(time limit 20 minutes)
Every year the United Kingdom Youth Parliament (UKYP) holds a UK-wide ballot called ‘Make Your Mark’. Make Your Mark allows all young people to express which issues are most important to them and vote on what they think Members of the Youth Parliament should campaign on for the year ahead. In Oldham we have 2 MYPs in Amber Powell and Georgia Loynds.
On the 11th November 2016 Members of Youth Parliament will come together, at the UKYP House of Commons sitting, to debate the top 5 issues from ‘Make your Mark’ then decide and vote the most important issues to campaign on for the year ahead.
This year the Make Your Mark ballot papers included:
· Votes at 16. Give 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote in all public elections
· A Curriculum to prepare us for life. Schools should cover topics including finance, sex and relationships and politics in the curriculum.
· First Aid Education for All Young People. All young people should learn basic First Aid, on a regular basis, including CPR, and all schools in the UK should have a defibrillator.
· Mental health. Services should be improved with young people’s help and mental health education should be compulsory and challenge stereotypes.
· Transport. Make public transport cheaper, better and accessible for all.
· Stop cuts that affect the NHS. Funding that affects the NHS shouldn’t be cut. We must keep up vital services to protect young people.
· Fund our youth services, don’t cut them. Youth services provide us with vital support, development opportunities and positive activities.
· Body Image. More needs to be done to raise awareness on body image issues, particularly the effects of negative body image on mental health. Bullying connected to body image should be challenged and reduced.
· Raising Awareness of Sexual Harassment in schools. Let’s raise awareness of sexual harassment in schools so that young people affected don’t suffer in silence and can get support from schools and teachers.
· Tackling racism and religious discrimination, particularly against people who are Muslim or Jewish. All young people should work together to combat racism andother forms of discrimination, and ensure we know the dangers of such hatred.
Make Your Mark in Oldham was co-ordinated by Oldham Youth Council with our Youth Councillors and support staff contacting the schools and asking them to complete ballots in form time or assemblies. The Youth Councillors then took the ballot papers to youth groups and organisations to capture those young people not educated in Oldham or whose school did not participate.
Make Your Mark 2016 was, once again, a success in Oldham. Out of the 16 mainstream secondary schools and colleges, Make Your Mark was delivered in 15 of them. While not all schools had great turnouts it was good to see schools recognising the need for democracy and political education for their students. We would also like to make special mention for North Chadderton School, Saddleworth School and The Hathershaw College all who balloted over 1000 of their students. The Radclyffe School also took Make Your Mark to heart asking their students, during their PHSE lessons, to write speeches on the issue they had chosen. We were lucky enough to have Radclyffe students present the top 5 speeches at our youth council meeting.
So the suspense is now over, how many young people took part in Make Your Mark? In total, across the UK, Make Your Mark got the opinions of 978,216 young people just missing the 1million target given to the UKYP. The North West was again the best region, balloting 194,091 young people more than any other region and the turnout of 31.9% was also the highest across the country.
In Oldham this year, it is my pleasure to announce that we were able to consult with 14,013 young people (approximately 200 more the last year) which represents a turnout of 58.7%. We believe this is the Biggest ever youth consultation held in Oldham! This is the 2nd highest turnout, behind Manchester, across the 23 North West authorities and 7th highest turnout across the 224 UK authorities and districts. We also have 2 amazing Youth Councillors Alex Robinson who personally got 2691 votes and Andrew Shillito who got 2117 votes, 24th and 38th highest in the UK respectively.
Now the important bit – the results for Oldham.
The top 3 issues for Oldham, identified by Oldham young people are:
· ‘Mental Health’ with 1535 votes
· ‘Curriculum to Prepare us for Life’ with 1677 votes
· ‘Tackling racism and religious discrimination’ with 2487 votes
These issues are all covered by the priorities currently being undertaken by Oldham Youth Council for this term of office, showing that we definitely have the finger on the pulse of what young people are thinking in Oldham today.
The young people of Oldham have spoken! What we need to do now is act on what young people have told us. We need to work with Oldham Council and our partners to look at how we can address these 3 priorities identified by young people. With over half the youth population participating in this it is vital we respond.
We ask Full Council to note the results of the consultation and to work with us to explore how we can address these priorities within Oldham.
Minutes:
The Youth Council attended the meeting and addressed the Council on the following motion:
“Every year the United Kingdom Youth Parliament (UKYP) holds a UK-wide ballot called ‘Make Your Mark’. Make Your Mark allows all young people to express which issues are most important to them and vote on what they think Members of the Youth Parliament should campaign on for the year ahead. In Oldham we have 2 MYPs in Amber Powell and Georgia Loynds.
