ABYAC Descriptor and Terms
Argyll and Bute Council · 5 November 2025
Back to Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands Area Community Planning Group — 5 November 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Argyll and Bute UYO TAction CouncilH
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Article 12 of the UNCRC states that “young people have the right to be listened to and taken seriously” and that “when adults are making decisions that affect children they should ask them what they think and take account of children’s views when making the decision.” Why ‘Youth Voice’ Matters Young people having a voice on things that affect them has always been crucial to supporting young people to empower themselves and to become active citizens in democratic society. However, for services and decision makers it has never been more important than it is today. On the 16th of July 2024 the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 came into force in Scotland. This means that children's rights, as set out in the UNCRC, are legally protected in Scotland. Page 1 As such, services and decision makers are required to take account of UNCRC articles when making decisions that could affect young people. Community Learning Youth Work (liveArgyll) are a rights based service who work alongside young people to support their rights and views.
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Officially launched in 2025, ABYAC stands for Argyll and Bute Youth Action Council. It is a collective of youth voice groups from across Argyll and Bute, currently located in Bute, Cowal, Helensburgh, Kintyre, and Oban. ABYAC was started by members of local Youth Action Group’s. In response to their previous experiences of sharing their views on adult/service led platforms and forums, they worked together to create their own youth voice model with a view to creating a model which properly supported young people to have their voices heard in youth friendly spaces, whilst sharing their views on local issues and what they would like to see change with local and area wide decision makers. In doing so, they were supported by and work in collaboration with Aberdeen Youth Movement. ABYAC members are aged 11 to 18 and represent youth views locally, as well as across the local authority, and nationally. Collectively, the groups provide an area wide platform for youth views and insights to be shared to help bring about the positive change that young people in Argyll and Bute want to see. Local groups regularly meet up to work together and just have fun. Adult and service led ‘youth consulting’ is often unintentionally tokenistic and can result in young people feeling disillusioned, disengaged, it can create a false sense of empowerment, can erode trust in adults, waste young people’s time, and undermine their sense of agency whilst leaving the balance of power firmly in the hands of adults and services. ABYAC was designed ‘by young people, for young people’ as a way of shifting the power and agency into the hands of those with the expert knowledge and understanding. What is ABYAC? Page 2
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ABYAC Remit ABYAC group’s meet regularly to take part in youth voice meetings, consultations, plan and deliver local projects, and take part in health and wellbeing activities ABYAC group’s consult with local young people to find out what the local issues are Local ABYAC Council’s host three sittings per year where they discuss local issues and possible solutions, and then share these with local decision makers who need to report on how they have taken forward the group’s concerns or suggestions Page 3 ABYAC Remit Local meetings and sittings are led by the local young people, with support and facilitation provided by local liveArgyll Youth Workers who are CLD qualified and trained in facilitating community led processes which bring about community development and empowerment.
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Principles of ABYAC Sittings Local YAC’s hold three local Sittings per year Young people lead on all elements of development Young people set date, time, and location of Sittings ABYAC Sittings are chaired by local youth voice leaders/Ambassadors Young people decide what issues to discuss Young people set the rules for their Sittings and plan how they will be delivered Sittings are informal and youth friendly events with no adult or service interference YAC’s discuss issues and possible solutions and then share these with local decision makers in a way that suits them YAC’s decide which adult’s and service’s should attend their meetings with decision makers Page 4 ABYAC Principles
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The choice to engage on a specific issue or topic is entirely at the discretion of the Youth Action Council. How they engage with it is also at their discretion (e.g. attending a service led meeting or deciding to discuss it and feedback on their own terms). Services who engage with the Youth Action Council commit to taking forward and progressing the views the young people have shared wherever possible. Services who engage with a group commit to completing and returning an Engagement Commitment Form within eight weeks of their engagement to outline how the views that were shared have been (or will be) progressed on behalf of the young people. If it wasn’t possible or appropriate to share or progress anything the young people shared, the form should still be completed anyway to explain and outline why this was the case. ABYAC Terms of Reference ABYAC group’s are always available for consulting with and sharing their views on any issue that might affect local young people. By engaging with ABYAC at a local or area wide level, either at their Sittings or by requesting engagement on a specific issue, services who engage with ABYAC commit to the following terms of reference: The terms above are not exhaustive, and have been put in place by the young people to ensure a commitment from services and decision makers to proper engagement processes to protect against tokenistic forms of consultation. To request an engagement from ABYAC, please refer to the relevant contact on page 8. Page 7