Starting Powerful Conversations - lessons from the Digital Surgeries Programme

STARTING POWERFUL CONVERSATIONS:

Lessons on political contact from the Digital Surgeries programme

ABOUT THE POLITICS PROJECT

The Politics Project (TPP) supports young people to use their voice by providing them with outstanding democratic education.

We work with young people, teachers and politicians to help them to learn, teach and engage in politics. We are a non-partisan organisation working across the UK.

We are experts in supporting young people and politicians to engage through politicial contact.

We deliver a range of programmes to encourage equitable consultation and engagement between young people and politicians, building trust and relationships and leading to more effective youth-led policy. Through Democracy Classroom we also champion election education and work with over 60 organisations to collaborate on supporting young people to cast informed votes at elections.

High School

“

It gave me a voice. I loved the feeling of empowerment”.

Student, Rugby

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report outlines emerging best practice in youth political contact, drawing on key lessons from TPP’s Digital Surgeries programme.

Youth political contact is defined as engagements when politicians and young people interact, and in this report we focus primarily on school based visits. Many time-poor teachers don’t have the capacity or the training to deliver political contact well, which means these experiences are not as enriching and valuable for young people as they can be and only occur in 5% of schools.

In our work we have found that the following four key outcomes can be met when delivering political contact: 1. build political knowledge and understanding; 2. improve oracy and confidence; 3. build trust and understanding; 4. support advocacy and student voice.

However, to be achieved they require careful design, both in terms of the preparation of the students and the facilitation of the sessions.

At TPP we specialise in youth political contact through our Digital Surgeries programme. This report outlines the key findings for delivering effective youth political contact from three years of Digital Surgeries, in which we worked with 6416 young people, 185 politicians, and 155 teachers from 121 schools.

THE KEY FINDINGS ARE:

1. Young people need support to effectively engage with politicians; preparatory work is important for helping students to feel confident and prepared to engage.

2. Students are much more likely to build confidence, trust and relationships with politicians when engaging in groups smaller than 40.

3. Supporting students to question and discuss issues with politicians makes a difference to the success of engagements. Where students are able to contribute and ask questions, they make more progress.

4. Sessions led by the curiosity and interests of students are more interesting and engaging. Creating opportunities for informal conversation helps with building trust and relationships.

5. Political contact with local councillors can be just as impactful as with national politicians, and is more likely to lead to real world change.

6. With training and support teachers increase their confidence to deliver nonpartisan political contact, which can lead to them embedding political contact into their wider teaching.

7. The age, gender and type of politician that students spoke with had a small but notable impact on student outcomes. The politician’s political party and ethnicity did not.

8. Political contact has huge potential to be used to support youth advocacy, but young people need support to translate conversations into change.

9. Political contact can be impactful at all ages and stages, but sessions are most effective if the context a young person is engaging in is taken into account.

10. A digital approach to political contact has many advantages and can be a practical way to bring young people and politicians together.

“

I enjoyed the fact that the politician could ask us questions about our views and how we can help. It was good to talk about political issues with someone who could potentially do something about it.”

Student,

Hayesfield Girls’ School

INTRODUCTION

Across the UK, there is still a huge disparity between the number of young and old people engaging in the democratic system.

In the 2019 UK General Election 47% of 18-25 year olds voted, in contrast to 74% of people aged over 65 (Ipsos Mori, 2020). This disparity means that young people continue to be underrepresented in decision-making, which is leading to inequalities based on age.

This is in part down to a breakdown in relationships, with young people feeling that they don’t know or trust those involved in politics. This affects young people’s willingness to engage with traditional democratic structures, and reduces motivation to engage

with the politics they see as not working for them. The rise in young people involved in activism shows that they aren’t apathetic; they are increasingly political including through Black Lives Matter and climate protests. Yet they are often excluded from power by their lack of engagement with formal political structures. Conversely, politicians often do not meaningfully seek the views of young people to inform policy, leading to less effective, less youth-led outcomes.

Student, Jewish Community Secondary School

At The Politics Project, we saw the need to give young people and politicians the chance to meaningfully engage with each other and broker positive relationships. In 2016, we began our journey to improve youth political contact and give young people an opportunity to have a voice.

We knew from our work in education that one of the most common engagements was the ‘school visit’. From our experience, we knew that many of these opportunities were being under-utilised, often reduced to photo opportunities for schools and politicians alike.

We began piloting an approach to reimagine these engagements. Five years later we have worked with over 400 teachers across

the UK, developing a range of programmes designed to support young people and politicians to meaningfully engage. Our work is now embedded in schools and we support young people to take part in a range of consultations, hustings and Select Committee enquiries.

This report shares learning and insights from our flagship Digital Surgeries programme.

We hope that it can act as a good practice guide for anyone taking part in political contact, and can encourage more educators and politicians to give young people a chance to have a real say on the issues that matter to them.

“ It was interesting and a different approach to learning politics. I liked that we got to hear about politics from someone directly involved in it.”

WHAT

IS

POLITICAL CONTACT?

Political contact is the name given to activities where citizens and politicians engage with each other. This could be through face-to-face conversations, or through alternatives such as email, social media or letters.

In our work we specialise in youth political contact, supporting young people and politicians to engage, primarily in schools. Youth political contact takes place every day, with politicians engaging with young people in places such as youth organisations and schools in their constituency.

However, very little attention has historically been given to how youth political contact can be designed to maximise its impact for both politicians and young people.

