A presentation to introduce Rotherham Youth Cabinet and set the context for the choice of health and wellbeing as the theme for the Children’s Takeover Challenge.
Minutes:
The Chair, Alex G, introduced herself and confirmed she had been a member of the Youth Cabinet since February. She issued a warm welcome from Rotherham Youth Cabinet and members of the UK Youth Parliament. She invited other Youth Cabinet Members to introduce themselves and to give a brief history on how long they had been involved with the Youth Cabinet. They included:-
Tom
Ashaz
Amogh
Alex B
Tilly
Mabrookah
Zac
Giancarlo
Harrison
Hope
Dillon
Nana
Falak
Lilia
A new promotional video was shown providing information about Rotherham’s Youth Cabinet and Youth Parliament. The video set out how the Youth Cabinet worked, how it was made up, decision making having a positive impact on the lives of young people across Rotherham and how it consulted with young people to tackle issues they faced.
The Youth Cabinet provided young people with a voice. The Youth Cabinet had two elected members of the Youth Parliament which were elected nationally. They were elected every two years and made sure that the youth voice was heard.
The Youth Cabinet also assisted with interviewing county directors and commissioning people for the borough. In addition, this included attending civic events like the Remembrance Day Parade.
Every year a new manifesto was developed and launched at the Town Hall and this included issues raised by young people through discussions, and consultations. The aim was to work with people throughout Rotherham in order to create positive change. This could be with elected members, officers and directors from the Council, representatives from schools, charities and even regional mayors and MP’s.
The Youth Cabinet also worked with other young people locally, regionally and nationally to strengthen its voice, such as young people's police independent advisory groups.
The Youth Cabinet also worked with other groups such as the Youth Parliament, South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, Regional Youth Climate Assembly, Regional Ethnic Minority Youth Group and others.
A further presentation about the Youth Cabinet detailed what the Youth Cabinet was all about. Further information was provided on the Youth Cabinet’s Manifesto 2023/24 which involved over 4000 young people taking part in the consultation.
Health and Wellbeing came out as the issue nationally and locally with the Manifesto’s aims for 2024 including:-
· Health and Wellbeing.
· Vaping and Smoking.
· Climate Action.
· Anti Violence.
· Religious Education.
This Take Over Day Challenge was a fun, imaginative and exciting activity to encourage organisations across England to open their doors to children and young people to take over adult roles. It put children and young people into decision-making positions and encouraged organisations and businesses to hear their views.
This year’s Take-Over Challenge had chosen health and wellbeing as a theme and was broken down into four sections:-
? Section 1 Vaping
? Section 2 Mental Health
? Section 3 Physical Health
? Section 4 Healthy Eating
The top two issues were mental health and crime and safety. This national result mirrored what young people in Rotherham said and they had voted mental health and crime as the main issues in Rotherham.
During campaign work around health and wellbeing, the Youth Cabinet aimed to raise awareness around the risk to health from vaping and smoking and in doing so to look at issues around marketing and promotion of vapes aimed at young people.
Mental health and wellbeing was important and as a result the Youth Cabinet was campaigning on improving services for young people. Its aim was to promote projects, groups, sessions which young people could access in order to support their wellbeing.
Work already undertaken included collaboration with:-
· With me in Mind.
· Podcast.
· Mental Health Awareness Day.
· Support to CaMHS.
· Exam stress.
In terms of the Youth Cabinet’s themes in its manifesto it was confirmed that of the vaping market:-
• 20.5% of all young people have tried vaping.
• 43% of vapers mostly use disposable vapes.
• 143 million vapes were discarded annually.
• 8 out of 10 purchased their vape via a third-party seller.
• Vaping among 15-year-old girls rose from 10% in 2018 to 21%.
• 57% of teenage vapours buy them from a shop, mostly newsagents, and this figure rose 29% in the last three years.
Given the concerns, the ingredients used in vapes and the health risks it was believed this should be looked into further and the Takeover Day was a first-class platform to do this.
Mental Health was also a huge issue in Rotherham with 4595 children and young people being referred to mental health services between April 2021 and March 2022. According to the action for children, one in six children aged five to sixteen were likely to have a mental health problem. This figure had gone up by 50% in the last three years,
In addition, the proportion of young people aged seventeen to nineteen in England with a probable mental health disorder jumped from one in six to one in four. Mind and mental health support service for young people suggested that secondary schools were struggling to meet the needs of young people with mental health problems.
A recent survey from approximately 2,000 young people across the UK found 96% reported that their mental health had affected their school work at some point. UK Youth highlighted that a lack of youth services contributed to an increase in mental health issues for several reasons. Firstly, without access to supportive programs and resources, young people may feel isolated and unable to cope with stressors in real life. Additionally, limited services could mean fewer opportunities for positive social interactions, which were essential for emotional wellbeing.
When young people could not access mental health support, it could lead to untreated health issues which escalated over time, resulting in higher prevalence of anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges. Mental health was a big issue for young people, and this was also evident in the make your mark consolation results.
The next issue for the Youth Cabinet was physical health. There was a strong scientific NHS evidence that being physically active could help you lead a healthier and happier life. Exercise could reduce the risk of major illnesses, such as coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and cancer and lower the risk of early death by up to 30%.
The NHS also stated that regular exercise had lots of health benefits for children and young people, such as providing an opportunity to socialise, increased concentration, improving academic scores, building stronger heart, bones and healthier muscles, improving self-esteem, lowering stress and improving mental health.
Finally, healthy eating was chosen as a subject to highlight today's takeover day meeting. Eating a healthy balanced diet was an important part of maintaining good health and reducing the risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers. Government guidance stated that healthy eating was important as childhood excess weight was a significant health issue for individual children. Nearly a third of children aged two to fifteen, about 28%, were overweight or obese, and younger generations were becoming obese at earlier ages and staying obese for longer.
Public Health England highlighted that there could be serious implications for the physical and mental health of a child, which could follow on into adulthood with significant health inequalities for the poorest families.
Rotherham’s Youth Cabinet wanted to support the ambition of the Government to halve childhood obesity rates by 2030 and significantly reduce the health inequalities that persisted.
These were the reasons why Rotherham’s Youth Cabinet have chosen health and wellbeing for the theme of today's takeover day.