Author: Editor

To mark the 20th anniversary of the awards ceremony, James Cathcart went along to meet the young judges and hear their take on it. "I simply love going to the Children and Young People Awards dinner! Now in its 20th year the annual celebration at the Novotel West Hotel welcomed over 450 guests representing 100 finalists in 24 categories. Something of a marathon evening to ensure every finalist was acknowledged, but winners were sprinting, even dancing their way up to the stage, to the 'finish line' end of the evening. Despite yet another no-show from a minister, in this case the recently appointed Josh McAllister MP, but he did send a video message. “Lots of the work you do will be behind closed doors, won’t be seen by many people,…

Welcome to #YouthVoice News and Opportunities - a regular roundup from the world of youthvoice, participation, and influence. This week: Welsh Youth Parlt: Commissioner calls on Assembly to take it more seriously / Minister predicts joint session with Assembly Members | Teens launch High Court Action to challenge social media ban | The "Youth Participation Worker" professional - Reflections, Recommendations/ Josh Harsant, Youth  &Policy  - YVH Rec Read! | National Standards in health sector | Youth Work and Votesat16 - Presentation & Recommendations | Centre4YouthVoice November "Newsletter" |  Resources: Gamifying Democracy from the Politics Project & New Peer Research Toolkit - Centre4YouthVoice | plus the more Opportunities for young people and supporters | #YouthVoiceNews is produced by Young Voices Heard CIC as a non-profit venture, and edited by a volunteer.…

Welcome to #YouthVoice News and Opportunities - a regular roundup from the world of youthvoice, participation, and influence. This week: Feature length report on Lundy conference from Edinburgh - spotlight on Scottish Youth Parlt | #iwill week - What do You Stand For? |  Curriculum for Life - at last, another former BYC/UKYP campaign success | New Resources & Training  - Gamifying Democracy from the Politics Project & New Peer Research Toolkit - Centre4YouthVoice | plus the usual Opportunities for young people and supporters | Resources| YouthVoice News is produced by Young Voices Heard CIC as a non-profit venture, and edited by a volunteer. (more…)

"Through meaningful debate and campaigning, you champion the causes that matter the most to young people and help drive positive change in our society" The Prime Minister to members of the Youth Parliament, House of Commons, 6th November 2025 | Report and Reaction.. The Prime Minister's message was read out by Esther-Grace McClean (MYP for South Antrim/pictured) to over 240 members of the UK Youth Parliament who had gathered in the House of Commons chamber to debate five key issues chosen from their latest Manifesto, by their Programme Committee: housing, health, employment, crime, and sustainability. They also made speeches of tribute and remembrance marking 80 years since the end of the Second World War, and members representing the overseas territories and crown dependencies spoke to issues voted on by 5000…

Welcome to #YouthVoice News and Opportunities - a regular roundup from the world of youthvoice, participation, and influence. This week: #iwill fund for #youthvoice| Govt Youth Strategy latest | Young Voices Heard in Parliament | New Resources x 2  | Votesat16 x 2 free webinars | plus the usual Opportunities - Training and Events | YouthVoice News is produced by Young Voices Heard CIC as a non-profit venture, and edited by a volunteer. (more…)

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 - Membership Open| UKYP inquiry into PSHE | UKYP Govt evaluation | Votesat16 Watch | Opportunities - Training and Events | Opportunities - YouthVoice | YouthVoice News is produced by Young Voices Heard CIC as a non-profit venture, and edited by a volunteer. YOUTHVOICE HEARD - NEWS ⚡From BYC to Youth Council UK - membership open The National Youth Agency's "Youth Council Implementation Team" is inviting organisations to apply for membership of the new Youth Council UK. They can be a: national or local youth organisation; youth wings of political parties; any committee, network or body where young people have decision-making or…

Dan Lawes, at the age of 24, was appointed co-CEO of MyLifeMySay with responsibility for Growth and Partnerships. In the first of a new series for #YouthVoiceNews - #Profile&Platform, Dan shares his vision of hope with those attending the Next Gen Conference 25, at the Ministry of Sound, 18th Oct 2025. 'Profile' by James Cathcart and 'Platform' is Dan's opening speech in full, reproduced with permission. Profile I first met Dan when he was 16 when he invited me to attend a youth-led democratic engagement conference in Manchester in 2017, and Young Voices Heard has been offering support ever since. Whilst still at school he launched Youth Politics UK, a not for profit youth-led company promoting political education and voter registration, reaching 14,000 young people through 40 schools and colleges in…

This is the second of two articles about the transition from the British Youth Council's to the launch of Youth Council UK (YCUK) in the new year. The first was 'The Journey so Far. In this follow up my aim is to explore some of the recommendations of the National Youth Association's (NYA) consultation report 'What the Future Holds' (WTFH).  The aim of these articles is to stimulate debate on new membership categories, governance and management arrangements, as we await the publication of the Government's response (Youth Strategy) to its own #youthvoice consultation. 'What the Future Holds': Recommendations reviewed The 18 recommendations are clustered around nine topic headings and summarised below on the NYA website. which is what I've used below for brevity, but you can read the full text…