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 18 July 2023 are attached.

The minutes of the last meeting which was held on 18 July 2023 were agreed and signed by the Chair.

The Chair read through the briefing note and asked the Youth Members if they had any ideas of how the voice of children and young people can be captured more in the Council’s decision making. The Youth Cabinet agreed that they would like to be able to present a motion at Full Council and suggestions were made around how to involve young people in schools. The Youth Cabinet gave ideas of how young people can be involved with the Council’s decision making, these were:

1. The Youth Cabinet would like Circles of Influence to sit with the Children and Young People Partnership Board.
2. Educate children in schools about the Youth Cabinet to try and get more children participating in the meetings.
3. Educate young people around voting.
4. Assure Youth Cabinet members that they do have a voice.
5. To develop a number of motions at Youth Cabinet, send these via a questionnaire to schools and the motion that has the most votes will be the motion that will be presented at Council.
6. To use the motion theme that is presented at Council as a topic at Circles of Influence.
7. Youth Cabinet members attend schools to explain what they do.

Lisa Davis explained that the Voluntary, Community and Faith Alliance (VCFA) have been provided a grant to support community projects. The VCFA have asked for young people to sit on the panel to decide on which projects should be allocated the grant. Lisa Davis advised that there will be full training given to the young people who wish to sit on these panels and that the training will focus on the criteria around the grant. The dates of these panels will be circulated to youth members.

The Chair gave a number of updates around his involvement with the UK Youth Parliament (UKYP). There has been a Greater Manchester Youth Combined Authority (GMYCA) meeting which discussed Our Pass and the Bee bus network. The Violence Reduction Unit attended the meeting and discussed community led programmes and safe spaces.

The Chair had attended a recent Youthforia meeting which was facilitated as wellbeing session.

In response to a question around the Youth Parliamentary elections, the Chair advised that the elections are for young people over the age of 11 to 17. To be considered at the election a young person must have attended at least 6 Youth Cabinet meetings. All children who live in Bury can apply for the role. Lisa Davis advised that the Youth Service will be putting on an information evening about being a member of Youth Parliament.

In response to a question around the role of the Youth Mayor, the Chair advised that the Deputy Youth Mayor will be elected in April although if you become a member of Youth Parliament, you are not able to be considered for the role of Deputy Youth Mayor.

The key finding from the Circles of influence event were handed out to all Youth Cabinet Members. The Chair asked members for comments on each of the key findings. The Chair went through all of the key findings allowing comments to be made against each action. The key findings from the event will be presented to the Children and Young People’s Strategic Board.

It was agreed:

Jeanette Richards to feedback at the next Youth Cabinet around the progress of the key findings.

The Chair explained that the Co-Production Kite Mark is an Ofsted style rating to rate businesses in Bury around a list of objectives created by the Youth Cabinet.  Lisa Davis advised that there is a draft proforma ready and that there will be a training date given for young people to attend around the scoring of the Kite Mark. Further discussions around the Kite Mark will take place in the informal Youth Cabinet meetings. 

A debate took place on the topic ‘should essential items such as food, water and hygiene products be free or untaxed’.

All members of Youth Cabinet took part in the debated and it was decided by a vote that essential items, such as food, water and hygiene products should not be free or untaxed.

It was agreed:

The next debate will be ‘should the Northen section of HS2 be scrapped’.