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

Working Wonders focus group

A focus group made up of six members of the Youth Council has been created for a recent project the Youth Council have been getting involved with. The project aims to connect schools, colleges and young people with local businesses and employers, creating real, worthwhile work experience linked to local jobs whilst ensuring that local work experience is more flexible and modern and making it easier to explore different careers whilst at school or college.

The focus group met this week to think about promoting the project and encouraging people to get involved. Some of the suggestions they came up with were:

“We thought we could reach students through PowerPoint presentations in assemblies or form/tutor group time and through posters,” and, “To reach parents and guardians we thought we could ask our schools to share it in the parent/guardian newsletter. For external promotion we think social media, press releases, promotional videos and radio interviews would be a good way to reach people".

They also said,

“We did some thinking about what would encourage people to sign up to being on the database that allows people to link together; we thought if we promoted how easy and simple it is to sign up and the benefits of how it can support an organisation’s own Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability goals as well as supporting young people in our district.”

The focus group (pictured above) reported back to the rest of the Youth Council at this month’s meeting and asked them to share some words by asking questions like:

What affects young people’s confidence about their future?
What would make careers feel more real or easier to understand?
Would workplace visits be helpful?
What would you want someone in the workforce to understand about young people today?

The next steps for the Working Wonders project are to pull some quotes together from the young people to use across different forms of communication to promote the project.

Finance Champions Programme - a Youth Council initiative

February was a busy and exciting time for the Youth Council as they hosted their government funded programme Finance Champions at Kibworth Cricket Club. This project was funded by the UKSPF with money the Youth Council were allocated and were able to decide how to spend. The Youth Council brainstormed ideas and created a focus group to work on the project; between them they decided to run a workshop all about money and finance as this is something they feel they don’t learn enough about at school.

The Youth Council decided this programme would benefit year 10 students the most and all schools in the district were invited to bring along four students each. Youth Engagement Officer, Becca Powell, worked with HDC's economic development team and Nicola Moss from The Business Work Experience Hub CIC to help the Youth Council focus group develop a programme.

Two finance experts delivered some really valuable presentations covering topics like understanding payslips, university vs apprenticeship- the real cost, credit vs debit, hidden costs, scams and so much more that the young people engaged so well with!

Feedback on the day was fantastic:

“Our young people who began with little to no knowledge or the world of finance have significantly benefited from the engaging sessions, gaining not only a strong foundation in financial literacy but also the confidence and motivation to navigate the financial world with assurance.”- Mohammed Seedat, accounting and finance teacher from Beauchamp College

“It was a pleasure to attend the Finance Champions Programme in Kibworth- an excellent initiative originally put forward by our Youth Council and funded by the UKSPF.

"I was so pleased to see it brought to life and delivered so successfully. It was fantastic to see children from a number of schools taking part; they were fully engaged, asked thoughtful questions, and showed a real interest in learning about finance. A great example of young people shaping positive opportunities for their peers.”- Cllr Jo Asher

It was a fantastic opportunity for the Youth Council to see a project through from start to finish and feel empowered that their ideas were taken on board and turned into a really successful event. Well done to the Youth Council for shaping this project and providing a valuable opportunity for other young people in the district.

April 2026 meeting

At the latest Youth Council meeting on Thursday 16 April, held in Market Harborough, we welcomed John Bristow from the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, who is the Programme Lead for Rewilding Harborough. John spoke to the Youth Council about the Rewilding project and asked them some insightful questions such as: What do you think ‘rewilding’ is? They said:

Slowly reintroducing plants and animals into places where they once thrived.
Starting with a small intervention and letting it grow and develop.
Creating a space where humans and animals can be in harmony.
Tree planting and restoring ecosystems.
Increasing biodiversity.
Helping the environment get back to its natural state.

What positive impacts can ‘rewilding’ deliver?

More trees so more carbon absorbed creating cleaner air.
Green spaces to support mental wellbeing.
Removing some greenhouse gases.
Encouraging endangered species.

The young people looked at maps of the area where the rewilding project is happening and thought about how they could bring back nature there, thinking about what ‘rewilding’ actions they would take, they said things like having tall grassy areas, widening the river to support with flooding issues, plant lots of trees and thick hedges.

The environment is one of the Youth Council’s key areas of focus, so this was a great opportunity to speak to them about a really important and interesting topic and something that’s happening right now in their local area.

We also talked about ways for the young people to get involved and will explore opportunities for them to visit the rewilding site and Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust nature reserve to get involved in surveying species and learning more about environmental careers.

March 2026 meeting

At the latest Youth Council meeting on Thursday 12 March, young people who attended the East Midlands Youth Voice event last month in Mansfield and the focus group for the Finance Champions programme shared with the rest of the Youth Council their experiences and welcomed questions from other Youth Council members.

As it was Your Vote Week 9-15 March, we spent time looking at why voting matters, what problems young people might face when it comes to voting, what happens if young people don’t vote and how young people can be encouraged to vote.

We also looked at what people need to vote such as being 18+ (currently) in England and needing photo ID to vote in person. We talked about how the UK Government is currently in the process of lowering the voting age to 16 and how a new law called the Representation of the People Bill 2026 has been introduced to Parliament but there are still some stages to go through before the Bill potentially becomes law.

We introduced the Youth Council to the current Community Governance Review on whether Market Harborough should have a town council or not. We took the opportunity from this to talk through the role of parish councils and what they do what and take responsibility for, why they matter to young people and what might change if Market Harborough does get a town council. The young people engaged really well and shared some insightful thoughts when we asked them for their thoughts on the following questions whether they already have a parish council or not.

What should a parish council do for young people?

Ensure parks are clean
Create fun activities
Listen to what young people want the most
Mental health awareness
Youth groups

How do you think parish councils could engage young people more?

Through social media and events
Posters and discussions at school
Enabling young people to have a say on local matters

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.

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 7 May- Lutterworth
Thursday 4 June- Market Harborough
Thursday 2 July- Lutterworth

Useful links: