With growing concern about the rising cost of living over the past year, the one voice that we don’t often hear is that of the voice of the child and young person. Youth Forum choose to tackle this very topical subject over our summer sessions, looking at the impact of the rising cost of living on young people.
The group’s first look at the topic involved looking at some data to gain context and a better understanding of the cost of living crisis and discussed how family life could be affected. The next session involved looking at a case study of a family directly impacted by the cost of living crisis, and how if felt to be the young people in the case study.
The culmination of Youth Forum’s work on the cost of living crisis was during an in person session, where the Forum also invited members of the Unstoppables, Somerset Youth Parliament and the Somerset in Care Council and the Somerset Leaving Care Council (SiCC and SLCC). In this final session we played a cost of living game where we looked at the sacrifices needed to balance a household budget. This was followed by a discussion where we looked at the potential impacts and outcomes of the increased cost of living.
All of the views and opinions of Youth Forum were collected into a presentation that was presented to the Somerset Safeguarding Children’s Partnership, the Partnership Business Group and the Early Help Boards, where they could see how the cost of living increase could impact young people and how services could adapt to these needs.
