Meetings

Youth Parliament update

Commissioners were updated about the first full event of the Youth Parliament, which had taken place the previous week.

The Llywydd described what an uplifting experience it had been and gave credit to those involved and all the preparatory work that had been done. 

The Youth Parliament meeting can be viewed here:

http://www.senedd.tv/Meeting/Archive/79aa22a2-0253-4a7e-badb-3baf239e5ff3?autostart=True

Arrangements to mark the Twentieth Anniversary of the National Assembly

Commissioners were provided with an update on arrangements to mark the National Assembly’s twentieth year commencing on the anniversary of the first election 6 May 2019.

Commissioners agreed that the anniversary provides a unique opportunity to connect with the people of Wales and wanted to see an increase in all parts of the country. They discussed opportunities to involve AM’s and creating opportunities for them to lead events in their own constituencies and regions, emphasising the particular importance of reaching out to disadvantaged and disengaged communities. 

Commissioners discussed the importance of Assembly Members being committed to participating in these types of activities, whether as individuals or as part of committees, learning lessons from Senedd@ exercises.

They discussed in some detail the prospect of holding a Citizens’ Assembly and the role this could play in stimulating ideas to contribute to the future work of the Assembly.  Various models were available, the proposal favoured involving demographically balanced recruitment of participants by a specialist firm.

This letter provides an update on the Youth Parliament project.

Non Gwilym presented a draft paper, due to be discussed at the Commission in September, following the public consultation on the key principles of a youth parliament. The paper summarised the results of the consultation, options for the next steps and the financial, operational and reputational issues to consider.

An Equality Impact Assessment was being prepared with the Diversity and Inclusion team, with feed in by external stakeholders, to ensure that hard to reach groups were included.

Management Board discussed the options outlined on how an election and the first two years of the youth parliament might be delivered, either: within the current organisational resource, de-prioritising, delaying or stopping other activities to accommodate it; providing alternative support, such as online education resources to release staff; or through bringing in additional resources (it was recognised that it would still have an impact on current staff at key points in the youth parliament year and those with specific skills to support, for example, the Research and Legal teams).

ACTIONS:

·                Non Gwilym to include in the final paper the options for delivery and describe what any extra resource would look like; the ongoing committed costs to continue the parliament once established and the impact on other teams in the organisation.

·                Management Board members to assist Non in populating the section on the impact on other teams.

The first youth parliament steering group meeting had been held on Monday 13 February. 

The next steps will be to consider how the youth parliament should work with the Assembly – in terms of its relationship with Members and committees, and around governance arrangements.

The intention is that a model for a draft constitution for a youth parliament can be consulted on after the Easter recess.