Agenda item

1.

Title of Item/Report

Bright Minds Big Futures – Annual Update

2.

Record of the Decision

Consideration was given to a report on Bright Minds Big Futures – Annual Update.

Cabinet were reminded BMBF was a youth-led movement working together with the Council to make the Borough a great place to grow up.

The report was presented by representatives of the BMBF team and a presentation was also given. Some of excellent progress had made in the last 12 months.  Some examples were:

•           Recruited 21 young people as SBC Correspondents at SIRF (August 25).  This has led to some of these young people joining BMBF and provided young people with important volunteering experience that they can reference for college, university and job applications.

•           A Second Dance Prom Project has raised £1,460, providing 98 prom outfits to young people.  This funding will be reinvested for 2026/27 to continue the project.  Many of the young people supported by the scheme may otherwise not have been able to attend their prom due to the high cost of sourcing an outfit.  

•           14 young people joined in Take Over Day at the Council, giving them experience of working in various departments within the local authority.  A number of these young people are keen to do further work experience within the Council and has also given inspiration of which career path they would like to take.

•           806 young people from across the borough responded to the Have Your Say North East campaign in March 2026 and voted that Health & Wellbeing and Jobs, Training & Opportunities are their top 2 priorities.  This enables BMBF to focus on the issues that really matter to the young people in our borough.

•           Other social action volunteering projects have included BMBF members supporting the Community Gift and various Community Fun Days.

•           Health & wellbeing initiatives such as voting to provide match funding to run a series of boxing sessions in the Ropner area to provide diversionary activities for the young people in this area.

An ongoing recruitment campaign was in place to increase membership of BMBF. This activity sought to ensure that BMBF was representative of the young people across the Borough.  Strong links had developed across Council services, including the Leaving Care Team and Home School Team as well as YUSA and other partners.

Members were also asked to note that BMBF were now represented locally through Youth Focussed North East, with young people from BMBF attending the first regional session in May 2026.

From March 2026, BMBF’s new objectives, which came out of Have Your Say North East consultation with 806 young people, were Health and Wellbeing and Jobs, Training and Opportunities.  BMBF had already started working towards these and ongoing takeover days, for example, would provide opportunities for BMBF members to learn more about council roles and functions.

BMBF were undergoing a recruitment process to form a Youth Council from which two members of Youth Parliament would be elected. The recruitment drive also continued to ensure that BMBF was representative of the young people across the Borough.  It was hoped that the process for the Members of Youth Parliament would increase the number of young people on BMBF

BMBF would host a development day in September 2026 where the young people would look at how to build upon the success of the last 12 months and plan further projects and activities. Looking ahead, in order to bring in more than the current restricted £5,000 per year, they were looking to change the governance arrangements of how they are constituted allowing them to bring in further funding to carry out further work across the Borough. 

RESOLVED that the progress made over the last 12 months by BMBF to be noted.

3.

Reasons for the Decision

BMBF welcome the opportunity to present their progress made towards achieving their 2025-2026 Health & Wellbeing and Crime & Disorder objectives.  Since March 2026, BMBF have focussed on their main objectives that came out of the 2026 Make Your Mark consultation which are Health & Wellbeing and Jobs, Training & Opportunities.  The report also highlights areas of good practice and identifies future projects and opportunities.  At the June 2025 update to Cabinet, BMBF posed a series of questions to Cabinet and responses received on these are at Appendix 1.

4.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

None

5.

Declared (Cabinet Member) Conflicts of Interest

None

6.

Details of any Dispensations

None

7.

Date and Time by which Call In must be executed

Not applicable, report for noting only.