Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence are noted above.

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

Councillor Rydeheard declared an interest in ‘The Big Debate’ due to working for the British Monarchist Society.

The minutes of the last meeting held on 19 April 2021 are attached.

The minutes of the last meeting be approved as a correct record.

Emma updated the meeting with the progress that had been made on the Plastic Pollution Campaign. Emma had written a letter on behalf of the Youth Cabinet to the Bury Members of Parliament. Emma has received a detailed response back from Christian Wakeford and has had a response from James Daly’s office to say that he will send a detailed response soon.

'Who are we and what do we do?' Pritesh & Lucy to give a verbal update at the meeting.

Pritesh Patel and Lucy Fitzsimon from the Live Well Team in Bury attended Youth Cabinet to explain and ask for feedback on the Local Delivery Pilot Consultation.

The new pilot ‘Live Well, Move More’ is aimed to help people across the borough move more, the local pilot is specific to Bury and is working to principles that have been developed across Greater Manchester.

The pilot is aimed at:-

·       Healthy people who are currently inactive

·       The whole of Bury

·       Young people

·       Unemployed

·       Residents in Radcliffe

The pilot is different to anything that has been done before as there are no traditional targets, the pilot will be working on the principles. The Live Well Team have been given permission to test new ideas and learn from them.

The young people and Councillors were asked questions about the principles.

The main points raised were:

·       That the principles used ‘corporate language’ which may be difficult for people to understand.

·       The principles didn’t feel tailored to individuals.

·       Everyone can play a part in getting people moving, such as arranging to meet a friend for a walk.

·       It was felt that building on community assets were a positive.

·       It was thought that ‘everyone’s a leader’ was a positive.

Lucy Fitzsimon advised the Youth Cabinet that they are wanting young people to be involved in the pilot. The Live Well Team would like a visual of the interpretation of the principles.

It was agreed:

·       The Youth Cabinet members be thanked for their input into the Local Delivery Pilot Consultation.

·       Young people who wish to be involved in the pilot are to contact Heather Walton.

·       Young people who have an interest in drawing and would like to help create a visual for the pilot are to contact Heather Walton.

A verbal update to be provided by Owen and Bella.

Owen and Bella provided a verbal update on the Mental Health Campaign.

Owen explained that mental health was raised as the main issue that was affecting young people in the ‘Make Your Mark’ survey. Mental Health was the main issue both nationally and in Bury.

The Youth Cabinet have been looking at ways to improve mental health. They have created a survey which will be sent out to secondary schools in the borough. They had drawn up some questions with Healthy Young Minds, and are hoping to send out the survey soon.

Bella read out the questions from the survey and asked for feedback. Bella explained that questions are age appropriate therefore there were two different surveys, one for ages 10 to 13 and one for ages 13 plus. The surveys are anonymous but will include the name of the school and year group for safeguarding purposes.

Discussions took place around the survey questions.

It was agreed:

·       A tick box should be included within the survey to give people a ‘maybe’, ‘prefer not to say’ option when answering the questions.

·       A question is to be added to the survey around the support that was given by schools during lockdown.

·       Information of where a young person can get help with their mental health should be included.  

·       Heather Walton to discuss with the Director of Early Help how the survey should be sent to schools.

·       That the Youth Cabinet be thanked for their hard work with the survey.

A verbal update to be provided at the meeting.

Heather Walton, Youth Participation Co-ordinator gave an update on the Circles of Influence Event.

The event will take place on 25th June 2021 from 2pm to 4pm over Microsoft Teams.

There are four mains topics which will be discussed:

·       PHSE

·       Homelessness

·       Knife Crime

·       Mental Health

Young people from schools throughout the borough will join the event and be influencing decision makers.  

There will be separate breakout rooms and there will be a member of staff in each room taking notes. There will be one young person from each secondary school in each discussion group. At the end of the event, it is thought that there will be a detailed picture on each subject.

Heather explained that the young people have worked extremely hard organising the event. Questionnaires have been sent to all schools so young people who cannot attend the event will have their say. Heather has received hundreds of responses from schools.

A discussion to take place between the Young People and Councillors on the impact on education and mental health.

Councillor Butler asked the Youth Cabinet on their views of wearing face masks in school.

A discussion took place, and the following points were raised:

·       It isn’t ideal having to wear face masks, especially due to the hot weather but with the new variant of Covid-19 it was felt necessary to wear a mask indoors.

·       It was explained that there has been less students sent home to isolate since the mask wearing was introduced whilst indoors, previously you only had to wear face masks when moving through the corridors.

·       The majority of students do wear face masks whilst indoors at school.

·       It was felt that all students should wear face masks as a baseline therefore there is no stigma or social pressures if you choose to wear one.

The Debate will be held and voted on.

Should the Monarchy be abolished?

All Youth Cabinet members took part in the discussion.

There were points both for and against the Monarchy. The main points of the discussion were:

·       The costs involved of having a Royal Family.

·       Tourism and the Royal Family being a driving factor for people to visit Britain.

·       A neutral figurehead above democracy.

·       The historical factors of the Monarchy which are not helping Britain move forward.

·       The hierarchy of the Royal Family.

·       Other countries that have abolished their Monarchy.

·       The Royal Family have a huge fan base.

·       Recent scandals in the Royal Family.  

A vote was held and it was agreed by a majority vote that the Monarchy should not be abolished.

Councillor Butler suggested for future debates the Youth Cabinet could hold a ‘Preferendum’ giving different options to a debate.