Welcome to #YouthVoice News and Opportunities – a regular roundup from the world of youthvoice, participation, and influence. This week: Editorial Feature “From BYC to Youth Council UK – Feature | Votesat16Watch – Webinar! Academics submit evidence/recs to Govt |Diana Award nominations | plus YouthVoice Opportunities. | YouthVoice News is produced by Young Voices Heard CIC as a non-profit venture, and edited by a volunteer.
YOUTHVOICE HEARD – NEWS
⚡ “From a British Youth Council to a Youth Voice Council”
Last week, ‘Youth Voice News’ posted NYAs timeline (below) to take forward the implementation of recommendations from the National Youth Agency’s consultation report ‘National Youth Council UK – What the Future Holds‘. This revealed that youth council membership would open in October, elections to go live in November, hustings in December and a launch event in January. Founder of Young Voices Heard and former CEO of the BYC 2008-2016, James Cathcart reflects on the context of the journey so far and the consultation report’s recommendations in two articles – CLICK “Part 1 The Journey So Far”, and “Part 2 What the Future Holds ” (Link coming soon]
” At the time of writing, we are still awaiting further details on proposals on membership and governance arrangements for the new Youth Council UK. (YCUK). We are also expecting the Government’s promised 10-year Youth Strategy, which must surely reference its role in supporting a revived national youth council. The aim of these articles is to offer a personal perspective on some of the issues, explore the bigger picture, and stimulate debate going forward. I own that much of this is influenced by my experience of serving a youth-led BYC some years ago, but I’ve taken into account the work of Young Voices Heard since then, and a range of other views shared with me about next steps. What do you think? ” James.
⚡Will the Kids Be Alright – Implementing Votes at 16, Webinar | 29th Oct, 2-3 pm
29th Oct 2025 | 2.00-3.00. Uni of Leeds in person or Live Stream – details This seminar will briefly provide an overview of the ‘road to Votes at 16’ before exploring contemporary political and policy debates, and how they inform UK Government’s current approach to lowering the voting age. It will argue that Votes at 16 could spark a political ‘franchise war’ while failing to adequately support 16 and 17 year-olds to vote unless a radically different approach is undertaken. It will conclude by outlining an evidenced-based policy pathway that is founded on a decade of research and working with policymakers across the UK by Dr Mycock and his research colleagues.
⚡Diana Award – Aged 16-24, nominations open until 31 October.
⚡Centre for Youth Voice – Free Training & Events
November 4th & November 10th – Youth Voice Co-Assessment Tool: An opportunity to learn and help develop our new tool to assess youth voice ahead of the launch in the New Year.
November 13th – Lundy Model Network Gathering: The event is open to organisations with experience of applying the Lundy Model of Participation across teams/ divisions/ departments, and who are able to evidence impact and share resources.
November 25th – Community of Practice: Evaluating Peer Research with Young People: We’re bringing organisations together to look at how we collectively evaluate the impact of peer research.
December 3rd – Authoring Our Own Stories Roundtable: Peer researchers working with Yorks & Humber Youth Work Unit, Youth Focus North West, Youth Focus South West and Partnership for Young London, come together to share key findings and common links across their research projects on a range of themes related to civic identity.
December 9th – Peer Research Toolkit Launch: Join us for the launch of our new Peer Research Toolkit, for organisations looking to involve young people in research.
February 24th – Community of Practice: Evidencing Impact and Change of Youth Voice: We’re bringing organisations together to look at how we collectively evidence the impact of youth voice.
Multiple dates – Involving Young People in Services: Professor Kaz Stuart is delivering three training sessions around creating opportunities, supporting, and evaluating young people’s involvement in services.
- January 13th – Creating High Quality Opportunities for Young People to be Involved in Services
- February 10th – Supporting Young People to be Involved in Services
- March 10th – Evaluating Young People’s Involvement in Services
Multiple dates – Peer Research Toolkit Training: Based on the toolkit, we are delivering 90-minute training sessions on different aspects of the peer research approach, with presentations and Q&As.
- January 20th – Introduction to peer research
- January 27th – Setup, recruitment, budgets of peer research
- February 3rd – Co-designing research aims and questions
- February 17th – Participatory research methods
- March 3rd – Ethics, safeguarding, and data protection
- March 17th – Conducting fieldwork with peer researchers
- April 14th – Involving young people in analysis
- April 28th – Impact and embedding participation
⚡Votesat16 Watch – Media Training / latest Poll of 16/17 yr-olds
⚡Youth Parliament intends to hold a Consultation and a Petition on Political Education. The Campaign Committee released a statement, “The campaign isn’t over until the law has changed. The motion that appears in the current UKYP manifesto [and voted at the House of Commons debate to be its priority campaign this year] also extends to education. We are intent on holding the Government to this promise and lobby for mandatory, in-depth, political education in schools on behalf of every young person in the UK… Firstly, we intend to start an E-petition titled “Require appropriate citizenship and political education in schools across the UK”. The goal is to reach 100,000 signatures and generate media coverage on it, to show the scale of support this campaign has. Secondly, to ensure this political education is implemented properly across all regions of the UK, we plan to run a consultation with teachers, education professionals and experts, and students aged 11-18, to ensure that their voices are heard. We will present the outcome of this consultation to the UK Government and devolved Governments so they can be more informed on how these lessons would be implemented in the most effective way possible- making them easy for students to understand and aiming to avoid adding pressure to teachers”. [YVH has asked |UKYP@NYA for more detail on when the petition will be launched and the consultation held Ed]
⚡Votesat16Watch – poll reveals most 16-17 year olds (59%) support lowering the voting age, but split on whether they feel informed enough to vote.More In Common – Sunday Times 16-17s
⚡Coming Up
⚡UK Youth Parliament debate in House of Commons – Thursday 6th November, (private event but usually broadcast on ParliamentTV. The UK Youth Parliament (hosted by the National Youth Agency is back in the Commons, but will not be voting to prioritise its campaigns for 2026. UKYP@NYA told us that “The second House of Commons Annual Sitting, as part of the 2024-2026 term of office, will be where MYPs will debate different chapters from the different [UKYP] Committee Reports. Unlike past events where MYPs have voted to prioritise different campaigns, the debate during the November 2025 Annual Sitting will be for MYPs to put forward their opinions on five different areas of debate – housing, health, employment, crime, and sustainability.”
⚡Youth Council UK – first meeting early November – to be confirmed if and when.
⚡18th Oct: Next Gen Conference (UK youth in democracy) for those aged 16-30/ Min of Sound https://lnkd.in/e5g6SefD
⚡13th November Laura Lundy Network Group event – Edinburgh “The Lundy Model Network (LinkedIn Group) are delighted to share our fourth in person gathering on 13th November 2025 at Edinburgh Training and Conference Venue 16 St Mary’s Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1SU 🎉 The event is open to organisations with experience of applying the Lundy Model of Participation across teams/ divisions/ departments, and who are able to evidence impact and share resources and expertise. With an opening address from Prof. Laura Lundy and other speakers to be confirmed. Workshops for the day include: Language of participation – Active listening – Vehicles for participation and youth advisory boards – Youth Justice and professional bias. Spaces are limited, so we ask organisations to limit 2 delegates per organisation; there will be 100 delegates in total. There is a charge of £50 to cover the cost of venue, refreshments, and lunch, info on the booking page. Register here. https://lnkd.in/ermadHgy
If you have an event open to all, or of significant interest, let us know.
RESOURCES:
⚡Youth Voice Annual Census 2025: results The voices of over 8,000 young people (aged 11-30 / UK, surveyed between Mar-June, + 11 focus groups with 72 young people) tell us how they feel about where they live, work, and study. (Youth Employment UK has conducted this census every year since 2018. Click Here for full Report. Key Findings in YouthVoiceNews 17th Sept Crime and violence is now the number one national issue (43%), overtaking leadership (22%) and the economy (38%). Locally, crime (37%) and safety (25%) are also the most common worries.
⚡Youth Voice Poll /Research: Views of 16 and 17-year-olds/ More In Common Aug 25 on Votes at 16 | Voting Intentions | Mental Health and WellBeing | Legacy of Lockdown | School | Vaping Smoking Drinking | Screentime, Social Media | Online Safety |AI | Feminism and Gender Equality | Pride and Patriotism | Monarchy | Climate Change | Boats crossing the Channel |…. and how their priorities diverge on the Big Issues compared with the wider public.Read the full report click : Source and Full Research results and tables: Sunday Times 16-17s Sample 1,000 / GB (Eng/Scot/Wales) 15-20th August 2025
YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES
Our pick #youthvoice opportunities. For a broader range of early career/skill-building roles, go to our friends’ website Youth Opportunities | Early Career and Skill Building roles in the UK
If you have a #youthvoice opportunity coming up, drop us a line info@youngvoicesheard.org.uk
⚡NEW: Health, aged 14-23 – Children and Young People Engagement Committee (Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health) If you are: interested in improving children and young people’s health💡 passionate about participation and engagement💡 want to volunteer to improve health services. This is the role for you! The Engagement Committee meets 4-6 times a year on a Saturday and is looking for new reps to join the group. To find out more and how to put in your expression of interest (deadline coming soon! 20th Oct) email and_us@rcpch.ac.uk or for an informal chat, get in touch!
⚡Opportunities to have your say – to the Children’s Commissioner England Ongoing survey on issues that you are worried about and want to change, what you’d do if you were Prime Minister, and your hopes and ambitions for the future.- The Big Conversation Survey only takes a few minutes to fill in, and you can share it with your friends, siblings, and parents/carers, who can fill it in for younger children or those with additional needs.
⚡Trustee positions – Interested in becoming a trustee? Only 3% of trustees are under the age of 30. Find under-30-friendly trustee boards through the Young Trustees Movement
For other YVH recommended resources, go to the www.YoungVoiceHeard.org.uk main website / RESOURCES, or click #YouthVoiceNews – Recommending Reads and Resources for a summary of what’s on the website.