Our children and young people must be involved in policy-making that affects them

The Northern Ireland Children’s Commissioner report ‘A New and Better Normal’, published last week, examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Executive’s response, on our children and young people, and makes for incredibly difficult reading.

Young people and their families have been, and continue to be, very worried about access to learning and education, their mental and physical health, whether or not they have a safe and stable roof over their heads, their friends, jobs and economic opportunities, and the difficulties of living in poverty, all which were compounded by Covid-19 restrictions.

Previous surveys by the Northern Ireland Youth Forum with young people over lockdown raised similar themes, with isolation, mental health and education being major concerns.

Notably, 72.5% of respondents said they did not feel they had been listened to.

Similarly, NICCY’s report states that almost three out of four respondents surveyed either disagreed or strongly disagreed that the Executive has listened to children when making decisions in response to the pandemic.

Our children and young people must be involved in policy-making that affects them. Their voices, and the views of their families must be heard and acknowledged.

I would like to reiterate my call for regular press conferences between ministers and young people, for improved communication, for transparency, and for accountability.

The Youth Assembly is a good step forward, but we must embed children’s rights at the highest level of decision-making and actually listen, at every level in our politics and our society.

Rachel Woods MLA, Holywood, Co. Down

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