Promoting the Voice of Young People…On Public Bodies!

We are passionate about promoting the voice of young people as much as we can. Part of this work has been working to ensure more young people are represented at a policy making level.

This means that we believe that if the government is making decisions about you… you should have a say! No better way than to sit on a public body!

A public body is a committee that advises the government on policies they are making. There are dozens of public bodies in NI and they include areas such as youth; museums; w5; film; education; community relations; policing; exams; equality and much much more.

We have been working with the Commissioner for Public Appointments John Keanie as part of a drive to get a greater diversity of people applying to serve on the boards of public bodies.

Currently, only 2% of people serving on Northern Ireland’s public boards are under 30 years of age.
The Commissioner recently met with the Head of the Civil Service, Dr Malcolm McKibbin, and his top team of civil servants to discuss under-representation on boards.

The Youth Forum believes that change must happen in the government departments when board members are being recruited, and this should include drawing up job descriptions that give younger people, and other under-represented citizens including women, people with a disability, people from the minority ethnic communities and people with a broad range of business skills, a fighting chance of success.