Welsh Youth Parliament

Part of 1. Questions to the Assembly Commission – in the Senedd at 1:48 pm on 12 December 2018.

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Photo of Elin Jones Elin Jones Plaid Cymru 1:48, 12 December 2018

Thank you for the supplementary. Like you, I’ve been keen to meet the young representative of Ceredigion. In fact, I did meet him, Caleb Rees, and I’m sure that other Members will be looking for opportunities to meet their counterparts, those young people who are looking for our jobs. We need to watch our backs; we’ve got young people now wanting to become parliamentarians of the future, and I think that that’s great.

To respond to the issue about engaging with all schools, all young people, in Wales, I think there was a huge amount done to engage with as many young people as possible in the short period of time we had in the run-up to this first-ever election. There will be a longer period of time now to engage with young people in preparation for the next election in two years’ time, and, crucially, the work that these young parliamentarians will do with their peers and the young people they represent in their Youth Parliament. Those young parliamentarians will first of all meet regionally with young people also from their areas, listen to views from their various regions in Wales, and represent those views in the first formal meeting of the Youth Parliament here in late February.

And the point that you make about also ensuring that we include and reach out to young people from less advantaged backgrounds—the work that our partner organisations, youth organisations, have done in electing and choosing 20 additional members of the 60, I think that’s broken new ground as well. And the mix of young people that we have in the first Youth Parliament is, hopefully, a true reflection of the wide array of young people that we have in Wales. We can learn from the experience of holding our first election, and we can support our young people in allowing them to find their voice in Wales, and then that this doesn't become a one-off—this is permanent and for the future.