At a national level, one of the success stories has been the UK Youth Parliament, which has successfully lobbied in areas such as getting the Government to at least look again at the possibility of a national minimum wage for 16- to 17-year-olds. Awareness of the youth parliament is still low in some parts of the country, with a consequently low number of young people voting. Other areas show what can be achieved, however. More than 25,000 young people in Kent voted for their representatives. The UK Youth Parliament is the nearest thing that we have to a national, democratically elected representative body for young people. Its budget, made up mostly of a 160,000 grant from the Children and Young People's Unit, barely stretches to pay for a small national office.
That means the youth parliament is entirely dependent on support from local authorities, youth services and voluntary organisations to build awareness among young people and to encourage them to stand for office and to vote. Young people have shown that when offered the opportunity, they will get involved, and that communities benefit as a result. But they will only get involved if they can see that it means something and will make a difference.
What they will not tolerate is tokenism. Local authorities and other bodies that go through the motions of involving young people in decision-making have to take the extra step of making sure the view expressed are not ignored. Young people must be treated as full participants in the debates about the issues they raise, rather than be fobbed off with a "trust us, we have this in hand" attitude.
If youth participation is exposed as mere lip service, it will end in disillusionment for the young people who give up their time to participate politically, while the young people who voted for them will be even more disengaged than the Government fears. And that can only damage the health of our public life.
