Hounslow Youth Takeover Day - putting young people at the heart of local decision making
Youth Takeover Day took place on Wednesday, 18 March 2026 at Hounslow House.
What was Youth Takeover Day?
Youth Takeover Day was a one day event for a group of young people, aged 16- 24 living in the London Borough of Hounslow, to step into leadership and decision-making roles for the day as our Youth Cabinet Group. Participants led discussions, explored how major decisions were shaped and shared ideas on the issues that mattered most to them and their communities.
Why we ran this event?
Young people had told us through the Youth Offer Engagement report, they wanted more meaningful opportunities to influence council decisions and opportunities to prepare them for adulthood. Youth Takeover Day was developed to respond directly to that call.
What Participants said about the Youth Takeover Day?
Young people shared powerful reflections about their experiences of Youth Takeover Day, offering insight into what it was like to step inside Hounslow House and take on leadership roles. Here’s what they said:
- “Getting an insight into how working in Hounslow House is.” – Youth Participant
- "Being able to share ideas with other YTD participants and share them with the council for them to talk about and hopefully be able to implement.” – Youth Participant
- “What I enjoyed most was seeing how confidently and creatively the young people stepped into their roles. They brought so much energy, insight, and leadership to the day.” – Council Staff Member
- “Everyone was so nice, especially Dan, Raju and Alishba for teaching me how to use the camera and how to interview people.” – Youth Participant
What Made Youth Takeover Day Different?
This wasn’t work experience – Youth Takeover Day was the chance to influence real decisions and amplify young people’s voices to senior officers in the council, alongside allowed participants to strengthen their leadership, and gave them space to question, challenge and shape ideas at a strategic level.
What’s next?
The Council has committed to taking forward particular priority areas identified by participants and over the next three months, will begin work on these actions. In the summer, the Council will invite participants back to Hounslow House to review progress around these priority actions.
A list of the pledges made will be published soon, so please keep an eye on this page.
To review our Privacy Policy, please click here. If you have any questions or would like to know more information about the event, please contact engage@hounslow.gov.uk.
Tell your Story
Write a short story on your experiences of Youth Takeover Day, this can include your favourite moment, anything that surprised you or any interesting people you met.
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An opportunity to promote languages, diversity and inclusion in Hounslow
I took this opportunity to speak about the need for a wider variety of activities and events for the youth which target people of different genders, backgrounds and ethnicities, to allow the diversity of Hounslow to be embraced.
In particular, I had the opportunity to speak to the head of Hounslow’s diversity, equality and inclusion, and told her about languages for all and how we should lead from this example to create non-academic opportunities for the youth during their GCSEs, to prevent them having a solemn academic overview of languages.
Furthermore, the day gave me the opportunity to potentially join... Continue reading
