Encouraging young people to become engaged in local democracy through the Youth Council

The challenge

• Ensuring representation from all secondary schools.  
• Getting the right balance of age and gender on the youth council.
• Giving them a real chance to make changes and have a direct impact on the areas that they care about. 

The solution

Using the apprentices within our team we were able to have a better link with young people. The apprentices were able to deliver presentations to the schools directly to the young people that they wanted to join the Youth Council. Rather than it being someone that they couldn’t relate to, there was the chance to get young people selling this initiative themselves.  

The impact

We have been able to have representation from all six local secondary schools in 2017/18. They have had the chance to ask our MP Grant Shapps and WHBC Cabinet Members questions, as well as deliver projects around mental health like #JustTalk, and physical activity projects such as Sports Relief. These opportunities enable the young people to grow and develop. Providing young people the chance to push themselves enables them to understand what they are capable of.  

How is the approach being sustained?

The apprentices are part of the structure within the team and whilst they are led by senior officers, the apprentices assist in leading and directing the youth council and helping to improve their meetings and activity plans. Recently we have been fortunate that local young people have been a part of either the Youth Council or a youth project delivered by the Youth Council, and then gone on to become one of our apprentices –  this shows a real pathway for local young people. 

Lessons learned

The biggest lesson learned is that we need to make sure that the young people are driving the Youth Council, as opposed to council officers. The more say that young people have the more ownership they can have and the more involved they become.