Five years ago, we set out to reimagine one key component of youth political contact - the school visit. We have piloted and scaled a process through our Digital Surgeries programme that seeks to maximise the impact of a political engagement for young people, teachers and politicians.

WHY DO SCHOOLS ENGAGE WITH POLITICIANS?

LOW LEVELS OF ENGAGEMENT

Only 5% of schools are visited by a politician each year and you are less likely to get an opportunity to engage with a politician if you are in state education.

Only 3% of state schools engage with their local politicians, compared with 12% of fee paying schools. (Weinberg 2021).

When you consider that often only a small proportion of students in a school will get the opportunity to engage with their politician during that visit, the number of students meeting politicians is vanishingly small.

These numbers confirm our experience. When connecting schools with politicians we often co-write letters with the politician’s office to schools in their constituency and get low response rates, with many schools not seeing political contact as a priority.

Only 5% of schools engage with a politician each year.

A LACK OF SUPPORT FOR TEACHERS

Many time-poor teachers don’t have the capacity or the training to deliver political contact well, which can lead to politician school visits having no or a negative impact.

This leads to teachers and schools often failing to see the value in politician visits. When we ask teachers about why they invite politicians into their schools, many initially struggle to articulate a clear reason, with some saying it is something they have always done or it is expected because they lead on a particular part of the curriculum.

Many frame the success criteria for the event around if the event happened or not, rather than what the impact of the engagement was.

However, when we dig a little deeper into our discussions with teachers, we have identified that they are often are aiming to achieve one or more of four key outcomes when they invite a politician into their schools:

1. Building trust and relationships - supporting young people to engage with and build a relationship with a politician.

2. Building knowledge and understanding - using engagement to enhance students’ political knowledge.

3. Developing oracy skillsusing opportunities to talk to politicians to build speaking and listening skills and support students to ask and answer questions.

4. Advocacy and influencesupporting students to lobby and influence politicians on issues.

In our work we consistently found that each of these outcomes can be delivered successfully. However, to be achieved they require careful design, both in terms of the preparation of the students and the facilitation of the sessions. Although more than one of these outcomes is often met in an engagement, they need slightly different approaches depending on what the primary intended outcome is.

For example, supporting students to effectively lobby a politician requires a different approach to using the session as a chance to increase their understanding of how a particular political process works.

Through our work we have provided teachers with resources, training and facilitation support to enable them to get the most out of engagements with politicians.

“

With organisations like The Politics Project facilitating the engagements between young people and politicians, burden is shifted away from schools and ensures that surgeries like those delivered by this fantastic organisation can reach more and more pupils. The fact that it can be organised online also means that hard-to-reach communities are not cut

off from this valuable engagement with the country’s democratic representatives.”

Mike Freer MP

“

Digital Surgeries is one of the best ways I could have spent an hour.”

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester

Our aim: We want every young person to have a meaningful engagement with a politician during their time at school.

“ It was interesting and a different approach to learning politics. I liked that we got to hear about politics from someone directly involved in it.”

Student, Jewish Community Secondary School

ABOUT THE DIGITAL SURGERIES

PROGRAMME

The Digital Surgeries programme reimagines the way that politicians engage with schools.

The programme supports teachers to deliver engaging workshops and connects students and politicians using video conferencing platforms. It facilitates informed conversations that lead to tangible changes in communities.

The programme has been running since 2017 and has grown from a small pilot in Greater Manchester to a national programme operating across the UK.

Digital Surgeries takes four teaching hours to deliver; three hours of workshops followed by a one hour Digital Surgery.

HOW THE DIGITAL SURGERIES PROGRAMME WORKS

1

ONLINE TEACHER TRAINING

WORKSHOPS

We train teachers to prepare students to engage digitally with their elected representatives. Teachers design a scheme of work for students from our specialised resources and are trained to be expert facilitators for their Digital Surgeries with local, regional or national representatives.

After being trained, teachers use our specialised resources to deliver three hours of workshops to their students. These can be delivered in a variety of ways, but the programme is easily integrated into everyday teaching as part of Citizenship, History, PSHE and Politics and also supports schools to meet requirements on Prevent, Fundamental British Values and Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development (SMSC). The resources support young people to explore social and political issues, research the politician they will engage with and prepare questions for their surgeries.

3 THE DIGITAL SURGERIES

PLEDGES

Teachers deliver a Digital Surgery, connecting their students with politicians via Teams, Zoom or a similar platform. We arrange and facilitate the session, provide practical and technical support and lead on communications to promote the event.

During the session, if a politician offers to do something on behalf of the students we log it as a “Pledge” and ask the politician to agree a time by which they will report back to the students. Once they have fulfilled the pledge, we help them communicate the outcome with the students that were involved. You can read about some example pledges on page 41.

SESSIONS

WHERE WE WORKED

Note: We also did a significant amount of work in Wales in this period, which is covered in a separate report.

121 SCHOOLS

RESEARCH APPROACH

This research covers three years of delivering the Digital Surgeries programme from 2019 to 2022. In that time we delivered 252 Digital Surgeries, working with 6416 students, 144 teachers and 185 politicians.

Most of the data in this report is based on 533 student pre- and post-programme questionnaires that were completed in the final year of the programme, along with pre- and post-programme teacher and politician questionnaires.

Quotes and case studies are gathered from all three years of delivery, however most are from the final year to align with the pre- and post-programme data.

