The Youth Assembly was established in June 2021 with 90 members who were appointed for a two-year period which ended in June 2023. The legacy report is a record of the achievements of the Youth Assembly in its ‘pioneer phase’.
The Youth Assembly’s primary function is to give young people a voice and allow and encourage them to participate directly in the work of the Northern Ireland Assembly and its Committees.
The recruitment methodology was co-designed with young people. Recruitment is carried out using an enhanced random selection process. Applications are anonymised, then 54 members are selected on a constituency basis to ensure geographic spread. The final 36 young people are selected anonymously to ensure representation of section 75 categories such as gender, religious background, race, care experience, disability and so on.
Unsuccessful applicants have the option of remaining on a Youth Assembly consultation forum list which provides a consultation base of engaged young people from whom the Youth Assembly can seek views and acts as a pool from which vacancies can be filled should they occur.
The current 90 Youth Assembly Members took their seats in October 2023. At the time of recruitment, they were in school years 9-12 which is approximately age 12-16.
The Youth Assembly was established to perform three functions:
Plenary sittings are held twice a year. They are usually held in the Assembly Chamber and are chaired by the Speaker.
The Youth Assembly committees meet monthly online. There are three Youth Assembly committees which have been chosen by Members. They are: Education, Health, and Rights and Equality. Members in each committee research an issue and present their recommendations to Ministers.
In addition, Youth Assembly Members attend a wide variety of online and face-to-face training and team building sessions.
If you have any questions about the Youth Assembly, please contact us via email youthassembly@niassembly.gov.uk.
