Youth participation in United Kingdom
Is there a national youth council, representing young people in your country? If yes, please provide the name, number of member organisations and number of young members.
YES - Scottish Youth Parliament with 146 members
Is there a ministry dealing concretely with the youth affairs in your country? If yes, please provide the name of the ministry.
YES - SCCYP Scottish Commissioner for Children and Young People
Does the government in your country has a specific youth policy/youth strategy?
YES
From what age are young people allowed to vote in the elections? If different age for different elections (parliamentary, local, regional, etc.), please specify.
18 for elected members, 14 for Scottish Youth parliament, 12 for South Lanarkshire Youth Council
From what age are young people allowed to be elected in the elections to the representative bodies? If different age for different elections (parliamentary, local, regional, etc.), please specify.
18 for elected members, 14 for Scottish Youth parliament, 12 for South Lanarkshire Youth Council
Are there any youth participation initiatives at the local level (in municipalities), e.g. local youth parliaments/youth councils, meetings of young people with decision-makers? Please describe.
South Lanarkshire Youth Council- The Youth Council gives Youth People a formal voice within their community. With the advent of the new unitary authority it was decided to incorporate a youth council to run in tandem. (8 0f which are in the Scottish Youth parliament)
Corporate Connection Board- CCB started as a result of taking forward Community Learning and Development in relation to young people. At the same time Community planning was beginning and it was agreed that a youth theme partnership should exist as part of the Community Planning structure.
Users Groups- Making decisions for the young people by the young people in the local youth centres.
Are there youth participation/decision-making bodies at schools, e.g. school parliaments, student councils, etc.? Please describe.
Student Council in every secondary School in South Lanarkshire (17 in total)
Are there are youth parliaments or other youth participation bodies on the national level? Please describe.
Scottish Youth Parliament
The SYP started in 1999 in Edinburgh and is getting stronger every year. We listen to young people and understand what issues are important to them and then campaign to try to make Scotland a better place for young people.
We do this through our Members (MSYPs) who are elected young people aged between 14 and 25 representing different areas and voluntary organisations from across the whole of Scotland. Every year we have at least four national meetings where we discuss issues which affect young people and try to propose new and sometimes radical solutions to these problems.
What’s even better is that there’s no party politics in the SYP, we do what we do to make sure young people are involved in the big decisions.
We are a young people’s parliament, designed by young people, led by young people for the benefit of young people. The SYP is totally youth-led, all of our Trustees are 25 and under.
The SYP doesn’t just consult when it wants to, we are keen that you can tell us what you think at any time and have established lots of ways to make this happen. Aside from the local consultation through our Members, we regularly go out to schools, youth events and the like to see first hand what the issues are.
Is there any kind of education to youth participation/active citizenship included in the school curricula in your country, e.g. civic education? Please describe.
Citizenship is part of the school curricula
Do media inform about youth issues? Are young people involved in media and their production, e.g. as journalists? Please describe.
Core Connex- Where young people are involved in developing their own island within an virtual world adn social network of Second Life.
Our island will feature games and activities designed to promote and develop life skills and knowledge of web 2 technologies of young people. We are also involved in film making and developing web sites for Universal Connections.
Are there youth information centres, official youth websites or other sources of youth information available for young people? Please describe.
www.lanlinks.org
Are young people in your country informed about the European youth policy and its priorities? What do you think can be done to make young people aware about this? Please describe.
Yes we are involved in International Youth exchanges
The youth council support the pupil councils in schools and presents at open days
We have a Youth Strategy every 3 years
We have a Youth Action Plan every year.
Some young people know more about it than others.
Author: Youth Learning Services
E-mail: lynn.ruddock@southlanarkshire.gov.uk
The surveys were submitted by the participants of the YouthVoice project from the respective EU Member States. The questionnaires were part of their preparation for the Youth Voice project and each national group had to undertake a small research about youth participation in their country. The organisers cannot guarantee correctness of the answers.