Au Revoir

On Monday night we had our final meeting of the elected Youth Cabinet 2017-18.  On Monday 30th April, all members of the Vale Youth Forum will have the chance to stand to become a Youth Cabinet member.  The next term of office will run from May 2018 until September 2019.  There are 7 Youth Cabinet positions available. 

At our last meeting we met with the Vale Cabinet for our termly meeting and we were able to update them on the work we have been involved in.  This included telling them about our recent meetings which have included raising young people's concerns about the Welsh Bacc, Pupil Funding and the proposed changes to the Youth Service.  We have also sent several letters to decision-makers explaining our views on these topics.   

We also shared with them our proposal to introduce new work experience placements within the Council for young people in Yr10 - Yr13.  They liked our idea and we will now be working with the officer in charge to try and make this happen.  

Finally we spent some time reviewing and evaluating the running of the Youth Cabinet and our term of office to make sure we can provide any advice and support to future Youth Cabinet members. 

Our final session will be on Friday to celebrate our term of office and say goodbye to several members who will be off to university in September.  

9 Councillors, 1 evening!

Last night the we had our first official meeting with the Vale of Glamorgan Cabinet.  As this was our first meeting we had lots to discuss and a few issues to raise that young people have been voicing across the Vale.

The main things discussed included giving Cabinet an update on our work so far and discussing our action plan for 2017-18.  We talked about the difficulties young people face in balancing exam stress and the pressures we face in our education, with positive well-being and mental health.  Also, on the agenda was gender equality in PE.  This issue was raised at the Vale Youth Forum by members who felt there was not equality of opportunity across all secondary schools in the Vale regarding the PE curriculum.       

We also presented the official Make Your Mark results and discussed how departments within the Council can take this information on board in the work they do.  We also asked Cabinet to consider taking a Votes at 16 motion to Council - to debate and vote whether the Vale of Glamorgan Council would support lowering the voting age to 16 and 17 in local elections.  We are looking forward to hearing back on this soon!

Following the joint meeting, we met with the Youth Champion, Cllr Leighton Rowlands, and Cllr Owen Griffiths.  As two of the youngest councillors in the Vale we shared our views on a variety of issues, whilst also updating them on our work.  If was really helpful to hear their perspectives and how supportive they are of encouraging young people to get involved in decision-making! 

Meet & Greet

Tonight's meeting started with an informal meet & greet with the Vale of Glamorgan Cabinet.  This is the first time we met them as a group since the election.  We were paired up with a Cabinet Member and got to know one another and learnt more about each others roles.  We then delivered a presentation about the purpose of the youth cabinet and we got to share our ideas on what we would do if we were the Leader of the Council for a day.  We all felt like the Cabinet members were interested in the work we do and we look forward to working with them in the future. 

Following our meet & greet, we held our normal monthly meeting.  The topics discussed were Local Democracy Week, where we had the opportunity to vote for the next Youth Mayor and we found out where elections are being held all week. We looked at the Make Your Mark results for the Vale which will be published soon and discussed how some issues might link to our work.  We also had an extensive discussion about the Welsh Baccalaureate where we expressed the strong contempt amongst young people surrounding the subject.  This is to become a topic for us to work on as it ties in with many other issues facing young people today.

Vale AGM

Last night we attended the Vale of Glamorgan Annual General Meeting.  At the meeting the newly elected councillors elected a new Mayor and Deputy Mayor for 2017-2018.

The Vale councillors also elected a new Leader of the Council who then announced the new Cabinet and their responsibilities which are set out in portfolios.

After the meeting we spoke to some of the newly elected Councillors.  It was great to promote the Youth Cabinet to the new Youth Champion who is also Deputy Vale Mayor, the new Leader of the Council and the new Cabinet Member for Education and Culture.

We are looking forward to our first joint meeting with the new Cabinet this term.

School Transport update

We just wanted to give you an update on the progress of the Youth Cabinet school transport.

In 2015 we carried out a piece of work around young people's experience of school transport.  This came after young people were sharing their experiences of school transport and some concerns were raised.  We decided to create a survey and consult young people across the Vale to find out their opinions.  We then created a report, a summary document and made several recommendations.

Our recommendations are now being taken to Cabinet for consideration.  As soon as we have any more updates we will keep you posted!

Our meeting with Cabinet

Tonight we met with the Vale of Glamorgan Cabinet, we meet with them once every term.

As usual, the meeting was very productive and feedback from the cabinet members was positive. We told them about the activities and meetings we have been involved in over the past few months and they were all impressed with the amount of work we've been involved in, from our monthly youth cabinet meetings, to attending the Holocaust Memorial Day event and meeting with the Children's Commissioner for Wales.

We also discussed future plans for the Youth Cabinet, in the coming months.  We updated the Cabinet on the progress of our school transport report and our response from Edwina Hart, Welsh Government Minister for Economy, Science and Transport.  Then we discussed how the council are planning to make savings - it's a difficult job to do!! Cabinet discussed some important projects we are hoping to get involved in in the future such as an NHS Orchard and raising awareness of Young Carers.  These are areas we definitely want to get involved in as youth cabinet members!