The decision to focus on our final year of data for this report was to limit the impact of Covid-19, as we had to make several changes to our delivery model during the first two years of the programme, such as working with students when they were at home. The data from the final year therefore best represents the impact of Digital Surgeries.

Although we do have data for non-binary students, we have not included the data here as the small sample size (10) makes the findings insecure.

KEY FINDINGS

1. Setting up students to succeed - the importance of preparation 2. Group size matters to building relationships and student confidence 3. Prepare students to use their voice - the importance of oracy 4. Letting students lead 5. The power of local 6. Building teacher knowledge, confidence and engagement 7. The impact of politician demographics 8. Impact beyond the classroom - how students can advocate for what they believe in 9. The right context to deliver 10. The use of digital tools

“

I enjoyed spending time with my friends and coming up with important topics that we all feel very strongly about. I liked discussing topics that we feel need to be changed or adjusted.”

Student, Flixton Girls’ School

1. SETTING UP STUDENTS TO SUCCEED - THE IMPORTANCE OF PREPARATION

Young people need support to effectively engage with politicians; preparatory work is important to help students to feel confident and prepared to engage.

In Digital Surgeries, we ask all teachers to do three hours of preparation with their students using our Explore - Understand - Prepare model. This helps to ensure that students have the knowledge, skills and confidence to engage with a politician. All students are supported to understand the background of the politician they will meet and the level of government they represent. They have had the opportunity to discuss and debate social and political ideas, building their confidence for the engagement. They each have at least one well-researched question to ask in their session.

Over the last few years, we have developed our preparatory resources to include over 60 hours of materials to support delivery of the programme from which teachers design their scheme of work. This allows students from 10-18 years old to take part in the programme and supports engagements on a variety of issues including COP26, Select Committees, Welsh Government and Gender and Identity. We have also developed resources for SEND schools to ensure that students with additional needs can take part in the programme.

Preparation cuts out the need for lengthy introductions, explaining who the politician is and what their role involves.

Students already know who they will be talking to and have researched them, so are able to

focus the conversation on the ideas and questions that have arisen from their research. This also empowers students to go into sessions with a rounded understanding of the politician, rather than relying on information shared in the session.

While we don’t have a control group that didn’t do any preparation to compare with, we know that this is one of the most valued elements of the programme through student, teacher and politician feedback.

We have also seen that where schools don’t do the preparatory workshops the political contact is often less impactful. Students are often far less likely to ask questions, or ask questions that are not relevant to the level of government of the politician they’re speaking to.

“

It has been a privilege to take part in the Digital Surgeries Programme and meet with young people in my constituency to have engaging and stimulating discussions. The preparation undertaken by the students throughout the programme led to some very insightful questions.”

Afzal Khan MP

SESSION 4:

Preparing for discussions

“

I enjoyed researching the politicians, finding obscure and interesting facts about their lives and asking them about it.”

Student, Kings Norton Girls’ School

“

Engagement with politicians which is just our class and the politician was really valuable. Students were able to ask about issues they care about.”

Carl Taylor, teacher at Little Heath School

2. GROUP SIZE

MATTERS TO BUILDING

RELATIONSHIPS AND STUDENT CONFIDENCE

Students were much more likely to build confidence, trust and relationships with a politician when engaging in groups smaller than 40.

One of the most striking findings of our work was how big an impact group size has on a range of outcomes connected to student confidence and building trust and relationships with politicians. Students in larger groups had small or sometimes negative changes in relation to these outcomes, whereas students in smaller groups saw significant progress.

Students that were in groups of 40+ were 3% more likely to agree with the statement “Politicians care what I think” after meeting a politician compared to before the programme started. By contrast, groups of less than 40 were 14% more likely to agree.

Students in groups of 40+ were also slightly less likely to agree with the statement “I trust politicians” after meeting a politician (a decrease from 19%

to 17%). Smaller groups were more likely to agree (an increase from 22% to 32%).

Group size also had an impact on students’ perception of themselves as people who could make change. As a result of the programme, students’ were more likely to feel that they could “influence change in society”, increasing from 36% to 45%.

This impact was most significant in sessions with smaller numbers of students, where this increased by 15%. In sessions of more than 60 students there was a small negative impact, reiterating our finding above that large group engagements have less impact.

Oscar Mayhew, teacher at London Academy

This suggests that a politician demonstrating an interest and taking time to engage with students as part of a smaller group can have a big impact. It may also be that for larger groups the opportunity for conversation or to ask questions diminishes, so students feel less engaged and involved.

This finding is important, because many schools will invite politicians in to give talks to large groups of students through assemblies or whole-year group discussions as this is the most practical way to include large numbers of students. However, this model may be perpetuating a perceived power imbalance between young people and politicians and entrenching views that politicians are hard to engage with.

“

Students really improved the questions they asked and their ability to listen and respond with conversations and questions asked back at them improved as well. Our school is in the middle of a big social housing estate, and the children can be quite sceptical of people in authority. It is so good for them to see that people are interested in what they think. The Digital Surgeries programme has made them much more aware of the fact that their voice matters.”

I CAN INFLUENCE CHANGE IN SOCIETY

Pre-programme Post-programme

IMPACT OF DIGITAL SURGERIES ON STUDENT ATTITUDES: 56% 40% 36% AGREEMENT (%) 0-40 participants 40+ participants

Clare Kirkham, St Blaise Primary School

“

The student who introduced the class in the surgery was a big mark of confidence for him. He was then was so engaged that he responded to an impromptu question from the politician.”

