What is the Fire Cadets Voice Forum?

The UK Fire Cadets Voice Forum is made up of cadets from different Fire and Rescue Services, supported by a Youth Participation Champion.

Key Objectives

• To promote active youth participation

• Support young leaders to develop themselves and their cadets as advocates of participation

• Identify opportunities to improve service delivery

• Identify opportunities to improve engagement with young people

The Fire Cadet Voice Forum is a group of elected Fire Cadets coming together to focus on issues affecting young people, their units, their services, and their communities’, to share ideas, opinions and attitudes that reflect Fire Cadets and young people locally and nationally.

We want the group to be the voice for all fire cadets and to ensure that their voices are heard.

Participation gives young people the opportunity to have a say in matters that affect them as explained in Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), children and young people have a right to be involved about decisions that impact their lives, and their future.

There are four articles in the Convention that are seen as special. They’re known as the “General Principles” and they help to interpret all the other articles and play a fundamental role in realising all the rights in the Convention for all children. They are:

1. Non-discrimination

2. Best interest of the child

3. Right to life survival and development

4. Right to be heard

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

Where relevant, the Cadet Voice members will attend event such as:

Executive Committee Meetings,

Networking Meetings,

Project Planning and

Staff meetings

Fire Cadet Voice Reps may also have the opportunity to represent UKFC at other national participation events.