Archive for the ‘Chair’s blog’ Category

Chair’s Blog – April 2012

Friday, May 11th, 2012

Well, it’s never quiet for the SYP!  We have had loads on, from getting started on the Votes@16 campaign through to the We-CTV project and all the other great activities which  SYP are involved in.  I am especially excited by the news that our ‘Love Equally‘ campaign has been shortlisted as Campaign of the Year at this year’s Annual Scottish Charity Awards.  Andrew Deans and Kate Bouchier-Hayes will be attending the event to be held in the Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow on 14th June, fingers crossed they come back with an award.

Earlier this month I was delighted to be invited to the Scottish Parliament to attend a meeting of the European Youth Parliament.  They held a question-time style debate on topics including: Human Rights, Internet Piracy and, an issue close to all of us at SYP, equal marriage rights. I was joined on the panel by Kezia Dugdale MSP and Christina McKelvie MSP along with the Chief of the Scottish EU Office. There was a lively debate, excellent points raised and hopefully we are able to strengthen the relationship between ourselves in SYP and the European Youth Parliament.

One of the big challenges facing young people in general, is getting heard regularly by the media.  We have taken some steps to try and change this, including working on a new media strategy, and bringing the brilliant Scott Douglas, from Holyrood PR, to act as our external Media Advisor.  We have also expanded the staff team, bringing Ewan MacDonald on board as our new Parliamentary and Press Officer, and I know Ewan will bring great benefit to the SYP.  Welcome Ewan!

This month I was invited to chair a debate held by the Renfrewshire Youth Voice at Renfrewshire’s Council Chambers. It was an excellent debate that brought together young people from schools across Renfrewshire. The debate centered around two questions: Scottish Independence and Votes at 16, which were controversial topics that gave the chamber a lot to debate.  Thank you very much to RYV and especially Hua Cui, RYV’s Youth Worker, for inviting me along and allowing me to be part of your fantastic event.

As part of our move to create a strong working partnership with NUS, I met with some NUS representatives to discuss working partnerships and plans for joint work on the Votes@16 campaign. One of the key points learnt from the success of Love Equally was our coalition of partner organisations.  I hope we can do this same this time round with Votes@16 – and the extremely positive meetings I have had with NUS indicate that is very likely.

Some more good news to share, I’ve been invited to join the  Young Start Advisory group from the Big Lottery Fund.  Young Start aims to create opportunities for children and young people aged between 8 and 24 to help realise their potential, more information can be found here.  Our first meeting is later this month and I can’t wait to get involved.   This invitation shows how much SYP as an organisation has grown over the past year.  I have been so proud to have been a part of that.  Being involved with the Big Lottery Fund is proof once more of the great partnership work being taken forward by SYP.

It’s also that time of year when We-CTV comes around. From what I have heard it’s been a raving success so far! All the feedback I have received from MSYPs, staff and young people tells me that we have outdone ourselves this year, and I believe it is down to the amazing staff team we have in place here at SYP. I am looking forward to attending the Awards Night on 31st May, where I understand we have confirmed attendance by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill MSP.  Remember by going on to the SYP website you too can vote for your favourite videos.

And last but not least, the June Sitting. I know the date is fast approaching and I can tell you the staff are working 24/7 to make this Sitting happen. Wirth the local government elections it’s been very hard to secure a host and looks like SYP will need to fund the June Sitting from our core budget.  The staff are working on this and hope to have information out to all of us ASAP, so keep an eye on Facebook and your emails

See you all soon

Grant

 

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Chair’s Blog – March 2012

Friday, March 16th, 2012

By Grant Costello MSYP, SYP Chair

Grant with the First Minister and heads of NUS Scotland, YSI and FSNIt’s been an extremely busy month not just for me but for SYP in general and I would say a very productive week in the lead up to our 47th National Sitting! I cannot believe it’s that time of the year again and of course this will be my second Sitting as Chair – can’t wait.

As many of you will have seen in the media or even took part in, last month SYP held the biggest public event that we have ever held, the Love Equally march. And what a march it was, with young people from across the length and breadth of Scotland joining us to march down the Royal Mile. Rae Cahill and I were honoured to have led the march and for me it was the mark of just how great a campaign it has been.  With NUS Scotland, the Equality Network, LGBT Youth Scotland, Stonewall Scotland and representatives from various religious organisations, we handed over our very unique petition to Alex Salmond – a life size Valentine’s Day card which I am sure would’ve caught the attention of the First Minister! Love Equally has been the biggest campaign we’ve had and has gained the most media coverage of all previous SYP campaigns and every single member of the organisation deserves praise for that, from the Board, to the Conveners, to the staff and every single MSYP – thank you.

As you will have also noticed we just can’t get SYP out of the media right now, which is just excellent.  Between editorials that MSYPs are writing, articles in local newspapers about the local work of MSYPs, articles in the national press about votes at 16, our work on the referendum, Andrew Deans’ work on the mosquito device or one of the many other hundreds of things we all do at any given time or day.
I added a supportive quote noting the SYP’s delight that the political youth wings were coming out in support of our Love Equally campaign.  A joint press letter from the party political youth wings Scottish Labour Students, Scottish Young Labour, Federation of Student Nationalists, Liberal Youth Scotland, Scottish Young Greens and Conservative Future Scotland announced their full support for equal marriage. There was also a lot of talk at the Chair hustings of members wanting us to branch out and work with young wings on a cross-party basis, I hope this will be the start of ways in which we can all work together to advance the priorities of the young people in Scotland.

I have been in contact with Jim Sweeney, the Chief Executive of YouthLink Scotland to continue our recent discussions about working closer together. It is so very important that organizations like YouthLink Scotland and the Scottish Youth Parliament have strong ties of friendship and partnership so we can work on national projects and combine our resources and talents to ensure the best possible outcome for the priorities of Scotland’s young people.

On the 29th of February I attended the NHS Lothian, Adolescent Health and Risk Behaviours Symposium workshops and gave a speech with Dr Harry Burns, Chief Medical Officer to the medical profession on engaging with young people. I am delighted to say the event went down really well. This led to discussions following the event about future working with SYP, particularly with the Health and Wellbeing Subject Committee, an extremely important part of the SYP’s work.
I attended the meeting between the SYP’s Board and Conveners with the Minister for Youth Employment, Angela Constance MSP in Queensberry House.  The meeting was very productive and the Minister went away from the meeting, I believe, with different ideas and new approaches.

I have been working with Rob Gowans to secure our place at the Citizens’ Advice Scotland Conference on the 1st of March. I am again delighted to say this event was fantastic with the Minister for Youth Employment in attendance. I was particularly pleased that I managed to discuss with the Minister future opportunities of working with SYP following the draft Youth Employment Strategy. After the Minister had to leave due to parliamentary commitments (but not before speaking very highly of the Scottish Youth Parliament!), the session continued with me chairing two further discussions on youth unemployment.

I was invited last week to attend the SNP’s spring conference and take part in a Votes at 16 fringe event with David Linden, National Convener of YSI, Gail Lythgoe, National Convener of FSN, and Robin Parker, the President of NUS Scotland. I was representing the Scottish Youth Parliament and the Votes at 16 Coalition. After a photo call with the First Minister Alex Salmond, myself and Robin Parker were able to speak to him and express views on the Scottish Government’s plans on votes at 16 for the referendum and concerns that not all 16 year olds would be able to vote due to electoral registration problems. I am delighted to say the First Minister took our concerns seriously and Robin and I expressed a desire for joint work in the future, which the First Minister encouraged.

As many of you might have seen I was given the honour of attending a special reception in honour of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s 60th anniversary of serving as head of the Commonwealth at the Marlbourgh House Reception.  I was lucky enough to meet with Her Majesty where we discussed the Scottish Youth Parliament, our elections and the fact that around 85,000 young people voted in our elections. Her Majesty seemed very impressed and complimented us on our work.

I look forward to catching up with everyone over the weekend. Safe journey to South Ayrshire!

Grant

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Chair’s Blog – January

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

By Grant Costello MSYP, SYP Chair

It’s been a busy New Year for the SYP but we of course would have it no other way! The news has been quoting us, the calls have been coming in left, right and centre and best of all our campaign is starting to get the continued attention that it has long deserved. As many of you will be aware the staff team and I have been working night and day to try and ensure that our “Love Equally” message is getting spread far and wide across Scotland and with our campaigning partners (LGBT Youth Scotland, NUS Scotland’s LGBT Campaign, Stonewall Scotland and the Equality Network). I am so pleased to say that this message is spreading and this will be so important come the day, February 14th when we all march down the Royal Mile in support of equal marriage and the right of people who are in love to be treated and respected in the same way. I cannot wait to see every single one of you there!

But the media hasn’t been my only focus for our campaign. I have been trying to work with young people, Scottish Government Ministers and civil servants, our partner organisations and MSPs in general. I have been busy attending LGBT Youth Scotland’s consultation event in Edinburgh, a fantastic event where I got the chance to have a strong and in-depth conversion with the civil servant heading up the review of this Scottish Government’s Same Sex Marriage Consultation. I’ve also been meeting with MSPs such as the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Willie Rennie MSP, the SNP’s Linda Fabiani MSP, Fiona McLeod MSP and the Minister for Children and Young People Aileen Campbell MSP and the former Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party Annabel Goldie, to ensure that the support for this important campaign remains strong and high on the agenda. I have meet with Tom French from the Equality Network numerous times and took part in a press conference held live from the SYP’s own offices further promoting our campaign.

I have attended many different Parliamentary groups and events such as an consultation event held by Jackie Baillie MSP on the Welfare Reform Bill going through Westminster and an important meeting of the Children and Young People’s Cross Party Group on the same topic. Many of these events have been important networking events that will hopefully prove important to the SYP in the every near future as we continue to grow and grow faster than we could even have expected.

In recent months we have had Andrew Deans MSYP, Austin Sheridan MSYP as well as myself and many others, all in numerous newspapers or internet articles, illustrating to all the doubters out there of the passion and ability of all MSYPs in the SYP. But to ensure this continues this restructuring will be essential. Recently I brought onto the SYP Board as an unpaid advisor Scott Douglas, someone who has been in the centre of the media and PR for 25 years. He will become invaluable as together as an organisation we evolve into an even more power voice for the young people of Scotland.

Another important announcement comes as our Sitting nears very close, with the sitting review all done and dusted it was very clear that Members Motions were a massive hit but we just didn’t have the time to get through all the excellent Motions that we had. Therefore I can announce that at the March Sitting we will have an increased time limit on the Members Motions. This is a vitally important part of our sittings as it allows us as the membership of the SYP to bring forward the many concerns of our constituents and make solutions to these problems SYP core policy.

As you will all know the SYP had our official office opening and it was a massive success with so many important members of civic Scotland joining us at our offices and the newly appointed Minister for Children and Young people in attendance to open our offices was a real honour. But the biggest congratulations must go out to all the pass, present and future MSYPs of this organisation. Without young people so passionate like we MSYPs the SYP would not exists. This celebration was the opening of a new chapter for the Scottish Youth Parliament, but also a landmark of celebration for the passion and effort put in by all MSYPs in the decade that we have existed.

With the Scottish Government’s intention to give 16 and 17 year olds the vote in the referendum I have been extremely busy working with all of our partner organisations, the staff and of course the media to ensure that the Scottish Youth Parliament’s position is very clear. This has been very difficult but the rewards of our efforts are being seen with the media attention our support for votes at 16 for the referendum and all future elections has been drawing up. We need to be very clear to every that we at the SYP believe in votes at 16 and we want to see the young people of Scotland not just have their say in a one-off referendum but in all future elections and referendums.

I have also been working a lot closer with Amnesty International Scotland to develop an important relationship. Their help with getting out our “Love Equally” message has been very helpful and I can promise every member of the SYP that for as long as I am your chair that I will continue to work tirelessly to continue to develop strong and long lasting networks for the SYP and future generations of MSYPs to use and evolve our organisation.

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Chair’s Blog – August

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

Since the time of my last blog I have been extremely busy promoting our Love Equally campaign, as well as the promises I made to every single MSYP at our AGM in June.Grant Costello Msyp

It’s been a brilliant two months, with the SYP name and image growing a great deal – I’m so proud of the amazing work we have all done – from the SYP staff team to all the MSYPs pushing our campaign across Scotland.

As you may know I attended the launch of our national campaign Love Equally, but for the weeks previous I was busy meeting with our staff regularly to try and ensure this was one of the best launches that the Scottish Youth Parliament has ever had. I think many of you will agree it was a great success and with the massive media coverage we received from STV, The Scotsman, ITV Wales, Pink News and many more it was our best publicised campaign ever. Lessons have been learnt and I will ensure that MSYPs receive information in advance of future campaign launches.

Obviously the work of the campaign did not stop there.  While all of you were out working hard to gather hundreds of petition signatures, I was working on challenging the false perception of our campaign created by John Mason MSP’s motion in the Scottish Parliament. I am delighted that the work done by myself and the staff has paid off – with MSPs from every single party backing Patrick Harvie’s amendment to the motion and the personal messages of support we have been receiving for not only our national campaign but for the work we do as an organisation has been fantastic.

In my local area of East Kilbride I will be busy continuing to gather as many signatures as possible for our petition. Now can’t be the time to rest on our laurels, we need to show decisions makers of the Scottish Parliament that it’s time to not just consult on Equal Marriage, but to legislate on it. The only way that this is possible is to ensure that we get as many signatures as possible, so please keep promoting the campaign and petition.

Away from the hectic work of campaigning myself, Rae Cahill, Malcolm Andrews and Kyle Thornton went down to Leeds for the UKYP Sitting.  Well done to Kyle who successfully got a Scottish perspective into the UKYP manifesto with his motion on simplifying the UK tax system for young people everywhere. In Leeds I also met with the newly elected President of the NUS, Liam Burns, having extremely positive talks on new links between SYP and the National Union of Students.

This month I was also in London to meet with officials of the Votes@16 Coalition Group and representatives of the British Youth Council. Votes@16 is an important issue for us as an organization and I was proud to represent young people at that meeting and offer new and innovative ideas that have been effective for us in the SYP in the hope that one day votes at 16 will be a reality.

After the Votes at 16 meeting I met with staff from the British Youth Council and some of the young BYC members to see how BYC and the Scottish Youth Parliament can come much closer together and fight for the right of young people in the halls and corridors of Holyrood, Westminster and the European Parliament.

Last week, I went to Belfast with Marie Gallagher to speak at a member’s day of the Northern Ireland Youth Forum (NIYF).  I thought it would also be a good opportunity to discuss how SYP and the NIYF could work more closely together and how we could learn for each other’s strengths.

I attended an evening reception at Edinburgh Castle with the Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment, Alex Neil MSP and the Climate Change and Environment Minister Stewart Stevenson MSP as they launched Scotland’s bid to host the World Water Forum’s Conference in 2015. I chatted with both ministers on the SYP manifesto and was introduced to the Chief Executives of the World Water Forum and Scottish Water.

I was also invited to speak at the Young Scots for Independence’s National Conference, which was a great opportunity to promote our Love Equally campaign.

I have been extremely busy meeting with MSPs in our new office to help build upon the great feeling and momentum which the organisation is developing right now. Linda Fabiani MSP, Derek Mackay MSP, Kezia Dugdale MSP, Patrick Harvie MSP, Marco Biagi MSP and Joan McAlpine MSP are just some of parliamentarians I have met with to discuss our work in the Scottish Youth Parliament and of course our campaign.

I’m really looking forward to the October Sitting – as promised, at the hustings session there will be a Board Q&A. If you have any questions please feel free to ask us on day, or if you have any feedback or questions in advance of the meeting please email me grant.costello.msyp@sypmail.org.uk

See you all in North Ayrshire on the 29th October!

Grant Costello

Chair
Scottish Youth Parliament

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Chair’s Blog – SYP’s position on tuition fees

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

It is great to know the First Minister reads the material we send him, at least according to today’s FMQs. Grant Costello Msyp Following a question from Annabel Goldie MSP on the Scottish Government’s plans to charge English, Welsh and Northern Irish Students up to £36,000, Alex Salmond MSP cited the SYP along with a number of university principals in his response.

The source for this is the Scottish Government consultation, ‘Building a Smarter Future’.  The SYP was part of the consultation, and one of the statements we put to our membership was whether students from the rest of the UK should be charged ‘English’ levels of fees at Scottish Universities. Nearly 60% of those who responded to this survey indicated they agreed with this statement.  Only 30% disagreed.  As a result the SYP recommended to the consultation:

“Students from the rest of the UK attending Scottish universities should have to pay tuition fees at the same level as they would pay in England to avoid Scottish universities being seen as a ‘cheap option’ and places for Scottish-domiciled students being reduced as a result.”

Of course, the situation has changed since February.  In England and Wales it has become clear most Universities, rather than a small number, will now be charging fees of £9,000.  This means the funding shortfall facing Scottish Universities compared to their competitors from south of the border has increased markedly.  This changes the whole framework of the tuition fees discussion.

As a Youth Parliament, we face a new situation.  I am delighted the First Minister pays attention to what we have to say about higher education funding.  I hope he was listening when 85% of young people agreed with our Manifesto statement that access to University should be kept free.  It will be up to our new membership to decide if we agree with the conditions of the Higher Education settlement when the bill is finally published in full.  Until then, feel free to post comments below on what you think the SYP’s position should be on this.

Document: Building a Smarter Future – SYP Response

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Chair’s Blog – June

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

“Hi everyone, I have been busy getting to work and pushing forward our manifesto and agenda to the Scottish Government and other organisations. Grant Costello Msyp

Last week I took part in the cross parliamentary group on children and young people where I made it clear that I would like the group to focus on the key issues identified by young people in our Manifesto. We agreed we will devote our time over the next few months working on youth unemployment and work experience. At our last sitting the campaign for a National Work Experience program was narrowly beaten by Equal Marriage equality, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a priority for SYP. Youth unemployment in Scotland is a national scandal and we all need to work together to help change that. This group is just one of many different channels I will use to push forward our agenda to the Government and Scottish Political Parties.

As you all know we have just moved offices to Gordon Lamb House and I have to admit it’s a good feeling being in our own offices. Hamira and I have been working in the direction that you as MSYPs have set out for us, as well as working on our National Campaign for Marriage Equality. The office space is much more suitable for us as an organisation and it really show that we are on the up. We have an amazing new membership, a new board that represents that membership, new offices, brilliant staff and the mandate to represent the hundreds of thousands of young people that live in Scotland today!

But obviously we won’t just been working in Scotland, we have the ability and the opportunity to influence the British Government through our improving relationships with the British Youth Council and the United Kingdom Youth Parliament. Your Vice Chair, Rae Cahill, and I will be going down to Leeds with two other MSYPs to represent the Scottish Youth Parliament at the UKYP’s national sitting and we hope to be able to come back here with a great new relationship between our organisations and a new platform to stand up and raise the young people of Scotland’s voices higher than ever before.

The past 2 weeks have been amazing serving as your new Chair. I would like to take this opportnity to thank you for electing me as your chair. I hope this first blog has given you a little bit of an insight into what I have been doing recently and I will be doing these regularly to keep you all update. Thanks everyone and I can’t wait to start working with you all to make this year our year.”

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