On the 11th November 2016 Members of Youth Parliament will come together, at the UKYP House of Commons sitting, to debate the top 5 issues from ‘Make your Mark’ then decide and vote the most important issues to campaign on for the year ahead. This year the Make Your Mark ballot papers included:
· Votes at 16. Give 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote in all public elections
· A Curriculum to prepare us for life. Schools should cover topics including finance, sex and relationships and politics in the curriculum.
· First Aid Education for All Young People. All young people should learn basic First Aid, on a regular basis, including CPR, and all schools in the UK should have a defibrillator.
· Mental health. Services should be improved with young people’s help and mental health education should be compulsory and challenge stereotypes.
· Transport. Make public transport cheaper, better and accessible for all.
· Stop cuts that affect the NHS. Funding that affects the NHS shouldn’t be cut. We must keep up vital services to protect young people.
· Fund our youth services, don’t cut them. Youth services provide us with vital support, development opportunities and positive activities.
· Body Image. More needs to be done to raise awareness on body image issues, particularly the effects of negative body image on mental health. Bullying connected to body image should be challenged and reduced.
· Raising Awareness of Sexual Harassment in schools. Let’s raise awareness of sexual harassment in schools so that young people affected don’t suffer in silence and can get support from schools and teachers.
· Tackling racism and religious discrimination, particularly against people who are Muslim or Jewish. All young people should work together to combat racism and other forms of discrimination, and ensure we know the dangers of such hatred.
Make Your Mark in Oldham was co-ordinated by Oldham Youth Council with our Youth Councillors and support staff contacting the schools and asking them to complete ballots in form time or assemblies. The Youth Councillors then took the ballot papers to youth groups and organisations to capture those young people not educated in Oldham or whose school did not participate.
Make Your Mark 2016 was, once again, a success in Oldham. Out of the 16 mainstream secondary schools and colleges, Make Your Mark was delivered in 15 of them. While not all schools had great turnouts it was good to see schools recognising the need for democracy and political education for their students. We would also like to make special mention for North Chadderton School, Saddleworth School and The Hathershaw College all who balloted over 1000 of their students. The Radclyffe School also took Make Your Mark to heart asking their students, during their PHSE lessons, to write speeches on the issue they had chosen. We were lucky enough to have Radclyffe students present the top 5 speeches at our youth council meeting. So the suspense is now over, how many young people took part in Make Your Mark? It total, across the UK, Make Your Mark got the opinions of 978,216 young people just missing the 1 million target given to the UKYP. The North West was again the best region, balloting 194,091 young people more than any other region and the turnout of 31.9% was also the highest across the country.
In Oldham this year, it is my pleasure to announce that we were able to consult with 14,013 young people (approximately 200 more than last year) which represents a turnout of 58.7%. We believe this is the Biggest ever youth consultation held in Oldham! This is the second highest turnout, behind Manchester, across the 23 North West authorities and 7th highest turnout across the 224 UK authorities and districts. We also have 2 amazing Youth Councillors Alex Robinsons who personally got 2691 votes and Andrew Shillito who got 2117 votes, 24th and 28th highest in the UK respectively.
Now the important bit – the results for Oldham.
The top 3 issues for Oldham, identified by Oldham young people are:
· ‘Mental Health’ with 1535 votes
· ‘Curriculum to Prepare us for Life’ with 1677 votes
· ‘Tacking racism and religious discrimination’ with 2487 votes
These issues are all covered by the priorities currently being undertaken by Oldham Youth Council for this term of office, showing that we definitely have the finger on the pulse of what young people are thinking in Oldham today.
The young people of Oldham have spoken! What we need to do now is act on what young people have told us. We need to work with Oldham Council and our partners to look at how we can address these 3 priorities by young people. With over half the youth population participating in this it is vital we respond.
We ask Full Council to note the results of the consultation and to work with us to explore how we can address these priorities within Oldham.
Councillor Stretton, Leader of the Council responded by noting the results. It was fantastic that the Youth Council were punching above their weight and thanked them for the report.
Councillor Chauhan commented on the motion and referred to the Obesity Motion. The Youth Council responded that a top priority was health and aimed to tackle oral hygiene.
Councillor Williamson commented on the motion. She referred to the First Aid Education in the Curriculum and congratulated the Youth Council on the fantastic job.
RESOLVED that the Youth Council motion be noted.