Council and democracy

Youth Cabinet Members presented the report that set out the activities and events carried out by the Youth Cabinet in the past year and highlighted the following outcomes:

•           2015 UK Youth Parliament “Make your Mark” Ballot – with a target of 8000 Young People voting.

•           Supporting Pathways Group – Preparing Young People for employment.

•           The Fairness Commission – Addressed issues of fairness in Thurrock.

•           C2C Youth Panel – Regarding crime rates and safety and fares for Young People.

•           Thurrock Peer Review – Youth Cabinet Members will be interviewed about their involvement with the Council.

•           Planning Group – Set up in relation with the Council Planning department and have contributions on planning applications such as Lakeside.

•           Staff Recruitment – Involved in the recruitment of Council staff.

•           Thurrock Youth Conference 2015 – Running an event at 18 different schools, holding debates and organising workshops.

•           Inspire Youth Charity – Developed a Youth Board who met monthly to discuss future plans and working the council.

Councillor Kerin thanked the Youth Cabinet Members for their report and stated how crucial work experience was to ensure young people get every opportunity of gaining employment. The Committee agreed to bring this item back to committee to hear the Youth Cabinet’s feedback and how they think the Committee can help further.

Councillor Gamester asked how the Youth Cabinet Members monitored what was happening in the Council. The Youth Cabinet Member stated that they were very involved and heads of departments visited the Youth Cabinet regularly to give updates. All feedback given from Youth Cabinet members were then fed back to the Council.

Councillor Little asked what involvement did the Youth Cabinet have with the staff recruitment panel. The Youth Cabinet Member stated that they had recently sat on 2 interview panels asking different questions to get the most out of candidates. The questions were also aimed around the candidate’s knowledge of Youth Cabinet and what they could offer.

Councillor Gupta stated that over the last 10 years the Youth Cabinet had developed and displayed good ground for future leaders. He thanked the Youth Cabinet Members for their contributions and wished them well for the future.

Reverend Canon Barlow asked what more could be done to connect with all Young People across the borough. The Youth Cabinet Member stated that they hoped to connect with more young people in the Democracy Week and to encourage more schools to get involved.

Councillor Halden thanked the Youth Cabinet Members for an excellent report but stated that the older style Democracy Week be returned that would encourage proper outreach to all schools and the youth population.

Michele Lucas recommended that the Youth Cabinet Members be tasked to come up with a plan on how this would work and what it would look like and further recommended that, when appropriate, the Youth Cabinet share this plan with a selection of Members.

RESOLVED

1.1       To continue to support the work undertaken by the Youth Cabinet this enabling young people to remain at the heart of decision making regarding youth related activities.

1.2       To continue to support members of the Youth Cabinet in the development of an alternative vehicle for delivering youth related activities recognising the need to ensure savings going forward, whilst ensuring young people remain at the heart of the regeneration agenda.

1.3       That the Youth Cabinet prepared a plan on how to encourage proper outreach to all schools and the youth population.