West Berkshire Youth Council: Young Voices Matter!

Plans are afoot to elect children and young people to West Berkshire Council.

Plans are afoot to elect children and young people to West Berkshire Council through a new West Berkshire Youth Council (WBYC).

WBYC aims to make sure young people’s voices are heard, letting them express opinions and influence decision-makers on issues that matter to them.

Membership will be open to all young people, with the age range for young people with SEND extended to 25. It is proposed there should be up to 30 places on WBYC: 24 elected places and six co-opted places.

The six co-opted places would be for young people from under-represented groups (eg those with protected characteristics, students not in mainstream education, young carers, or those involved with Family Help Teams).

If the plans are approved by the council executive next Thursday, young people will be able to stand for election if they are aged between 11 and 17 years on the day of the election (or between 11 and 23 years for those with learning disabilities).

During the first year, members of WBYC will consult local young people, prepare a manifesto and agree the campaigns they wish to work on. Delivery of the campaigns would be in the second year.

Members would also be invited to attend meetings of the children and young people scrutiny committee, giving them another way to ensure young people have a say in decisions that affect them.

The moves are already underway: West Berkshire Council has appointed two young people to its children and young people scrutiny committee. Charlie Gale and Natasha Rowe became co-opted members in November.

Berkshire Youth will support them before, during and after meetings and help plan a workshop on effective collaboration.

Heather Codling (Lib Dem, Chieveley and Cold Ash), deputy leader of West Berkshire Council and executive member for children and family services, said: “I am delighted that we have been able to make these appointments.

“It is so important that young people have a voice in local issues and get the opportunity to help shape the services that we provide for them.”

Committee chairman Dominic Boeck, who was on the interview panel, said: “I was so impressed by the quality of the applications we received and how well all the young people answered our questions.

“I think that the appointment of Charlie and Natasha is a positive move that will bring a fresh perspective to scrutiny and will challenge us to consider the voice of young people as part of everything that we do.”

The children and young people scrutiny committee, created in May, oversees all local authority services for children and young people. Scrutiny aims to improve public services, tackle under-performance, ensure effective use of funds, and hold decision-makers to account.

Under the new proposals, the youth council would organise an annual conference so young people across West Berkshire can come together to discuss issues and help plan WBYC’s priorities for the year.

The UK’s national policy on youth councils is still developing, with the Government working on a new National Youth Strategy. Currently, there is no youth council in West Berkshire.

A key pillar of the West Berkshire Council Strategy (Thriving Communities with a Strong Local Voice) seeks to “encourage and support our local communities to take the lead in driving what is important to them”. Young people are identified in the strategy as a seldom heard group, and involving a new youth council in decision making is listed as a key action to enable them to ‘have a voice in local issues’.

Members may hold allegiance to/be a member of a political party, but they cannot express their party political views as a youth councillor. Members can meet with any political party at any time as long as their youth council membership is not used in any way to gain votes for that party.

Niki Hinman, Local Democracy Reporter