The British Youth Council and the UK Youth Parliament have been commissioned under the Government's new 'Positive for Youth' policy to support the voice of young people in shaping local and national policy through greater scrutiny and representation.

LiamLiam Preston (BYC Chair) said: "We welcome the Government's Positive for Youth statement and its commitments to involve more young people in the scrutiny of decision makers - locally and nationally. Young people are suffering the consequences of rising youth unemployment, cuts to services and fear of debt in higher education - so there is much that young people want to discuss and influence related to the running of the country. With this in mind, the British Youth Council and UK Youth Parliament stand ready and willing to play their part in providing a forum to hold decision makers to account through scrutiny and campaigning, taking action if they let us down or if they don't deliver on promises.

Whilst Positive for Youth is a starting point for a journey of improvement for young people through these tough times, we also want to talk up the stories of young people who succeed in life, and challenge the persistent negative stereotypes in the media.

Overall, the Government's statement sets out a positive vision for young people but relies on many others to play their part. Its foundation is a more positive attitude towards young people and to increase their participation in society but there is no new investment or ring-fencing of local youth services funding. Whilst not unexpected this will not deter the British Youth Council and the UK Youth Parliament from continuing to campaign against cuts to youth services and we will now get more vocal to articulate our concerns on the lack of action and investment."

View the Department for Education Positive for Youth statement here.

Positive for Youth

While we don't want to forget the significant challenges that have faced young people in 2011, we also want to celebrate the positive contributions that young people across Britian have made this year and will continue to make in the future. These are some of our ideas, what would you add?

Best of times - the Best of British Youth

• Millions of children work hard in school and study to pass exams.
• Hundreds of thousands complete apprenticeships, degrees, and vocational qualifications
• Tens of thousands of young people get jobs and start families.
• Over half of young people get involved in some volunteering every year. 1 in 5 young peope volunteer their time every month in a formal scheme and last year students gave over 3 million hours of volunteering in their communities.
• Thousands of young people work incredibly hard to develop their talents and act as great role models across sports, music and the arts.

Worst of times - challenges for young people

• We want to learn but are we learning the right things for today's world? Do we have access to sufficient employment advice and effective means to develop our finance skills?
• We want to work but youth unemployment is disproportionately high. Is careers advice steering us in the right direction to suit the labour market?
• We want to improve ourselves but we fear debt in higher education. In a world where 'debt is bad' we are advised to take it on for our education as well as our homes, who should we believe?
• We want to get moving to get to jobs, school and college, but the cost of transport is rising, varying from area to area, and not always available in rural areas.
• We want constructive things to do and that get us off the streets, but our general and targeted youth services are being cut.
• We want a world of equality and fairness but many of us are in poverty and many of us and our peers live in fear of bullying.

The British Youth Council (BYC) is a youth-led charity representing young people across the UK (aged 25 and under).

1 million children and young people took part in elections to youth councils and members of the UK Youth Parliament in 2009.

BYC links up with a community of member organisations and a network of local youth councils to empower young people to have their say and be heard on the issues they care about. It also manages the UK Youth Parliament and Young Mayors Network. For more information see www.byc.org.uk and www.ukyouthparliament.org.uk.

In the weeks following the riots BYC asked over 900 young people across the UK their views and reactions to the scenes of unrest, including press comments and letters to the Prime Minister.  Half of respondents were half were young leaders in youth councils, youth parliaments and community groups and we examined the responses which were published last month in the 'Our Streets' report, which takes a comprehensive look at the importance of the role of young leadership in society. 57% of young people believed that lack of "employment and opportunities" was a significant factor in young people choosing to get involved in the rioting, and 80% called for a review of cuts to youth services.

On youth unemployment Liam Preston (BYC Chair) says "Youth unemployment is at a shocking level and even if we get a job, we are still hampered by rising travel costs and a lower minimum wage. If we opt for a university education to improve our prospects many of us are put off by the rising debt. So will Government talk with young leaders about the issues and stimulate investment in youth jobs and opportunities and at the same time reinvigorating communities, through youth and community investment? We call for a review to cuts of youth services and instead reinvest in youth services and support."
View a copy of the report, 'Our Streets' here.