Agenda item

Report of Corporate Director of Children and Adults

This report was delivered to the Board by Michael Nicholson and Michelle Zuiripayi, who are members of the Youth Cabinet. The following points were highlighted:

a)  Youth Cabinet is currently made up of 16 members aged between 16 and 21.The members are involved in youth projects, further and higher education, training, volunteering and apprenticeships;

b)  the members of Youth Cabinet work with a wide range of boards and organisations and have a active involvement in decision making;

c)  other forums such as the Children in Care Council are influenced by the Youth Cabinet;

d)  the Youth Cabinet programme enables young people to participate alongside decision makers and contribute to the design, development and delivery of strategies and plans for service improvement;

e)  in 2014/15 Youth Cabinet members contributed to the following Boards:

1)  Children’s Partnership Board;

2)  Nottingham City Growth Board;

3)  Equality and Fairness Commission;

f)  2014/2015, Youth Cabinet members provided advice and guidance to a range of services such as the Nottingham City Children and Adult Safeguarding Board, the Youth Offending Team and the Early Citizen/Institute of Mental Health (University of Nottingham);

g)  Youth Cabinet meetings are held once a term and the following topics are discussed during these meetings:

1)  Education, Work and Training (Autumn term);

2)  Safe Lives and Positive Communities (Spring term);

3)  Health and Well-being (Summer term).

h)  there is a Primary Parliament for Year 5 and 6 children, which is organised in conjunction with the Nottingham Learning Trust. In 2014/2015 170 children took part in Primary Parliament meetings;

i)  various topics have been discussed such as sexual health and relationships, science and technology careers and healthy eating;

j)  Youth Cabinet members have been involved in delivering and planning sessions on voting and voter registration for 16-17 year olds;

k)  an exchange visit has taken place with Newcastle Youth Council, to learn about STEM engagement and to develop Sharing the Future. Sharing the Future is a new model for citizen participation;

l)  Youth Cabinet is now planning its 2015/16 programme and invites partners from the Children’s Partnership Board to engage with the members of the Cabinet, to identify participation needs and plan appropriate engagement activities;

m)  Youth Cabinet members will represent Nottingham at YouConf2015 in Karlsruhe in June 2015.

Further information was provided following the questions raised:

a)  most events held by Youth Cabinet occur in the school holidays, this is to ensure that there minimal disruption to the education of the members;

b)  young people with disabilities are encouraged to join the Youth Cabinet and take part in the activities that are on offer.

RESOLVED to:

1. thank Michael Nicholson and Michelle Zuiripayi, for delivering their presentation to the Board;

2. recognise the contribution made by the Youth Cabinet in ensuring children and young people influence decision making within the Children’s Partnership;

3. continue to use the findings of participation work to inform plans and strategies for service improvement for children and young people across the Children’s Partnership;

4. support the work of the Youth Cabinet and its associated participation forums in 2015/16.