At the heart of the UKYP are the MYPs – made up of young people aged between the ages of 11 and 18 (inclusive).

One of the most frequently asked questions of the UKYP is how representative are you?  Whilst the UKYP does not claim to be the representative body for young people in the UK, it is the only organisation in the UK which gives young people a chance to be elected by their peer group, to represent their views at a local, regional and national level.  The MYPs have daily contact with their peer group at school and college, through local youth clubs and at regular meetings with local school and youth councils/forums.  MYPs work hard to represent the views of their peer group, and many hold joint surgeries with their MPs to tackle the key issues in their constituencies.

Locally
Each Local Education Authority (LEA) in England represents a UKYP constituency.  Each constituency has a minimum of one MYP, or a maximum of seven.  The numbers of MYPs in each constituency depends upon the numbers of young people in that area, e.g. – most unitary authorities have only one MYP, whilst Kent - the largest Local Education Authority in the country has seven.   Each MYP should be supported by a local youth worker, as defined by the LEAs Health and Safety Policy and the UKYPs Service Level Agreement  (SLA).

Regionally
The UKYP operates within the UKs regional boundaries as defined by the Government, i.e. – South West, South East, London, Eastern, Yorkshire & Humberside, West Midlands, East Midlands, North East and North West, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  

In England the MYPs in each region come together five to six times a year.  They meet to discuss the issues that are of importance to them locally, identify key themes and look at ways these can be addressed at a regional and national level.

Each Regional Group elects two representatives to sit on the UKYPs Procedures Group and each of its seven Select Committees.  These representatives are elected to reflect the views of the regional bodies of MYPs on the respective groups, and to provide a two-way flow of information between the regions, the representative MYPs and back again.

Agreements are being drawn up with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland with the representative national youth agencies in each country, to ensure that young people from the three nations are represented on the UKYP.

Nationally
The UKYP brings together all the MYPs from across the country on an annual basis.  The MYPs meet to discuss the issues that matter to them and their peer group, that they have identified at a regional level.

The UKYP has seven Select Committees which broadly correspond with the following Government Departments:

• Better Society – The Office Of The Deputy Prime Minister and the Department for Transport, and the Department for Work & Pensions
• Law & Society – The Home Office and the Department for Work & Pensions
• Health – the Department for Health
• The Environment – the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
• UK & International Matters – the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development
• Activities, Media & Fun – the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
• Education and Opportunities – The Department for Education & Skills.

The Procedures Group
MYPs have a say in how the UKYP is run and organised through the Procedures Group.  Each regional group elects two representatives to sit on the Procedures Group, which has the responsibility to monitor and review the national structure of the organisation, and the organisation of the annual sitting.  It relies on its members to feed back information at a regional level.

The success of the group is dependent upon the Procedures Group representatives having a constant dialogue with the members of the regional group who they have been elected to represent.