Some resources and background materials

The British Youth Council describes itself as "the representative body for young people in the UK. An independent charity, run for and by young people it represents their views to central and local government, political parties, pressure groups and the media."
Among other initiatives, the BYC has produced the following charter. It is possible to endorse the charter by adding your name online.

A CHARTER FOR YOUNG CITIZENS

We believe young people are today's citizens as well as tomorrow's

• We believe young people should be entitled to full social and political rights at the age of sixteen, and accept the accompanying responsibilities these rights bring
• We believe that there are many different areas of our community and that we should provide for equality so that every young person is able to develop to their full potential

We believe in equal pay for work of equal value

• We believe young people should receive equal minimum wage levels to all other adults
• We believe young people in need should be entitled to claim benefits from the age of sixteen

We believe education is a right not a privilege

• We believe that all levels of education should be provided through a public, free and comprehensive system
• We believe in an integrated education and vocational training system that is accessible to all

We believe young people have a right to be well

• We believe that a comprehensive health system should make healthcare advice and treatment available to all
• We believe that there should be a comprehensive improvement to health services for young people to tackle the wide range of problems that young people face

We believe young people have a right to be heard

• We believe that young people's views should be considered in all areas of decision-making
• We believe there should be an integrated youth policy that covers the key areas of government policy which affect young people

The BYC describes its current campaigns as follows:

CAMPAIGNS

BYC's most recent campaigns include:

Children's Rights Commissioner

BYC has joined forces with the Young People's Rights Network, a network of children's and young people's organisations, to campaign for a Children's and Young People's Rights Commissioner for England.

Votes at Sixteen

BYC continues to campaign for the voting age to be reduced to sixteen. It formed part of our Charter for Young Citizens and we are part of a coalition of young people's organisations that are lobbying the government for this change.
Campaign Update October 2001 BYC has postcards, supplied by the Electoral Reform Society, that you can send to your MP asking the Government to consider lowering the voting age to 16 years. If you would like to be sent any then contact Louise King at the BYC office.

Minimum Wage

BYC continued its work on the National Minimum Wage by contributing a submission to the Low Pay Unit that was published in July 2001. Putting the views of young people directly to decision-makers is an important means of progressing the cause of young people. Click here for a full report on BYC's reaction.

Youth Charter

As part of our campaign to promote young people's rights during the 2001 General Election, we launched a Charter for Young Citizens which has attracted a great response from young people all over the UK.
Youth Participation

BYC maintains an ongoing concern that young people should be able to participate as fully as possible within society and the political process. BYC supports and promotes the work of local youth councils and produces a range of resources aimed at empowering young people and enabling their further participation.

BYC is working to ensure that young people are involved in the setting up of the new Connexions service.

UK Youth Parliament

This met for the first time in February 2001, and aims to be an annual event. UKYP declares itself as 'non-political' and aims 'to give the young people of the UK between the ages of 11 and 18 (inclusive) a voice, which will be heard and listened to by local and national government, providers of services for young people and other agencies which have an interest in the views and needs of young people'. The website includes a video of the first session of the Parliament.

Some aspects of the Parliament (eg the designation of delegates as MYPs) may be somewhat cringe-making. However, the first session of the Parliament produced a Manifesto, which did elicit a lengthy response from the then-Minister for young people.

Contact details:
Tel: 01952 681995
Fax: 01952 681979
e-mail: mail@ukyouthparliament.org.uk
UK Youth Parliament
7 Anstice Square,
Madeley,
Telford,


The Children and Young People's Unit

The government's policy on children and young people is the remit of the Children and Young People's Unit, which has been responsible for the major Children's Fund initiative in recent years. The CYPU is currently developing an overall Strategy to shape the government's approach to children and young people and it has made efforts to encourage children to participate in the consultation period. For example, various consultation booklets were designed and edited specifically designed to elicit comments from children and young people. These may be worth using in Woodcraft Folk activities.

There are two 'Have Your Say' booklets (one for children, one for young people) and a children's activity book available. They can be found (at time of writing) on the CYPU website, www.cypu.gov.uk (follow the link for children and young people). The website also includes a questionnaire for children to complete.

However the consultation period formally ended at the end of February 2002; this means that children's submitted responses (whilst no doubt they won't be sent back) can no longer be taken into account in the drafting of the strategy. It also means that the documents may in due course be removed from the website.

The next stage of the development of the Strategy will be a report from the CYPU, expected in the Spring.

Children & Young People's Advisory Forum

The Children and Young People's Unit has established a Children and Young People's Advisory Forum. According to the CYPU:

• There are currently 26 members aged 11- 17 of the Forum. The Forum is made up of a really wide mix of people - boys and girls - from all sorts of backgrounds and cultures. Members also come from all government regions and from different types of communities, living in towns, cities, the countryside and coastal areas.
• The Forum is one of the ways we will ensure children and young people from the widest backgrounds are involved in our thinking and decision-making. The Unit is also working with the Forum and other organisations to develop a wider programme of activity aimed at letting other young people be heard by, for example discussing our strategy via e-mail through this website.

Below is a list of projects/ initiatives members of the Forum are involved in:

Over-Arching Strategy: for all Children and Young People: Members have helped to develop the children and young people's versions of the 'Strategy Consultation Document' and will be involved in various consultation events being held.

