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! 

Another busy meeting

This evening the new Youth Mayor and Deputy met before the official Youth Cabinet meeting to sign their role description and review the @VOGYouthMayor Twitter account.  They also made plans to create a poster which you should see in schools and youth organisations across the Vale very soon, and watch out for the new Youth Mayor Instagram account!

During tonight's meeting we learnt about the Member of UK Youth Parliament's recent training session with Children in Wales in preparation for the UK Youth Parliament Annual Sitting in November.  We also had an official response from the Vale Youth Service who set out what they plan to do with the recommendations we made in the Youth Service Satisfaction Report.  We are looking forward to meeting with the Senior Managers in March 2018 to review the progress that has been made.  More discussions took place about out priority work areas for this term of office including the Welsh Baccalaureate and low pupil moral, and gender equality in the PE curriculum.  We are hoping to invite some expert guest speakers to future meetings to gain more information on these topics which will help us set some objectives.