First Youth Parliament of 2023 challenges Senedd politicians

The first Youth Parliament of 2023 was held on Wednesday (Jun 21) at the Senedd.

One of the most interesting items was a survey carried out by on Mental Health Services available to children and adults in Wales.

Harriet Wright-Nicholas told the Senedd that a survey asking children, young people and adults what they thought of the mental health and wellbeing services and provisions available to them in Wales received over 3,500 responses.

She told the Senedd that despite the first Welsh Youth Parliament’s impressive work to try and improve provisions mental health services were still ‘not hitting the mark’.

She said that the committee had found little to no difference in how often young people are struggling with their mental health when compared with the first Welsh Youth Parliament survey carried out in 2020.

Harriet said that despite the increase in spending in an attempt to improve services there hasn’t been enough change. ‘Obviously Mental Health provisions need an urgent overhaul’ she said.

There were numerous questions for Ministers from members of the Youth Parliament covering education, the environment, which were responded to by the various ministers.

You can watch the full session here:

The enthusiasm of the young people shone through and it was obvious from the depth of their questions that they had conducted meticulous research into their specified subject matter.

Members of the Senedd applauded the efforts of each of the members of the Youth Parliament to which the Chair Elin Jones responded that she hoped the applause would not be continued after the Youth Parliament session.