3. PREPARE STUDENTS TO USE THEIR VOICE - THE IMPORTANCE OF ORACY

Supporting students to question and discuss issues with politicians makes a difference to the success of engagements. Where students are able to contribute and ask questions, they make more progress.

IMPACT OF DIGITAL SURGERIES ON STUDENTS’ KNOWLEDGE:

87% of teachers felt the Digital Surgeries programme improved their students’ speaking and listening skills. 48%

I KNOW HOW TO ASK A POLITICIAN A QUESTION

Schools-based political contact is often focused on discussions, making it very important for teachers to understand and develop their students’ oracy skills.

Students will have different levels of confidence and speaking and listening skills. For some, asking a politician a question will be a huge achievement, whereas others will be more comfortable engaging in a debate or discussion with a politician. We find that sessions are most effective when teachers understand their students’ confidence and skill levels, and carefully design an engagement to meet those needs.

If students are not prepared in advance to ask and answer questions, they may grow nervous during the session and not want to contribute, which leads to an uncomfortable and often awkward session.

In Digital Surgeries our aim is that everyone asks a question that they have written and researched beforehand, ensuring that everyone is able to engage. This was very important to students, with 29% of students saying that asking their own questions was the most enjoyable element of their surgery. 34% also said that preparing their questions was the highlight of their preparation for their Digital Surgery, and we found that students really enjoyed the process of thinking through and crafting their questions.

For students that were able to ask a question, the impact of the programme was also more significant, with a 38% increase in their ability to “question a politician” as opposed

Pre-programme Post-programme

100 75 50 25 0

82% 35%

61% AGREEMENT (%)

Asked a question Didn’t Asked a question

to a smaller increase of 26% for students that didn’t ask a question. This strengthens the case for political contact to be conducted in smaller group sizes.

Once a group is larger than 30 it can be hard for everyone to have the chance to contribute.

To transform engagements from a Q and A format into open discussions, students need to be supported to answer questions as well as to ask them. We have designed a range of resources to support students to practise answering questions and expressing their ideas.

For all but the most confident students this preparation is crucial, even if they regularly engage in classroom discussions on social and politician issues. In the moment, answering questions from politicians can be too daunting.

“We have at least three students who expressed less than zero interest in politics before taking part in the Digital Surgeries programme. Afterwards, they were really keen and were pleased (as were we) that they had asked their own questions. They were surprised by how approachable the politicians were.”

Nicola Sullivan, teacher at Noadswood School

“ A year 9 student who is often fairly disengaged was keen to ask question after question of his local councillor, returning to clarify things to make sure he got the most information possible.”

Nina Morris-Evans, teacher at Haverstock School

“

The sessions are well-organised and result in rewarding and sometimes challenging discussion. The recent session I took part in the children were only young but they were incredibly well-prepared and asked excellent questions. It was an hour very well spent and I’m looking forward to continuing to work with The Politics Project”

Baroness Hayman of Ullock

Click here to watch some of the entertaining questions asked by young people in our sessions.

4. LETTING STUDENTS LEAD

Sessions led by the curiosity and interests of students are more engaging for all participants, and creating opportunities for informal conversation helps to build trust and relationships.

In any school-based political contact, there will be competing needs from the session from the politicians, students and teachers. We see the best outcomes for all three groups when students are put in a position to lead, not just in being the ones to ask questions, but to allow the focus to be on them and their interests.

In Digital Surgeries, discussion is framed by student questions that they design, and focuses on issues that young people care about. Politicians do not get access to the questions beforehand and no topic is off limits.

This can be important to relationship building. It helps students to find common interests with politicians by allowing the discussion to be led by the curiosity and interests of young people.

Some teachers assume that political contact needs to be formal with students asking ‘serious’ policy questions. We have found that if this approach is forced, students may be more likely to disengage or struggle to follow the conversation and it may be on issues they don’t know or care about. Over the last two years, we have actively encouraged students to ask informal questions, such as “what was your favourite subject in school?” or “if you were singing karaoke, which song would you choose?” We have done this to actively give schools and teachers permission to be more informal and have more fun in these discussions.

“ Students being able to ask questions to a person they had researched and actually get a response to their question has had a huge, positive, impact on them.”

Phil Chapman, teacher at The East Manchester Academy

We would encourage teachers not only to allow students to lead in delivering political contact sessions, but also to allow them to take charge in the design of the sessions, as many of our more experienced teachers do.

There is also an important role for politicians in ensuring the sessions are studentled. Politicians also have the opportunity to ask questions during the sessions. Where these are considered beforehand, are specific, and are asked to genuinely understand young people’s perspectives on an issue, they lead to good discussion. For example, during Covid-19, many politicians used their questions to get an insight into the impact of lockdowns and homeschooling on young people. This helped young people feel their perspectives were valued.

Sometimes politicians fallback on a generic question which is a variant of “What would you like to change in your local area/community?” From our experience students really struggle to answer this question as it is too broad, and it gives the impression that the politician doesn’t really care about engaging with the students.

Conflicting outcomes

In our work, we prioritise building trust and relationships in our sessions, as we think this is one of the harder outcomes to achieve but one that can be developed through well-designed interactions.

However, it is worth noting that it is possible for outcomes to come into conflict. If you want to use a session to build students’ political knowledge about a particular topic, there is likely to be less chance for student-led discussion on issues that really matter to them. It is helpful for teachers to carefully consider from the outset which outcomes to prioritise, as this will inform the approach taken in the preparation and delivery of the session.

“

All of the students who engaged in the programme have become more confident. One child who was very interested in politics but lacked confidence spoke up for the very first time and asked Gary Sambrook two meaningful, well thought out questions. I was so proud of him!”

Emily Perry, teacher at St Brigid’s Catholic Primary School

Here are our favourite questions asked by students in their Digital Surgeries:

With COP26 going on, what is the council doing to improve the public transport in the area?

Do you have to work on your birthday?

You’ve travelled to Vietnam and Bangladesh and said you experienced the climate crisis first hand - how did that influence you?

How are you working to support the mental health of young people in the local area?

How can we make our politicians and people in power reflect the diversity of the country?

If you had to focus on one political issue for the rest of your career, what would it be?

How do you feel when you get hate for a decision you make?

If I can get married and pay taxes at 16, why can’t I vote?

Do you think pineapple belongs on pizza?

Is social media important for being a councillor?

Do you think women have equal opportunities in politics?

Do you believe that a democracy is the ultimate form of government?

What is it like working with a speaker who is from an opposing party?

If you had to focus on one political issue for the rest of your career, what would it be?

What can be done to influence young people to learn more about politics in detail?

What is the biggest difference you made in the community?

When you are in a sticky situation, who is there to help you?

What has been the most contentious bill during your time in the House of Lords?

Which politician would you most like to be stranded on a desert island with?

How can get more young people from a variety of backgrounds going to University?

“

The process of deciding which questions to ask involved ALL students and it really made them think about the order, significance and quality of their questions. The focus upon why they were asking a particular question was important as it made them really think about what impact they were hoping their answer would have.”

Paul Taggart, teacher at Sacred Heart Grammar School

Rachel Marsden, teacher at King George V College

5. THE POWER OF LOCAL

Political contact with local councillors can be just as impactful as with national politicians, and is more likely to lead to real world change.

When requesting which politicians to engage with, many teachers prefer to work with either Lords or MPs before local councillors, seeing them as more senior politicians with bigger profiles. However, this often changes once they deliver the programme with a local councillor, as they see the value in students engaging with local government.

Many of the issues that students care most about are local, with councillors often more able to deliver real change than MPs are on national policy issues. Of all of the pledges made by politicians in the Digital Surgeries, 81% were made by local councillors. You can read about some examples in our advocacy section below.

We also found that levels of political knowledge, in terms of the students’ understanding of the difference between local and national government, increased more when students are speaking to a councillor.

Engaging with a local councillor gives students an excellent opportunity to learn about local government as many schools do not teach students about this and they are less likely to learn about it organically from the media.

81% of pledges come from local councillors

“

One student didn’t even know there was a delineation between local and national government and now they do because they spoke with a local councillor.”

“

Students were a little underwhelmed when I told them they would be speaking to a local councillor, but the research process and actual surgery showed them that there is important and engaging work being done everywhere by people they have never heard of!”

Katy Ivey, teacher at Stroud High School

CASE STUDY:

HELEN BLACHFORD, HEAD OF FACULTY, HUMANITIES,

PRIORY SCHOOL

“The resources we used in preparation for the Digital Surgeries were excellent - as we were going to be meeting local councillors Charlotte Gerada and Suzy Horton we used the resources which helped us to look at understanding local government. This helped students have an understanding of how our local council operated before they met with one of their elected representatives. Researching the local councillor they were going to meet with as one of the preparation tasks helped them to frame their questions in advance of their session.

The sessions helped students to understand who they can get in touch with regarding local issues - one of our councillors offered the group an opportunity to visit the Council Chambers at Portsmouth City Council so we will contact her in the new academic year to try and organise this.”

“

The Digital Surgeries session I took part in was very constructive for both the pupils and speaker - both parties took learnings away and it was good to have the chance to get to know more local young people.

Councillor Charlotte Gerada

6. BUILDING TEACHER KNOWLEDGE, CONFIDENCE AND ENGAGEMENT

With training and support teachers can increase their confidence to deliver non-partisan political contact, which can lead to them embedding political contact into their practice.

“

The structure put in place for engaging with politicians was great. I felt supported and also gave clear structure and guidelines to how to do it correctly. It’s a great programme and I’m glad that I came across it. It has reignited my passion for youth engagement.”

Chantal Hampton, teacher at Emerson Park Academy

Teachers

To support teachers to deliver the programme, we provide a two-hour CPD session to introduce our outcomes-based approach, help teachers to build their preparatory scheme of work and share best practice on set up and facilitation. We then offer one-to-one support throughout delivery to build confidence and provide guidance.

One of the biggest concerns that teachers have when delivering democratic education is how to remain politically neutral. This can be even more of a concern when students are speaking to a sitting politician, who may express partisan views. However, after delivering Digital Surgeries 88% of teachers said they felt confident delivering “politicalneutral content to students” . This number was similar for specialist and non-subject specialists alike.

Another concern from teachers, especially those that are not subject specialists, is a lack of confidence in their own political knowledge, which can lead to a worry about delivering democratic education. However, we have found our process of support to be effective; after the programme 96% of teachers felt they had the “knowledge to encourage political engagement in students”, with 72% strongly agreeing with this statement.

