of Commons. The 5 most popular topics will be debated.

 

It was explained that schools were being invited to part in the voting process so that as many young people as possible were encouraged to have their say.

 

Those present were asked to come up with ideas to promote the consultation and the following suggestions were made:

 

·         Holding and event at The Rock.

·         Promote at school open evenings

·         Ask School Council’s to get involved

·         Promote at the Careers Fair

·         Ask Executive Director to request schools’ to take part

·         Hold School assemblies

YC.14

C4L Meetings

Minutes:

Numair reported that the meeting had now been postponed until November 2018.

YC.6

UKYP

The United Kingdom Youth Parliament (UKYP) is an elected group of young people from all over the country who campaign for positive change for young people. They meet locally, regionally and nationally with each other and with politicians and other decision makers. In Bury we have one member (MYP) and two deputy members of Youth Parliament (DMYPs) who represent the voice of young people across Bury. Bury Integrated Youth Support Service supports Bury’s member and deputy members of Youth Parliament to attend all meetings, providing transport, youth work support and covering all costs.

 

We hold an election every two years and the next election is on Thursday January 31st. Anyone who is 11-17 who lives or studies in Bury is eligible to stand. We will be hosting an information session on Friday 12th October 4pm-6pm at The New Kershaw Centre, Deal Street, Bury. All young people wishing to stand as candidates must attend this session.

 

 

Minutes:

It was explained that the election for the United Kingdom Youth Parliament would be taking place in January 2019. This would give 3 young people aged 11 to 17 who live or study  the opportunity to stand for election to become the Bury Member of Youth Parliament (MYP) or one of their two deputies.

 

There would be a commitment which would include some weekends and evening working with local youth democracy groups in Bury and the Youth Cabinet as well supporting the work of the UK Youth Parliament locally and nationally.

 

The locally elected MYP will also attend a debate in the House of Commons in London.

 

It was explained that an information event was due to be held for anybody who was interested in the roles and all those who wished to be considered would be entered into the election process which would take place at school, colleges and other sites across the borough.

YC.8

GREATER MANCHESTER YOUTH COMBINED AUTHORITY FEEDBACK

Numair and Beth will give an update at the meeting

Minutes:

It was explained that the Greater Manchester Youth Combined Authority comprises of 40 young people representing 20 youth groups across Greater Manchester with half representing local Youth Councils/Cabinets and the other half representing youth organisations.

 

The YCA is supported by Youth Focus North West and the youth led Xplode Magazine and works alongside Andy Burnham the Mayor of Greater Manchester.

 

It was reported that the YCA consists of a number of working groups which have been established to bring projects to life. There were currently two working groups: Curriculum for life and Health and these meet monthly.

YC.9

WORK EXPERIENCE SELECT COMMITTEE - GMYCA

Beth will report at the meeting

Minutes:

Bethany reported that she had attended a GM Youth Combined Authority Select Committee which had been arranged to discuss work experience.

 

The Committee was in the process of producing a report following the work they had carried out and it would include a recommendation that it should be compulsory for schools to offer work experience.

 

Councillor Jones suggested that when the report was completed it should be shared with James Frith MP as well the Youth Cabinet.

 

Paul Delbridge-Smith confirmed that he would be more than happy to use it as a starting point for conversations with schools and that the Leader of the Council, Councillor Shori would want to review any recommendations made.

 

It was also suggested that School Councils’ could take this issue forward as a piece of work in each school to find out what young people would want from work experience.

 

It was reported that the next meeting of the Select Committee would be reviewing Curriculum for Life provision.

 

It was agreed:

 

That the final report in relation to work experience would be discussed at a future meeting of Youth Cabinet.

YC.10

circles of influence - feedback

Minutes:

It was reported that the Circles of Influence event had been held on 3 July 2018.

 

Each school taking part had been invited to send 5 young people to the event but some schools and had sent more and some less.

 

It was also explained that 13 professional who were due to attend hadn’t turned up on the day so the planned events had to be changed.

 

Councillor Jones explained that he had attended the event along with Ivan Lewis, MP for Bury South. They had both really enjoyed the event.

 

It was suggested that School Councils’ could be consulted in the run up to the event next year to see what issues are concerning young people and to ensure that the event was representative of young people in the borough.

YC.11

UPDATE ON YOUTHFORIA/YOUTH PARLIAMENT

Minutes:

Viktoria explained that she had attended a Youthforia event on 9 September in Blackburn where Ofsted had attended to take part in a question and answer session.

 

Viktoria also reported that United Utilities had been working with Youthforia on their reservoir safety campaign to highlight the dangers of swimming in reservoirs in warm weather. There had been a consultation exercise to ask how United Utilities could promote water safety.

 

It was suggested that the RNLI could team up with United Utilities to carry out joint working in this area.

YC.14

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION INTERVIEW RESULTS

Minutes:

It was explained that the recruitment process for Assistant Director of Education and Inclusion had taken place in early July. As part of the interview process a number of young people had been invited to make up a panel to interview the candidates.

 

The successful candidate was reported as being Paul Delbridge – Smith who was in attendance at the meeting.

 

Paul introduced himself and explained he had been in post for 6 weeks. During this time he had visited 17 schools that were either outstanding or under achieving and had plans to visit all schools across the Borough.

 

Paul explained that one area of his work was producing the Education Transformation Strategy and he would be engaging with young people about this to ensure that the young people of Bury have inclusive education and the best life chances.

 

Paul will be promoting respect, tolerance and diversity across all schools and will be working with governors.

 

Other areas that he would be concentrating on would be reducing exclusions, NEET and out of borough placements.

 

Paul stated that he would be able to push messages from Youth Cabinet through his bulletins to schools and one to one meetings that he will have with head teachers.

 

A piece of work will be taking place to update the SEND Strategy and this is something that Paul will be asking the Youth Cabinet to take part in.

 

Paul asked if there were any questions and the following points were raised:

 

·         Molly explained that school counsellors and nurses weren’t permanent positions in a lot of schools. Molly felt that this should be reviewed as a lot of young people didn’t feel comfortable discussing and concerns or issues with a teacher or their friends.

·         A young person present explained that there was a student within their school that had Tourette Syndrome and not all staff were aware of this. It was explained that the pupil could be mistaken for being disruptive when they weren’t and penalised.

 

Paul stated that he would promote the use of School Council’s for internal issues within each school.

 

It was agreed:

 

That Paul be thanked for his attendance at the meeting.

 

 

YC.14

THE BIG DEBATE

To be decided at the meeting.

Minutes:

The Youth Cabinet split into teams to debate the following issue:

 

Should schools and colleges have unisex toilets?

 

A debate was held with arguments for and against and a vote was held.

 

It was agreed:

 

That unisex toilets should be considered when designing new school buildings.