Youth Council

Harborough District Youth Council

The Harborough District Youth Council was established in January 2025 for 11–18-year-olds who live or go to school in the district. The Youth Council was created to hear the voices of the young people in the district and to give them the opportunity to work on matters that are important to them.

Currently, the Youth Council has members from Welland Park Academy, Robert Smyth Academy, Kibworth Mead, Lutterworth High, Lutterworth College, Leicester Grammar School and Beauchamp College. It has recently formed a leadership team made up of a chair, vice chair, secretary, treasurer, media and communications officer and outreach and inclusion officer:-

Chair - Isobel, Beauchamp College
Vice Chair and Secretary - Melika, Robert Smyth Academy
Treasurer - Amelia, Beauchamp College
Media and Communications Officer - Amelie, Lutterworth College
Outreach and Inclusion Officer - Rosie, Leicester Grammar School, Stoneygate

News

East and East Midlands Youth Voice event

Another exciting opportunity that came up for the Youth Council was a Youth Voice event that was held in Mansfield and ran by Young Leicestershire and the East and East Midlands Regional Youth Work Unit.

The Youth Council were invited to attend during half term and four members and Youth Engagement officer Becca went on the train to Mansfield to take part.

They took part in three workshops including:

“Migration and Hope” - a journey for a young person to find sanctuary, to help strengthen young people’s knowledge and confidence in tackling major social issues such as conflict and migration (pictured on the right)
Youth Matters - Your National Youth Strategy, where an employee from The Department of Culture, Media and Sport talked to the young people about the new strategy, strengthening the voice of young people to direct the future of youth services and thinking about what the new strategy means for young people
‘My Life, My Say’ Democracy Café - voting for 16+, which supported young people to understand how their voice, vote and lived experiences can contribute to local and national change.

The young people found the event really interesting and exciting, they met and spoke to different people from across the East and East Midlands, they discussed and debated some important topics and overall had a great day out!

February 2026 meeting

At our last meeting which was held on Thursday 12 February at Welland Park Academy, to support the Youth Council's priority around the environment, we welcomed HDC's Environmental Services team.

They spoke to the Youth Council about what their team does, what they're responsible for such as recycling, different types of waste and what happens to it and the introduction of food waste.The team are welcoming a whole new fleet of vehicles soon and they’re hoping to have them named. We asked the Youth Council for different theme ideas they think that it would be good to include.

At this meeting we also looked at a communications plan; the Youth Council now has a logo they will soon be launching and along with this we are doing some work around the best way to keep stakeholders up to date and informed with the work of the Youth Council. They identified some different stakeholders such as young people, parents, councillors, schools and the local community. They thought about the best methods of communication for these and the importance of keeping them informed.

The Youth Council’s media and communications officer will work with officers to develop this into a communications plan and take the lead on putting it into place.

Janurary 2026 meeting

At Januay's meeting held at Lutterworth College, Chair, Isobel, shared feedback from the previous meeting around the young people's strategy that is being revised by Becca Powell, Youth Engagement Officer. The areas outlined in the developing young people's strategy have come from previous work the Youth Council have done and areas of interest and concern they have identified, which we have reviewed and revised this academic year. These are:

Skills and opportunities for young people
Environment and climate action
Affordable housing
Youth engagement and voice
Activities for young people

The Youth Council members were asked in the areas above, what they feel isn’t working right now, what they think it should look like in the future and what the Youth Council can do to make that happen. This will help to shape the young people's strategy to ensure it is relevant to young people.

We welcomed Miranda Mumford from the Economic Development team who spoke to the Youth Council about the Government’s Work Experience Guarantee. Miranda is starting a piece of work to support young people in the district with gaining valuable work experience and helping businesses to provide opportunities for work experience in different capacities. The Youth Council will continue to help shape this piece of work.

Last year, the Government launched the National Youth Strategy and it resulted in over 14,000 responses from young people ranging from 10-21 years old and up to 25 for those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including Harborough District Youth Council members. This gave young people the opportunity to have their say on what the Government should do to help young people right now, what their biggest worries are and what their hopes are for the future.

From this, Youth Matters - Your National Youth Strategy, was created which outlines a 10-year plan with 10 actions the Government have committed to taking. These vary from keeping young people stay safe to health and wellbeing to places to go and delivering with young people.

We asked the young people to look back on what they said at the time and see whether these were in the strategy. The young people identified lots of links between what they’d said and what the strategy says which was really positive for them to see.

We will continue to review developments as a result of the strategy, to ensure that young people in the Harborough District are able to benefit from the initatives.

December 2025 meeting

At the last meeting held in the council chamber in Market Harborough on Thursday 4 December, Youth Council members did some thinking around the geographical gaps, which schools and areas of the district are not currently represented and how we can reach them. This will be an area of focus for the new outreach and inclusion officer.

The Youth Council were then introduced to the current youth opportunities plan, as this is something which Becca, Youth Engagement Officer, is revising and we want the input of young people, so it becomes a strategy shaped by them.

The vice chair, outreach and inclusion officer and media and communications officer attended a Speak Out magazine meeting to look at the entries for the logo design competition and decided on their winning designs. The design will be refined by a professional designer and announced through the Speak Out magazine and website.

Joining the Youth Council

If you would like to become a member of the Youth Council, or you know someone who might, please see the ‘get on board’ document under 'useful links' below and complete the signup steps. Parents/guardians will then be emailed a consent form which needs to be completed before the young person attends their first meeting.

Each month an rsvp/attendance form is sent out to the young people to confirm they are attending that month’s meeting. Meetings alternate between Market Harborough and Lutterworth each month. This form is also where the young people can tell us if they require a space on the community transport bus which goes between Lutterworth and Market Harborough.

If you have any questions or queries, please contact Becca Powell, Youth Engagement Officer at youthvoice@harborough.gov.uk.

Upcoming meetings

(all meetings are on Thursdays, 5.30pm-7.30pm)

Locations (unless specified otherwise):

Market Harborough - the council chamber, the Symington Building, Adam and Eve Street
Lutterworth - the main hall at Lutterworth College, Bitteswell Road

Dates:

Thursday 12 March - Lutterworth
Thursday 16 April- Market Harborough
Thursday 7 May- Lutterworth

Useful links: