Agenda item

The Chairman invited Collette McCarthy, Head of Children’s Joint Commissioning Barnet CCG-LBB to present on Youth Parliament.  

The Committee heard from three Barnet Youth Parliament members who spoke about each of their projects.

Richard spoke in detail about his ideas to raise awareness among young people around mental health and to improve mental health and wellbeing support in schools. He also noted the need to tackle the stigma associated with mental health. Mr Munday spoke about the services available such as;

-       partnership working with schools to raise awareness of mental health services,

-       resilience schools programme,

-       mental health first aid training,

-       mental health training and

-       KOOTH online mental health support and counselling services.

Officers welcomed the initiative and agreed to work closely with Richard to explore avenues and share ideas in order to help raise awareness of the support services available to young people. (Action)

The Committee heard from Savan, who spoke about his campaign to develop an online platform and raise awareness of mental health distress and the support that is available to young people. Savan also informed the Committee about his plans to raise awareness of CAMHS services and to work with the Communications Team to design a leaflet for his campaign.

Lara spoke about her project which centred around the issue of repayment and funding towards higher education and universities. She informed Members about the survey which is being developed to record the views of young people which will also be rolled out to graduates, interns and apprentices as well as school leavers. Lara stated that she also wishes to raise a petition to be discussed in Parliament and that she would develop an information booklet to address any lack of information on this topic.

The Chairman welcomed the representations from the Youth Parliament members and the Committee commended their work and expressed interest in hearing about their progress in the future. (Action: Forward Work Programme)

The Chairman invited Abi Lewis, Governance Officer who presented the third annual Youth Assembly report to the Committee. The Committee noted the motions which were debated during 2017-18. In response of the motion on p. 101 on study areas in libraries, it was also agreed that further information would be provided on study areas to promote its use.

It was unanimously RESOLVED:

1.    That the Committee noted the report on the progression of the existing UK Youth Parliament members and recognise the campaigns of the new UK Youth Parliament members as laid out within the report.

2.    That the Committee agreed the actions that the Council is going to take to meet the manifesto commitments outlined by Barnet’s UK Youth Parliament members.

3.    That the Committee commented on, and endorsed, the successful motions raised by the 2017-18 Youth Assembly, as outlined in Appendix 1.

4.    That the Committee noted and commented on – where applicable – the officers’ response to the successful motions of the Youth Assembly.

5.    That the Committee noted the findings of the Barnet Young People Survey at Appendix 2.