Young Flintshire is a young people voice model where issues raised by young people can be put forward to decision makers and young people can give feedback on current and new initiatives across the Council.
Flintshire Youth Council and three School Council representatives (11-18 years) from each secondary school in Flintshire feed into Young Flintshire. The forum is supported by Youth Service and Health Promoting Schools Officers.
Youth Council
2 representatives invited to formal meetings.
Secondary School Councils
3 representatives invited to formal meetings.
The journey to today
Youth Council has been established for many years overseen by Youth Service. The team speak to various groups of young people aged 11-25 years who want to have their voice heard and speak to decision makers.
Secondary schools have a School Council or Senedd model that leads on pupil voice with other learner voice groups within each school setting. Through Flintshire Healthy Schools carrying out learner voice work on Food & Drink provision and other areas where representatives from all schools attend there seems to be an opportunity to strengthen young people having their voice heard and speak to decision makers on a more regular basis.
To strengthen young people’s voice in Flintshire, a model where both Youth Council and School Councils could collaborate to lead on young people voice across Flintshire was piloted in Summer 2024.
In June 2024, two learners from each secondary school council and representatives from Youth Council were invited to County Hall, to explore key findings from the Young people Spring ‘3 Issues’ Consultation. They were then tasked with conducting a consultation within their schools and community settings on:
- Mental health and wellbeing
- School and education
- Community - amenities and safety
Councillor Mared Eastwood chaired a follow-up meeting in July 2024 with the learners to review the findings with delegated officers from the local authority to share their responses, initiatives, and other relevant information regarding the issues outlined in the reports.
Further information on the pilot can be viewed following the links:
In Autumn 2024, the official launch for Young Flintshire took place. The work programme for 2024-2025 continued to focus on the ‘3 issues.’ Further information on the work programme for 2024-2025 can be viewed following the links below: