Integrating youth voice into strategic decision making at Buttle

Last December, six members of our Youth Advisory Panel attended our Board away day to share a set of proposals which aimed to build closer working relationships between YAP members and trustees. Our YAP were really keen to develop these channels to ensure they were influencing decisions at the most strategic level of Buttle.

A key proposal from the young people was to have YAP representatives at Board meetings, so they had a better understanding of trustees’ priorities and could have a say in high level decisions. The Board approved this idea in principle, and then after some to-ing and fro-ing on how it would work in practice, signed off on a 12 month pilot of YAP reps joining our sub-committee meetings as co-opted members from September.

To ensure that our YAP reps and trustees get the most out of this pilot, we have:

• Delivered training on charity governance and Buttle’s committees to the six young people taking part
• Identified and briefed a lead YAP trustee on each committee
• Put a debrief session in place following committee meetings, for both YAP reps and trustees
• Set up a secure and confidential way of sharing papers ahead of meetings

YAP reps joined their first committee meetings at the start of September. Chelsea and Divine share their reflections on their experience:

“Being a YAP rep on Buttle’s committees has genuinely been such a valuable experience. I think having youth voice in these spaces is really important because we’re able to bring our own perspectives to decisions that ultimately impact young people, but we also get to understand what actually goes on behind the scenes at Buttle.

“Even from my first meeting, I got a much deeper insight into the organisation, the conversations being had, the issues being considered and areas of the charity and business that I’d never really been exposed to before. There were definitely lots of new terms and concepts for me to learn, particularly around finance and investment management, but I actually really enjoyed that. I think the more exposure I have to these meetings, the more confident I’ll become in speaking up, asking questions and contributing my own perspective. It pushes you outside of your comfort zone in a really positive way.

“It’s also been lovely seeing those connections continue outside of Buttle. During my 7IM Insight Week, I reconnected with a Buttle trustee and Finance & Investment Committee member who I’d first met through the committee, which was a really nice full-circle moment.

“For me, that’s why having YAP reps on committees is so valuable. We’re not just being asked for our opinions as young people, we’re being given access to the actual conversations and decisions, learning how organisations work and building the confidence to have our own voice in those rooms. I think that kind of exposure genuinely helps prepare us to become future leaders ourselves.”

-Chelsea, YAP member

“I think it is important for there to be YAP reps on the committees to enable us to share our thoughts and ideas to members, ensuring the inclusion of the people who have been helped by Buttle themselves. This will allow the growth of the charity through hearing what exactly we think, which could be beneficial for the charity whilst helping to provide fresh ideas from different generations.

I found the first meeting to be interesting. It was a little bit difficult to keep on track with all the documents however just listening to the discussion was a good learning experience showing how everyone has different ideas and everyone needs to speak up to ensure they are heard.“

-Divine, YAP member

As part of the pilot, Buttle is committed to learning, reflecting and adapting to ensure our committee meetings become more inclusive – not just for young people, but our existing trustees too. Following YAP reps joining their first set of committee meetings, we are already looking at making changes to the timing and structure of meetings, the length and language of papers and how we facilitate meetings to get the most from attendees.

We’re excited to see how this pilot will change our governance structures for the better, and what the outcome will be at the end. Our hope is we can make this model a permanent arrangement and use it as a route through which young people can become full trustees on our board.

We’ll continue to share our learning throughout the year as the pilot progresses. In the meantime, if you’d like to speak to someone about our co-production work, please contact coproduction@buttleuk.org