Wrexham MP prospects tell you what they would do to support youth

Candidates looking for your support have been invited to share their views on a range of issues.

As part of our election coverage ahead of the poll on Thursday we asked all candidates a range of questions, with a theme based collection from all candidates below. You can also read individual answers to all the questions here on our Election 24 page, plus links to party manifesto, supplied bios for candidates and links to find out where exactly your polling station is!

Question: Young people are often an afterthought during election cycles and after years of disrupted education, along with closure of youth facilities and lack of mental health support. What do you think needs to be put into place to support them?

I was a young person once! I recall feeling that young people were more than afterthought, I felt that young people were actively ignored. However, The Green Party have a vibrant Youth membership and the party stand for inclusivity of all.

This is reflected right through the manifesto with policies like raising minimum wage for 16 year olds; lower the vote to age 16 to engage young adults as adults; making education kinder by extending free school meals and removing the stress of younger years examinations; and helping younger families by extending 35hours of childcare to parents from 9 months.

Finally, bringing forward climate targets is crucial to provide a positive and liveable environment for both our young people and our future generations alike.

I sincerely believe that our greatest responsibility is to young people and to future generations.

The Liberal Democrats are committed to putting a dedicated, qualified mental health professional in every primary and secondary school, making sure all children and parents have someone they can turn to for help, funded by increasing the Digital Services Tax on social media firms and other tech giants.
We plan to increase school and college funding per pupil above the rate of inflation every year, and end the scandal of crumbling school and college buildings by investing in new buildings and clearing the backlog of repairs.

We asked young people to make huge sacrifices during Covid to protect older generations. It is now time to repay them for that sacrifice and help them recover from the significant disruption that they experienced to their education and development. Young people are the future of our country – so we must ensure that we break down the barriers to opportunity that they face and give them the best start in life.
Welsh Labour have delivered free breakfasts to primary school children, the roll out of universal school meals to all primary school children, support with the School Essentials Grant to help with the cost of uniforms and other equipment and the Educational Maintenance Allowance for 16 to 18 year olds in further education.
Mental Health and wellbeing are increasingly important and Welsh Labour will ensure that all pupils from age 6 and above have access to a school counselling service. We must also continue investing in youth services in our communities to meet the changing needs of young people and help them build confidence, connection, and valuable skills.
It is also important that young people have a say in their future – in Wales, 16 and 17 year olds can already vote in elections. This should be extended so that they can also vote in UK General Elections.

Over a long time children and young people’s services have been slowly eroded into non-existence. Again, it’s a legacy of 15 years of Tory austerity. We need a more
complete and accessible mental health care, which lies within the much needed NHS reforms.
This care needs to be available to those referred and those who self refer and should be tailored to the individual as there is no “one size fits all”. The same goes for children and young seeking support with neurodiversity.
Personally, I have worked closely with members of Wrexham’s play and youth teams who do an incredible job trying to fill those gaps that have been created though, they too are massively underfunded and that’s something that needs to change.
We also mustn’t forget the role our green spaces and recreation have on mental health for people across the board – we need to fight to keep those spaces.

No response to our Q&A has been received.

Again, Education and Community Services are DEVOLVED issues and are managed by the Welsh LABOUR Government in Cardiff. The pandemic was especially difficult for young people, especially with their education and impact on their mental health. Labour have slashed the education budget leading to increased class sizes, decreased extracurricular activities, and reduced support services for students. The Welsh Labour Government has taken a decision that has harmed educational attainment standards, with Wales being at the bottom of UK rankings. Labour is failing our young people!

I’ve been working hard to fill in the gaps left by Labour, including supporting hundreds of families and young people with casework on school admissions, transport, special needs requirements and mental health support across education. On top of this, I’ve supported numerous local schools secure much needed grant funding options to fill Labour’s financial black holes.
I secured £500,000 from the UK Government Shared Prosperity Fund for ‘We Mind the Gap’s’ initiative to ‘Change Young Lives’. During this project, 1000 young people from Wrexham were asked about their priorities for their future. We’ve heard you loud and clear. If re-elected I’ll work with the UK Government and Welsh Government to achieve these recommendations.

Support excellent education. the most important unsolved problem in education is discovering and releasing the maximum potential of each child. we need poets, doctors, businessmen ,as well as scientists and engineers, the list goes on
If we discover what children have in them early enough ,we’ll have more than enough of everything to make this a great country.

You can read more Q&A answers here on our Election 24 page along with more election information – remember to GO VOTE ON THURSDAY!

Note: Unlike some publications Wrexham.com does not accept any political advertising. Our election pages also should be devoid of any advertising. All candidate promotion on this site has been provided for free with the same offer to every candidate. Anyone who wishes to use our election coverage content (text, video or images) please feel free, all we ask is a link back to this site if it is used online, or an equivalent prominent credit if in print or other mediums. We would also request that you use it without misrepresenting the context of candidate answers.