Interview: Ivan Lewis

Why was your position created, and what do you hope to achieve with it?

In the past we've provided education to young people, but we haven't involved young people in the development of that education. The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) wanted a minister who was getting out there, listening to young people and acting on their concerns. An example of where we are taking on the views of young people is the new Connexions service, where they are involved in designing services. Another thing the DfES is considering doing is creating a young people's forum which we consult on all our policies that impact on young people.

What about schools?

We're trying to make the curriculum more interesting for young people and more focused around their individual needs. We're going to reduce the subjects that young people have to do from 14 onwards, to free up curriculum time to allow them more choice about what they do. At the moment there's little flexibility.

What does the DfES do to promote participation in schools?

Some schools are already good at involving pupils and consulting them, for example with school councils. But in other schools that just hasn't happened. We're going to be issuing guidance in September next year to all schools about how they could involve and consult pupils. And we've produced the 14-19 education consultation document just for young people, and we got more responses on that than we did on the main document aimed at an adult audience.

What do you think should be done to involve young people in politics?

One of the great worries of our democratic system is that so many young people are not interested in politics, don't vote, don't take part. There's a lot that we have to do. We introduced Citizenship into the National Curriculum in September. Part of that is talking to young people about how you can engage in your local democracy. They've got to see it as something which is really impacting on their lives, something they can influence.

If you were a young person, would you think that the Government was doing enough to meet your needs?

I don't think there's any member of the population who thinks the Government's doing enough to meet their needs. It's easy to consult young people who are already interested, but it's much more difficult to get to some of the young people who feel really disenfranchised. That's one of the great challenges.

This interview was conducted by Annabel McLeod, 16, Akosua Bonsu, 16, and Danyel Edwards, 16