Appointing a young person to a council or committeeRequirements, neutrality, honoraria and how to proceed
8 min read
Occasions for hearing from young people have certainly multiplied over the past few years.
What is scarcer is a program that can say what happened next. Hearings and workshops are held, and then the year ends without anyone being able to trace where those views entered the plan. We have heard that account more than once.
This piece works through what tends to stall once you have decided to appoint someone, in the order it comes up: requirements, which seat, neutrality, honoraria and members under 18, and running the meeting.
Who this is for
- Officials at municipalities and assemblies who want a young member while a plan or a reform is being made
- Anyone responsible for reflecting children's and young people's views who has not settled on a form for it
- Anyone considering setting up a youth council
- Anyone with no precedent for a teenage member, looking for something to explain it with internally
- Anyone who has held hearings but not got past them
The age requirement usually is not written down
The first thing to check is whether the founding instrument sets an age at all.
Read the ordinance, the regulations and the terms of reference again and you will often find that no age requirement is stated. Wordings like "a person of learning and experience" or "a person resident in the area" leave age open.
So what is usually needed is not an amendment but a re-reading of the requirements, and agreement inside the authority. Settling this first turns the rest of the discussion from whether it can be done into which seat to use.
Check them in this order.
- Whether the founding instrument — ordinance, regulations or terms of reference — states an age
- Which category of member the person fits — learning and experience, a nominated body, open application, and so on
- What happens if study or work moves them out of the area mid-term
- Whether the basis for paying remuneration and expenses restricts by age
- How open meetings and published minutes are handled, and how far names are published
Without a precedent, there are usually three seats you can use
These three most often let you appoint someone without creating anything new.
The open-application seat. If no lower age is written into the eligibility, they can simply apply. Where one is written in, revising it is often lighter procedurally than creating a separate youth seat.
The specialist or special-member seat. This exists so that someone can look into a particular matter. Whether lived experience counts as a specialism is for the authority to interpret, but in practice appointments do get made here.
A seat on a subcommittee. This leaves the main body's composition untouched, which makes it the lightest first step. If the subcommittee's discussion is reported upward, the route still works.
Whichever seat you use, we would avoid appointing only one person. Making one person carry the role of "representing young people" turns their view into the view of a generation. Two or more, or a subcommittee, produces far more specific comment.
Settle neutrality in writing, first
Anywhere politics or elections are involved, neutrality will be raised during the appointment.
Where the member comes from an outside organization, confirm in writing, before the appointment, how it handles its relationship with parties and candidates. A verbal assurance leaves you with nothing to show when the assembly or a resident asks.
These are the things worth confirming.
- Whether there is a written policy of neither supporting nor opposing any party, political body or candidate
- Who agreed that policy — a board, a general meeting
- Whether the full text is published, and can be cited in the appointment process
- Whether there is an agreed way of distinguishing the organization's position from a personal view
TEIGEN JP neither supports nor opposes any party, political body or candidate, and does not steer anyone's vote. That policy was agreed by our board and is published in full, and it applies equally when we serve as a member.
If you are also considering something that takes place in schools, Article 14 of the Basic Act on Education and the Ministry of Education's notices need working through as well. What a class can do and what it should avoid is covered in a separate piece.
Honoraria, and members under 18
First check whether your existing rules on remuneration and expenses can simply be applied. There is normally no need to treat anyone differently by age.
Where the member is under 18, a few more things need settling.
- Guardian's consent. Confirm both the appointment itself and how far names and photographs may be published, with the person and their guardian.
- Meeting dates. A body that meets on weekday afternoons means missing school. Whether the secretariat can issue a letter to the school makes a large difference to how possible attendance is.
- Open meetings and minutes. Decide before the first meeting whether names are published or only year group and area.
- Whether video attendance is allowed. With travel time, weekday attendance is often impossible; allowing video alone widens the field of candidates.
- Papers sent in advance. Handing out a dense paper on the day and expecting anyone to read it there is unrealistic. This is not about young members; advance papers determine the quality of the discussion.
Making it a meeting where people actually speak
Appointing someone does not guarantee more than impressions. Usually the cause lies in the design, not the person.
Send the questions first. Very few people of any age can produce a structural comment when told to speak freely. Say in advance what the meeting decides and which part you want a view on, and send the papers with it.
Gloss the technical terms. Statutory body, referral, report, public consultation — everyday words in the secretariat, unknown to a first-time member. These take one explanation; do not proceed without giving it.
Think about the order. Coming to them last, after the senior members have gone round, tends to produce agreement with what has already been said. Coming to them early on each question produces a different view.
Report back on what happened to it. At the next meeting, say where a comment landed in the plan, or why it could not.Without this, the committee slides back into being a place where people are merely heard.
Put a structure beyond the committee
Getting a young person onto one body is not the point in itself. If it reverts as soon as the people change, you will be having this discussion again in a few years.
TEIGEN JP publishes, as a concept, a five-stage structure for keeping the voices of 13-to-24-year-olds connected to policymaking: a roundtable, a written TEIGEN reported formally, a partnership agreement, an ordinance, and finally a place as a statutory advisory body. The design questions come with it — who is eligible, how open application and random selection are combined, the duty to respond to a TEIGEN, and short-term places.
Where to start depends on your situation. Beginning with a single appointment is fine, as is sharing the concept first and designing the body around it.
How to take it forward
You are welcome to come to us while the requirements are still being worked out. What we take on and the practical ground rules — appointments, hearings and formal statements, research collaboration, and study sessions for assembly members and officials — are published on our advisory and committee roles page, along with what an appointment process tends to ask about: age requirements, neutrality and how honoraria are handled.
For an appointment or a standing body, allow two to three months, since the appointment process takes time. For a one-off hearing, statement or study session, about a month. Online, anywhere in the country.