Children's Fund: Members have been involved in assessing Wave One (first stage) partnership plans and have provided useful advice and recommendations. Plans are also underway for members to help develop information and guidance on the Children's Fund for children and young people.

Core Principles for Government (this means that the Forum and Children's Fund is central to Government thinking): Children and young people are working with the Unit on a range of tasks, for example providing case studies of effective practise and advising on how children and young people can be made aware of the principles and what their purpose

Communications Strategy / Web-Site: Some members will work with Unit Communications staff to develop the Forum communications strategy and support the Unit to develop this web-site for children and young people. You're looking at it!

Y Vote, Y Not

The government is also behind a campaign, Y Vote Y Not, which aims to encourage young people to participate in parliamentary and local elections.

More information can be found on the National Youth Agency website

The following extract comes from this site:

To Politicians:

• Talk to us in language we can understand - simple, clear, basic, understandable, keep us informed
• Talk to us directly, regularly, and in our environments - not just at election times, not just when we're old enough to vote, and face to face, not through a leaflet
• Listen and respond to our concerns - don't lecture us and don't assume we have no opinions or you know what we think
• Respect our diversity - and recognise that you need to find new ways of reaching out to different groups of young people.

To Government and the Electoral Commission:

• Give us the information and understanding we need - whether we are at school, college, work or unemployed
• Make citizenship education a priority within the curriculum - and give schools and colleges the support and resources they need to deliver it well
• Seriously consider the arguments for lowering the voting age - and making voting compulsory, and making it easier to vote

To the Media:

• Make politics interesting and exciting for us - relate it to our lives but don't trivialise it with stories about politician's private lives or political in-fighting - we're not interested
• Find ways of mixing politics with entertainment - introduce political story lines into soaps, talk about political issues on chat-shows, make it cool to be interested in politics
• Use our interest in local issues - by giving us relevant, accurate and up to date information about local decision-making and finding ways of involving us, asking our opinions etc.
  

Carnegie Young People Initiative

The Carnegie Young People Initiative (CYPI) is a 10 year research project in the UK and Ireland investigating what it's like to be young today. The CYPI says that it wants "to improve young people's involvement in local and national projects that are about young people's rights to participate as citizens."

The CYPI has held a number of conferences, including one which has looked at best practice in school councils. The following extract looks at the practice in one Plymouth school.

Lipson Community College, Plymouth

The presentation was made by Wendy Brett, Assistant Principal at the college, Pauline Robins, from Plymouth LEA (and formerly a teacher at the college) and three pupils, Richard Abbot, Sarah Greenwood and Adam Hodges. It began with a video made by the college of a visit to Philippines to investigate the human rights situation there.

The college serves at inner city population, some of whom are socially and economically disadvantaged. In 1994, it was not a popular school and suffered a poor reputation. The Principal and Senior Management Team decided that the only way to change this was to involve young people in every aspect of the school. Today the school has turned round and there is a great demand for places.

Some of the key elements to this approach have included:

• the introduction of circle time during registration in each class to raise issues
• this leads through tiers of student representatives to a school council
• training to empower student representatives, learning skills and acquiring knowledge about how the school is run
• commitment from the head-teacher
• a whole school ethos and process, rather than a "PR" approach to involvement
• challenges to teachers, including as to the quality of classes and teaching style
• strong links with feeder primaries, including a peer mediation training
• both a long term approach, as well as short term immediate "wins" for the school council
• access to budgets, as well as fundraising by pupils for projects
• the school council is part of a broader "Voices of Plymouth Schools" (VOPS), looking at city - wide issues such as the Connexions Service and transport.
• involvement in teacher appointments
• environmental improvements, including the dining room and toilets, as well as better school meals
• a code of conduct has been developed
• the college's work has been filmed for a Schools Councils UK video and they have spoken at a number of conferences.

In reply to questions, the following points were added;

• a problem solving approach has been important including setting up sub-groups of the School Council
• governors have been supportive and student representatives have, on occasion, attended meetings
• most activity takes place in school time and this is rotated through different lessons
• this work links to the Citizenship curriculum, which will be compulsory in Secondary Schools in September 2002.
• there is a precedent for student governors in further education colleges.
• begin a student representative isn't an unpopular or "un-cool" thing to do at Lipson.

Consultation work with very young children

The following report may be of interest, particularly for Woodchips and younger elfin groups.

"Save the Children Fund and The Children's Society undertook some consultation work with children aged 2-4 years for the GLA. Two local authorities were asked to nominate nurseries to take part in the consultation. The children were to give their views and perceptions
of London and to do this they were taken on a 'sensory walk'. The children were encouraged to talk about what they saw, smelt, touched,
tasted and heard as they walked along. Some of the children took photographs and drew pictures which showed how things look from
their perspective. Their comments about the traffic, litter, noise and amenities were recorded and demonstrated that even very young children
can give a useful insight into how much they already understand about the services provided by central and local government ("It will be safe
to cross at the traffic lights") and what they think needs improving ("I saw a lot of rubbish on the floor").The children's views are being fed into the GLA strategy."

Youth 2002

Youth 2002 is a European youth event with the intent to gather 1000 young people from all the EU-member states, applicant countries and the Balkans, at thirteen folk high schools in Denmark, in the summer of 2002. Youth 2002 is held in connection with the Danish EU-presidency.

Although the delegates have already been chosen, more information about the event can be found on their website