Agenda and minutes

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.

There were no declarations of interest made at the meeting.

The Minutes of the last meeting held on 21 April 2022 are attached.

It was agreed:

That the Minutes of the last meeting held on 21 April 2022 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

There were no matters arising from the Minutes of the Last Meeting.

An updated terms of reference of the Youth Cabinet to be discussed/ approved.

It was explained that he Terms of Reference for the Youth Cabinet had not been reviewed for some time.

Attached to the agenda was a copy of background information and the Terms of Reference produced in the 2013/2014 Municipal year and a draft Terms of Reference.

Members of the Youth Cabinet were asked to review the documents, ask questions, and make any changes or additions to the draft Terms of Reference.

The following points were raised:

·         The layout of the 2013/2014 ToR are easier to follow and understand.

·         The voting membership in the draft document should be from 11 – 25 not 19 – 25.

·         In the expectations section of the draft document, Facebook should be changed to Whatsapp

·         It was suggested that before a young person can put themselves forward  in a leadership role they must have attended at least 6 Youth Cabinet meetings (including informal).

·         If a young person member misses three consecutive meetings they will stand down from that role.

It was agreed:

That the draft terms of reference would be updated to reflect the comments made and brought to a future meeting of the Youth Cabinet for approval.

The GM Youth Combined Authority had met recently and one of the areas of discussion had been diversity in schools. Plans were currently being implemented to ensure that schools received support towards becoming as diverse as possible.

The SENCO for Greater Manchester was in attendance to offer support and guidance.

It was explained that there were currently 3 of the 10 GM boroughs involved in the project but it was hoped that all 10 boroughs would participate by having 4 schools per borough taking part.

It was explained that a lot of information had been provided raising awareness of autism and how it affects people. Adele reported that she would share the slides with the Youth Cabinet.

It was also reported that a policy statement had been produced in relation to transport and this would be discussed at the UK Youth Parliament.

Prestwich Environment Forum were working on a campaign to make Prestwich plastic free.

Heather referred to the Bury Children and Young People’s Plan ‘Let’s Do It for Children and Young People’ which is the Council’s Plan for Bury organisations to work together with children, young people and families so that they get the best opportunities in life. The Youth Cabinet had done some work with Lindsay Dennis to produce a leaflet explaining what the plan was and how young people could get involved.

Heather distributed the draft leaflet to all those present and asked for their feedback into the way that it looked, the contents and whether it did the job it was intended to.

Jeanette Richards referred to the strapline ‘let’s do it for children & young people - best start in life’ and asked whether this was relevant to all age groups. Jeanette also asked how the impact would be measured and what a good outcome would look like.

The following points were raised:

·         Should ‘start’ be changed to ‘opportunities’

·         Will one document cover all age groups?

·         Should the re be different documents for different age groups?

It was agreed:

That the comments raised would be fed into the process.

Adele reported that the Circles of Influence conference would be taking place on Monday 4 July and would be  full day event to which all of the schools and  colleges in Bury had been invited.

The morning session will be for the Young People to work together and the afternoon will be young people working with local decision makers from across Bury.

The five issues that have been identified are:

Places to go

Environment

Knife crime

Education

Health

Adele explained that the Youth Cabinet had already been working on how the day would run and the youth facilitators had held meetings to ensure that they all knew what they needed to do and to support one another.

Adele reminded those present that they would need to make sure that their school or college had authorised their attendance at the event as it would meaning being away from school or college for the day.

Members of the Youth Cabinet were asked to discuss whether they had celebrated the Queen’s Jubilee and if so what had they done.

A number of young people and Councillors explained that they had attended the Mayor’s Jubilee party that had taken place in the Drill Hall where an afternoon tea had been served with entertainment including singing and dancing. There had been groups of people from different communities across the borough and everyone had joined in to make it an enjoyable event.

Some of the young people had been on breaks with their families and the long weekend had given the opportunity to visit family and friends.

All Youth Cabinet Members took part in the debate.

A vote was held, and it was agreed by a majority vote that fee paying schools should not be abolished.

It was agreed:

1. The next debate would be ‘Should exams be abolished’?