Agenda item

Members of the Youth Council will be present to explain their current campaigns, to update members of the Group on progress, and to provoke discussion. We also hope that one or more of the Young Inspectors will also be present, in which case they too will update the Group on their recent inspections.

Members of the York Youth Council gave Members a presentation on the issues that young people in the city had selected to campaign on for 2012. These were as follows;

·        To continue to work with York Young People’s Trust and to open a building in the City Centre for Young People.

·        To improve the delivery of Personal, Social, Health, and Citizenship Education (PSHCE) in schools.

·        To challenge poverty in York.

Discussion on the aim to open a building in the City Centre for Young People took place under Agenda Item 5 (Youth Café).

In relation to the improvement of PHSCE in schools, Members were informed that a toolkit was being developed for PSHCE lessons, as it had been identified that lessons tended to differ in the city’s schools. In particular, young people asked for a greater focus on body issues and sexuality in these lessons.

In relation to their aim to challenge poverty, Youth Council representatives spoke about the areas that they wished to campaign on. In particular, they felt that school uniform costs were important, as different schools had different approaches and some uniforms could often only be bought from a smaller section of retailers which tended to be more expensive. They felt that the systems for issuing free school meals varied across schools, with some offering young people more privacy than others, which might affect whether young people choose to eat them. They also backed the UK Youth Parliament’s national campaign for greater financial education in school.

Members were then informed about the development of the UK Youth Parliament’s campaign for 2012 for better transport for young people, and the Youth Council’s aims to address issues on this in York. The Youth Council focused on issues relating to bus and cycling provision in the city such as;

·        A lack of city wide discount bus fares for young people aged 17-18.

·        Problems that had been encountered with the quality of bus timetable information.

·        Quality of service issues with operators and drivers.

·        A need for more paper maps, and electronic tools to identify cycle routes around York.

·        A need for more safe off road routes along with more continuous well marked current cycle routes.

·        A wish for more urban cycling training in order to improve young people’s confidence in cycling on roads.

·        Promotion in schools to encourage young people to cycle in work and leisure time.

Some Members agreed that the cost of school uniforms was an important issue to campaign on, whilst others felt that the focus on bus and cycle transport in the city, in particular the need for a greater amount of cycle training in schools was particularly practical.

Officers informed Members about the process that had taken place in York schools for the National Youth Parliament elections. It was reported that a shortlist of three candidates had originally been identified, but that unfortunately two candidates had pulled out, and this meant that elections to the Youth Parliament would not take place in York schools this year.

RESOLVED:       That the presentation from the Youth Council be noted.

REASON:           To ensure that young people’s views are taken into account in Council decision-making.