British Youth Council has closed… what next?

The British Youth Council has closed after 75 years. (BYC Announcement). YVH founder and former CEO of BYC (2008-2016), James Cathcart, reflects on the news and explores next steps.

[Note this blog was written in March 24 and James has written updated in weekly editions of Youth Voice News and in two special blogs on the new national youth council: BYC to YCUK Part 1 The Journey So Far and BYC to YCUK Part 2 What Will the Future Hold. You can also find resources on the former BYC Manifesto, Vision and Values, Annual Review, Rule book in the Young Voices Heard/Resources /Library for reference].

“This is a significant loss to the both the youth sector and civil society as a whole. As a former CEO of BYC and a former youth worker, my first thoughts were for the young board, the alumni, the staff team, and all the young people affected. When I left BYC in 2016 I founded Young Voices Heard to be a platform to campaign for young voices to be heard, as many other stakeholders have done in the past, and will continue to do, inspired by the underlying purpose of BYC, to amply youth voice and influence in public life. Over 700,000 viewed the Twitter announcement of BYCs closure, with dozens posting tributes – a massive response. Many share the vision, before and since BYC, that society and its future would be better off if our future stakeholders, leaders and changemakers had a stake in shaping society today. The charity may have closed but young leaders, having found their voice, will surely revive a new national forum, stronger louder and heard. A new age for #youthvoice.

[UPDATE Oct 24 – if you have read this far – note that since this blog was written the National Youth Agency have won a tender to continue the UKYouth Parlt contract until March25, bought the assets of the charity the British Youth Council, and announced a consultation on the future a new National Youth Council Sept – Dec 2024). Go to latest news blog – A National Youth Council Review.] .. and read on.  Ed 25.10.24]

BYC’s long history and legacy has inspired many young people to believe that their voice matters. It certainly ‘Made its Mark’ on many lives, as it did on mine when I served there! The reaction has been a mixture of shock and regret for the loss of what BYC represented, some anger at the emerging story behind its sudden closure, but optimism that the journey wont end with the closure of a charity. Its worth remembering that for most of its history it only had one member of staff (a Secretary General) and that elected member representatives were its core volunteer activists, developing campaigns and lobbying government in the UK and overseas. BYC had many form in its history – a delegation funded by the foreign office, an independent charity run by volunteer activists, before becoming a blend of public sector programmes and services, including the Govt funded Youth Parliament.

Youth Council 2025 – Revived and Reformed

Having a  National Youth Council is now an accepted part of our nations civil society infrastructure and all its member organisations and partners in the regions of England and three nations exist. The model has been replicated around the world in many different forms. Many of BYCs largest founding members, were still subscribers before it closed –  NUS, Scouts, Girl Guiding and local youth councils. One of its flagship programmes infrastructure and members of the Youth Parliament, many recently elected, are still active and vocal. Their Steering Group has reconvened as a rallying point and have been with Govt/ DCMS to ensure they are not overlooked by decision-makers planning next steps for the continuation of its two year contract until March 2025. [Subscribe to News Blogs or follow Twitter/X YVH_YouthVoice for updates].

Individual youth parliament members and supporters also signed an open letter written by my local MYP Hayden Cutler (18), have already put together over 300 signatures to an to the Ministerial team at DCMS who manage the Youth Voice programme which includes the UK Youth Parliament, Make Your Mark vote, Youth Select Committee and Policy group. They want to know how this came about and what are the plans for the future – as a programme is still in the middle of a tendered contract to BYC until March 2025 and part of the Governments commitment to hearing youthvoice in Government. I expect this will continue with a new host. [The Minister Stuart Andrew MP has replied reassuring that his department is exploring options with a view to continuing the programme – see next News Blog]

I expect many of BYC’s member organisations will now be considering how best to reconvene as interim national youth council and will ensure young people take the lead in determining its future, whilst maintaining the independence and passion of its youth voice leadership to take forward current campaigns such as on ‘mental health and well-being’, ‘cost of living’ and ‘votes at 16’ [Former BYC Trustee and member of Youth Parliament Lloyd Russel-Moyle MP and NUS are cohosting an event in June to facilitate a youthled discussion about this. [UPDATE – this event was cancelled because of the General Election 2024 and we’ve had to wait until National Youth Agency took the initiative, in the absence of former membership organisations Ed 25.10.24)

UKYP contract continues 

“I was CEO at BYC when the UK Youth Parliament, was itself formerly managed by another charity facing closure, and rescued by BYC following a collaborative effort involving Parliament, Regional Youth Work Units and Local Authorities. UKYP has since turned into a Government part-funded tender, which was due to run until March 2025.  A similar process is underway with a number of national youth organisations and the Youth Steering Group, in talks with Government. I expect some will be invited to submit proposals to host a slimmer more realistically funded version of the current contract, pending a bigger debate and review into the future of the UKs national youth council and youth voice infrastructure in general. I would call on the new host to make public their commitment to ensuring it is secure, independent and youthled. Our collective ambition is to surely restore its governance to an autonomous organisation with a dedicated youthled vision. Its permanent home may well still be as part of the national youth council.

Youth Citizen Commission 2025

Surely there is also a role for  government to also follow up their commitment to the integration of  #youthvoice and #influence into public life, to now facilitate a youth-led review that ensures a new national youth council and the representation of youth voice, is sustainably secure going forward, yet independent, such as the role of the semi-autonomous body like the Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England, a role BYC lobbied for”.

I’d recommend and call on the next Government to set up a Commission for Youth Engagement in Democracy, to take account of changes in last decade (Votes at 16, Youth Assembly and Parliaments in Northern Ireland And Wales, regional and city devolution, and the growing youthvoice movement across many other youth in democracy organisations.

The Young Voices Heard campaign is ready to help in anyway and has contacted and working with DCMS, youth representatives and other networks to ensure the UKYP contract is delivered and a wider debate is held, with young voices heard, to ensure a national youth council is restored as soon as possible, possibly in a different form.

We will have a new Government at the end of the year. I will be lobbying parties to introduce a Youth Minster, with Cabinet representation, to be the focal point for listening and acting on #youthvoice, coordinating responses, and ensuring youthvoice will be embedded and protected within civil society, no longer vulnerable to the ups and downs of third sector funding, by commissioning a Youth Engagement in Democracy Review.