A message to Young Wales volunteers regarding the closure of BYC

Hi Young Wales Volunteers,

My name is Fran, and I’m the Delivery Lead for Wales for UK Youth Parliament (UKYP). I work with Local Authority Participation Officers and Members of Youth Parliament in Wales to deliver the UKYP programme. I also work as a Development Officer on the Young Wales team at Children in Wales.

This message will talk about the closure of the British Youth Council, and the impact this will have on the UKYP service, as well as the young people who access the programme. Reading this message, it may be that you have previously been involved in UKYP, or it could be you were hoping to get involved in the future.

The UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) is a service that was provided by the company British Youth Council (BYC), and funded by the UK Government. BYC announced their permanent closure on Friday 22^nd March due to financial challenges.

The UK Government has said that they wish to continue the UKYP programme, and they are carrying out research on how to do this, and what this may look like.

This process may take a long time, and the UK Government don’t know when UKYP may be running again as normal.

In light of this, Children in Wales have recommended that Welsh Local Authorities take a pause in their involvement in UKYP, until we have a clear plan in action by the UK Government.

We are doing this, because we want to make sure that there is a clear plan for UKYP before Welsh Local Authorities continue to get involved in the programme, to ensure Children’s Rights come first. We don’t know what is happening with UKYP at the moment, so we do not want to promise amazing opportunities to young people that may not happen later on.

We still want to offer young people a chance to have their voices heard by decision makers and those in government – therefore we encourage the young people involved in UKYP to sign up to our Young Wales programme, as well as continue to work with your local Youth Participation service.

Young Wales have multiple different boards and groups which young people can get involved with, and they will be starting up again on Saturday 13^th April.

You can find more information about our Young Wales programme here:

Website
Instagram

Please feel free to email us at info@childreninwales.org.uk for more information, and more information will be released soon.

I apologise that we cannot answer everybody’s questions at the moment, and we are waiting for answers from the UK Government also. Deciding the future of the UKYP programme might be a long process, and will require a lot of work from the UK Government.

However, Children in Wales continues to strive for the voices of Welsh young people to be valued and listened to in decision-making, and we hope to continue to provide these opportunities moving forward.

Thank you very much for reading, and please do get in touch or speak to your Youth Council Participation Worker if you have any questions.

Very best wishes,

Fran Hoey

Development Officer, Participation

Young Wales