TEACHERS REPORTING THAT THEY HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE TO ENCOURAGE POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT IN STUDENTS:

BEFORE TAKING PART IN DIGITAL SURGERIES PROGRAMME

AFTER TAKING PART IN DIGITAL SURGERIES PROGRAMME

“

TEACHERS REPORTING THAT THEY HAVE THE CONFIDENCE TO DELIVER POLITICALLY NEUTRAL CONTENT TO STUDENTS:

BEFORE TAKING PART IN DIGITAL SURGERIES PROGRAMME

Strongly agree 28% Agree 52% Neutral 14%

Disagree 4% Strongly disagree 1% Don’t know 1%

AFTER TAKING PART IN DIGITAL SURGERIES PROGRAMME

I was really nervous delivering the first session because it was out of my comfort zone but the young people took to it quite quickly and I felt that all I had to do was facilitate, which put my mind at ease. I would definitely recommend this as I was able to see the young people in a different light and they were able to experience something that I think will stay with them forever.”

Rachel Marsden, teacher at King George V College

We have found that political contact can be a useful way to deliver democratic education for teachers who are insecure in their knowledge, as they can use the politician as the ‘subject expert’ and encourage students to ask them any specific or detailed questions.

After the programme, many teachers go on to integrate political contact into their teaching, with many expanding it to whole year groups and introducing our model to other teachers in the school. Some have also gone on to set up politics clubs in school, organised trips to the parliament or the town hall, embedded drop down days on democracy and expanded opportunities to learn about politics and democracy through A-Level Politics and Citizenship GCSE.

We also see teachers continue to gain confidence, working with us to engage with select committee enquiries, local government consultations or programmes with US politicians.

After the programme 96% of teachers “feel confident encouraging political engagement in schools” , and we see our model as a way that non-specialist teachers can be introduced and supported on both political contact and democratic education more broadly.

7. THE IMPACT OF POLITICIAN DEMOGRAPHICS:

The age, gender and type of politician that students spoke with had a small but notable impact on student outcomes. The politician’s party and ethnicity did not.

There are some common perceptions around what characteristics a politician needs to have to be most effective at engaging with students, such as that they need to be close to them in age, be from a similar background and have similar political views.

From our work, we looked at the impact that demographic factors had on a range of outcome indicators to understand if some of these common assumptions held up in reality to are true.

Age

Our data shows that the age of the politician had an impact, with politicians under the age of 60 having a greater positive impact on students’ perception of whether the politician they worked with ‘cared about their views’ or if ‘politicians [in general] cared what they thought’.

However, there was little difference within the 30-60 age range, with politicians in the 50-60 range often having the most impact.

This challenges common thinking that engagements are most effective when politicians and students are close in age.

IMPACT OF DIGITAL SURGERIES ON STUDENT ATTITUDES BY AGE OF POLITICIAN:

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IMPACT OF DIGITAL SURGERIES ON STUDENT ATTITUDES BY GENDER OF POLITICIAN:

DURING THE SURGERY I FELT

Gender

The gender of the politician had the most significant impace. Compared to age and ethnicity, engagements with female politicians lead to greater levels of change on indicators connected to trust and relationships. The proportion of students agreeing with the statement “I felt I could trust the politician I spoke to” was 8% higher for female politicians than male. The effect was similar for both male and female students, however, for female students the difference was more pronounced with there being a 9% difference compared to the average difference of 5% for male students.

Furthermore, for the statement “I felt the politician I spoke to cared about my views” agreement was 16% higher for female politicians than male.

Although we don’t know why these differences occur, it may be connected to more general perceptions of gender with women being seen as more ‘approachable’ or ‘caring’.

Further research is required to fully understand the impact of a politician’s gender on student outcomes.

20 0 66% 49% AGREEMENT (%)

Female politician Male politician

I FELT THE POLITICIAN I SPOKE TO

CARED ABOUT MY VIEWS

67% 53%

0

Student, Salesian College

7. THE IMPACT OF POLITICIAN DEMOGRAPHICS CONTINUED

Politician type

Another interesting finding was the impact of politician type, with peers having a greater impact on building positive relationships with young people than other types of politicians such as local councillors or MPs. Students were 5% more likely to leave the programme believing that a “politician cares about what I think” after meeting with a peer than with other types of politician.

This goes against conventional conceptions of peers, which can paint them as out of touch and unrelatable.

The differences here are small and could be accounted for partly by the sample of peers we worked with, but anecdotally we did find our sessions with peers were consistently successful.

From student feedback we can see that students value engagements where politicians are “open, honest and relaxed” and dislike politicians that come across as too party political. It is possible that peers, given their experience and role, may find it

IMPACT OF DIGITAL SURGERIES ON STUDENT ATTITUDES:

“

I enjoyed the friendly atmosphere and the Lord’s honesty during the surgery. We got to ask anything we liked and get a detailed answer.”

“

Being able to hear all the interesting stories of how the Baroness got to the position that she holds and all the little stories that she has experienced in her life was the highlight of taking part.”

Student, Salesian College

2 missing graphs

POLITICIANS CARE WHAT I THINK

Political Party

One of the most common conceptions about political contact is that to develop strong relationships with politicians, you need to have similar views as them. However, we saw very little evidence from our data that the political party of the politician has an impact on student outcomes.

Ethnicity

The ethnic background of the politician taking part didn’t seem to significantly change the impact of the programme on students.

One hypothesis we were keen to test was to understand if students from a BAME background made more progress when working with a politician from a BAME background, especially given the high proportion of politicians that are white. However, the ethnicity of the politician had little effect on student outcomes.

