Newcastle creates UK’s first independent Youth Council

The young people of Newcastle will soon have their voices heard at the highest level - as the city becomes the first in the UK to set up an independent Youth Council.

Newcastle City Council has teamed up with local charity Children North East to establish and support the Youth Council, which will see a group of city youngsters - aged between 13 and 19 - elected by their peers to work with local decision makers to make Newcastle more young person friendly.

The council will have a similar role to Newcastle’s existing Elder’s Council, an independent organisation run by and for older people in Newcastle to represent their views and concerns to the council and other local agencies.

A steering group of local young people will work with Children North East over the coming months to decide exactly how the council will work on a day to day basis and elections to the council are expected to take place in April.

John Collings, Executive Director of Children’s Services for Newcastle City Council said: “We already make a huge effort to involve children and young people in local decision-making and time and time again we are blown away and inspired by their enthusiasm, energy and ideas. The Newcastle Youth Council will be a fun, inclusive and valuable way of building on that work.

"It is really important that the Youth Council is completely independent from us so that not only is it credible to young people, but it genuinely empowers them to hold us accountable for how the decisions we make affect them, and it would appear we are the first local authority in the country to establish a Youth Council this way.”