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 14 February 2023 are attached.

The minutes of the meeting held on 14 February 2023 were agreed as an accurate record and signed by the Chair.

There were no matters arising.

The Chair reordered the agenda and agreed that the Mental Health Campaign would be heard after Matters Arising.

Marina Nixon, NHS Bury attended the meeting to provide an update to youth members on the Mental Health Campaign. 

Marina has attended the informal Youth Cabinet meetings regularly and has been working in co-production with the young people in creating a mental health campaign. Marina updated that her team have been developing a mobile app for mental health. Marina brought some advertisement resources such as leaflets, a banner and business cards to show the young people. Marina reported that schools have already started to share the leaflets and it is hoped within the next 6 months that a digital pack will be available to schools for schools to add mental health information to their websites.

Marina asked if the young people could speak to pupils within the schools around mental health to promote the campaign. Georgia advised that she hasn’t seen any of the campaign resources in college and advised that she will speak to teachers who can publicise the campaign.

The campaign is being shared via social media, speaking to teachers and schools, and via presentations.

In relation to a question asked around the scope to advertise the campaign within the bus stations and Metrolink stations, Maria advised that she had recently discussed this with her communications team to gain permission. 

Marina reported that there had been a lot of interest regarding the campaign and spoke about a press release at St Gabriel’s High School and needing parental consent to obtain further photographs.

Action

1. Jeanette Richards to speak to the Operations Team about having the campaign advertised in Leisure Centres. 
2. Marina to attend a future informal Youth Cabinet Meeting to update on the progress of the campaign.

Evie and Areeba both stated that they wished to be considered for the role of Deputy Youth Mayor. Evie and Areeba gave a speech of why they should be considered as Deputy Youth Mayor.

Youth Members voted. Adele Crowshaw, Youth Services counted the votes from the ballot box and announced the results.

It was agreed:

1. The new Deputy Youth Mayor is Areeba.

Heather Walton advised that the youth members are creating a Kite Mark for organisations to gain as a measure of how organisations meet young people’s needs. The Kite Mark will be measured using the Children’s Services ‘promise’. 

All Youth Cabinet members were invited to take part in an activity to create ideas of what could be used as a benchmark for an organisation to achieve the Kite Mark.

Jeanette Richards questioned how long the Kite Mark will last once an organisation has received it?  Youth Members agreed that the Kite Mark should last 3 years, the Youth Cabinet can also revoke the Kite Mark and a tiered reward system will be used.

Heather Walton advised that the Bury Children’s Partnership Board will promote the Kite Mark to organisations. The Kite Mark will sit with Youth Cabinet and it will be up to the Youth Cabinet members whether an organisation will be awarded with the Kite Mark.

Heather Walton suggested that in the informal Youth Cabinet meetings a process for assessment and the branding of the co-production Kite Mark needs to be decided. It was suggested that a numerical system will be the easiest way to assess organisations.

It was agreed:

1. Youth Members to discuss the Kite Mark further in the informal Youth Cabinet Meetings and bring to the next formal Youth Cabinet Meeting the finished product. 

Heather Walton, updated the Youth Cabinet Meeting on the Circles of Influence event.

.

The issues for this year’s event have been discussed by young people and are:

·                     Transport

·                     Knife crime/ youth violence

·                     PHSE

·                     Mental health

·                     Cost of living

Bethan Heatley, Youth Service had created a Google form which has been sent out to all secondary schools and has already received 102 responses from pupils.

It was agreed that the decision makers will attend the Circles of Influence event in the afternoon.

Phoebe questioned when an environment conference will be arranged, Heather Walton advised that the conference would likely take place in the autumn after the Circles of Influence event. Heather Walton suggested that the environment group needs to be re-launched.

All Youth Cabinet Members took part in a true and false game around facts about the House of Lords.

All Youth Cabinet Members took part in the debate and it was agreed by a majority vote that the House of Lords should not be abolished.

There was no urgent business.