8. IMPACT BEYOND THE CLASSROOM - HOW STUDENTS CAN ADVOCATE FOR WHAT THEY BELIEVE IN:

Political contact has huge potential to be used to support youth advocacy, but young people need support to translate conversations into change.

“

Katy Ivey, Stroud High School

One of the most exciting opportunities that political contact holds is the opportunity for students to advocate for change. In our Digital Surgeries sessions, when a politician offers to do something on behalf of a young person or the school that they are engaging with we log it as a ‘pledge’. This happens in around 1 in 5 sessions, and we have recorded 55 pledges in the last three years.

Although pledges can never be guaranteed and often emerge organically from discussions, there are some factors that make them more likely. Where students tailor questions to the politician they are working with, especially if they relate to a particular role or area they have responsibility for, this is more likely to lead to pledges.

As mentioned above, 87% of our pledges come from local councillors, suggesting that this is the most effective group of politicians to lobby. Independent politicians were also most likely to offer pledges, with 43% of those engagements involving a pledge.

IN 1 IN 5 DIGITAL SURGERIES POLITICIANS PLEDGE TO TAKE ACTION ON AN ISSUE RAISED IN THEIR SESSION.

We also see examples of direct advocacy, where students will directly ask a politician to support a campaign or issue they are working on. Citizenship teachers have used the programme as an opportunity for students to lobby politicians on a range of issues as part of their active citizenship programme.

We see advocacy as an untapped opportunity in youth political contact. We have started to develop ways to support this more directly in our sister programmes, supporting young people to engage with Select Committees and to develop policy with local politicians in Greater Manchester as part of the #BeeWell programme.

Across those projects one of the rules we have is for young people to talk for at least 70% of the engagement, and we have started to develop models to make sure that young people are supported to take the lead.

Some examples of pledges:

Gary Sambrook MP provided work experience to a Sixth Form student at South and City College.

Cllr Frank Letch called for a council report on housing for fostered young people and once it was published, shared it with the students.

Andrew Rosindell MP submitted a question to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to ask why the Manx Pound is not legal tender in the UK for a school based on the Isle of Man.

Cllr Jen Corcoran researched and shared a response to a previous council motion about hydropower that was of interest to students.

Students from Debden Park High School asked Eleanor Laing MP to support their campaign on installing safety bollards outside their school after a road traffic accident.

One of my quieter students in Year 12 asked the Baroness for work experience!”

“

I

Student,

Hayesfield Girls’ School

PLEDGE CASE STUDY:

COUNCILLOR GOODEVE ARRANGES SET UP OF NEW PICNIC BENCHES FOR SIMON BALLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

In June 2022, a year 9 class at Simon Balle School in Hertfordshire took part in a Digital Surgery with Jan Goodeve, Councillor on East Herts District and Hertford Town Councils for Castle Ward. During their conversation, the issue of students not having access to enough picnic benches or places to sit nearby their school was raised. Jan promised that she could look into the feasibility of more being installed.

By the end of the month, Jan confirmed that the accessible benches would be added to the play area of Hartham Common as requested. Their class teacher Jenny McGovern said “the students will be happy that their ideas have made an impact.”

Upon reflection of participating in the programme, Jan Goodeve explained that “Young people are for elected members a difficult group to reach and yet the decisions we make are likely to affect them for far longer than other sections of society, for that reason it is important that we make ourselves accessible and easier for them to be heard.”

PLEDGE CASE STUDY: BARONESS BLAKE MEETS THE MORLEY ACADEMY STUDENTS IN PARLIAMENT

Year 8 students at The Morley Academy had a great discussion with Baroness Blake of Leeds CBE in a Digital Dialogue session on the 5th July 2022. Towards the end of the hour-long session, the class asked “In a couple of weeks time we’re going to London for a tour of Parliament, can you give us any tips of what to look out for?” Baroness Blake was excited to hear this and said “we can go round together and find some of the interesting corners that you might not otherwise find” and that it’s “always nice to hear Yorkshire voices in the House of Commons!”

On the 20th July she did just that and the students enjoyed their tour. Their class teacher, Joe Atkinson, explained how Baroness Blake “made politics seem accessible, which is exactly what I wanted our students to take from their experiences of Digital Surgeries.”

enjoyed the fact that the politician could ask us questions about our views and how we can help. It was good to talk about political issues with someone who could potentially do something about it.”

9. WHERE POLITICAL CONTACT IS MOST EFFECTIVE

Political contact can be impactful at all ages and stages, but sessions are most effective if the context a young person is engaging in is taken into account.

Through our work we have sought to understand if there is a particular age or stage of education at which political contact is most effective. We work with students aged 1018, and support engagements from students in Year 5 to Year 13. From our experience, we see opportunities for significant impact at all ages, but it is worth noting some of the changes that occur as students get older, and to design for these differences.

Age

As would be expected, primary school students start with a lower level of political knowledge than older students and we see the most significant increases in political understanding in younger students. We know that many schools use political contact as a way to ‘introduce’ democratic education for the first time, and particular care needs to be taken to avoid discussions being too technical. Younger students often become more motivated to discuss politics with friends and family after the programme, and political contact can kick-start an interest in politics.

“

Political trust

For political trust, we see an inverse effect, with political trust declining with age. 37% of 10 - 11 year olds agreed with the statement “I trust politicians” while only 9% of 16-19 year olds did - a 28% difference. This finding may just reflect a natural development as students get older, but this decline is worth considering. Teachers and politicians working with older students may want to put more of an emphasis on building trust and relationships.

I liked going to the after school club and meeting with other children in years 5 and 6. I enjoyed researching our local MP. I liked the voting game we played… I think I might have changed my mind about some things when I listened to other people’s point of view. I talked about my questions with my Dad”.

Student, St Brigids Catholic School

IMPACT OF DIGITAL SURGERIES ON STUDENT ATTITUDES AND KNOWLEDGE BY AGE:

I UNDERSTAND HOW THE UK POLITICAL SYSTEM WORKS

Pre-programme Post-programme

I TRUST POLITICIANS

Pre-programme Post-programme

“

Impact on democratic education

The programme has been delivered by teachers from a range of specialisms. 45% of teachers that took part were specialist Citizenship or Politics teachers, 35% were humanities teachers, and the remaining 20% were primary teachers or had a different specialism.

Across the programme we saw little evidence that specialist teachers had more of an impact than non-specialist teachers, although their students did start from a higher level of political knowledge and understanding. There are advantages of the programme being integrated into Citizenship and Politics education, and we are advocates of democratic education being led by expert professionals in schools, where political contact can be effectively delivered to ensure that young people are getting the most out of their engagements with politicians.

However, we also want to ensure that all young people get an opportunity to engage with a politician during their time at school. Last year only 4% of GCSE students took Citizenship and 7% of students that did A-Levels took Politics. If political contact is only made available through opt-in subjects then this may increase existing gaps in democratic education and engagement that exist between young people.

To support broader engagement, we are keen to develop robust models where a whole year group can engage in a political contact in small groups conversations, as we know from this research that large group engagements are less impactful.

I liked going to the after school club and meeting with other children in years 5 and 6. I enjoyed researching our local MP. I liked the voting game we played… I think I might have changed my mind about some things when I listened to other people’s point of view. We had to ask the MP a question about something that we cared about and were really interested in the answer. I talked about my questions with my dad.”

Student, Saint Brigid’s Catholic Primary School

“ Students being able to interact with a ‘real’ politician demonstrated to them that the politicians are ‘normal people’ in a job. This really engaged students as previously there was a feeling of ‘us vs them’ from many. Students have become much more engaged with Politics as a subject and it has really raised the profile of A Level Politics at the College due to the social media posts about the surgeries and word of mouth from current students. There has been an increase in the amount of students picking Politics A-Level.”

Rebecca Andrews, teacher at Ashton Sixth Form College

10. THE USE OF DIGITAL TOOLS

A digital approach to political contact has many advantages and can be a practical way to bring young people and politicians together.

Our work primarily takes place using video conferencing platforms such as Zoom and Teams to connect young people with their politicians. We have been delivering this work digitally since we started in 2017 and see it as a practical and effective way to support engagements. Although we don’t have a strong position on face-to-face vs digital, we continue to see benefits of a digital approach and think it can be an effective way to deliver political contact.

Time efficient Teachers, politicians and students all have competing demands on their time, so using digital technology is logistically easier and quicker, especially for those that are rurally based and for MPs with constituencies a long way from London. For many councillors that have other jobs they are unable to engage during the school day in any other way, as they can’t leave work for several hours in the day. This means that sometimes the choice

is between no engagement and a digital engagement, rather than digital or face-to-face.

We also find that through arranging engagements to take place online, it is easier to ensure that the students are getting the full time allocated to engage with a politician on their issues. When politicians visit schools, sometimes teachers understandably want to discuss issues with them, or show them the school facilities, which can reduce the opportunity for students to talk with the politician.

Facilitation

With digital engagements our TPP staff team are able to facilitate all of the conversations, supporting the teachers, politicians and students, which can add to the quality of the discussion. As multiple Digital Surgeries often take place across the country on the same day, it would not be possible for TPP staff to provide this facilitation

support if engagements were face-to-face. We are confident digital facilitators, which requires a different approach to face-toface support. We are also able to run larger multi-school sessions with politicians with large constituencies, such as metro mayors where several schools are able to engage at once, sometimes from across the UK.

Perhaps one of the most interesting areas to consider is the impact on building relationships. Instinctively, we assume that face-to-face conversations would be more effective here. However, from our experience and student feedback, we know that sometimes students can find in-person interactions with politicians to be intimidating and daunting.

There is a possibility that digital platforms can actually help young people feel more at ease, and prevent politicians from dominating the room. In our sessions, all of the young people are together in their class with their teacher, with the politician on the screen. This may help them to feel more comfortable as they have ‘strength in numbers’. However, there are downsides and where schools and politicians don’t have the right equipment to engage online, this can disrupt sessions. Post-pandemic, many schools are now set up effectively for digital events and teachers and politicians are often more confident using video conferencing technology.

Where needed, we provide equipment such as wireless microphones to support high quality engagements. We also run test calls with schools prior to their sessions to minimise tech issues. Nevertheless, some do experience difficulties, which undoubtedly can have an impact on the quality of the conversion. Potential issues need to be carefully thought through to minimise disruption.

Peter Kyle MP

“

The format of Digital Surgeries removes any intimidation they might feel from meeting their MP in person. Once we have spoken online it makes it easier and less daunting to meet me and I’ve been approached in the street and welcomed as I’ve been out in the community by students who met me online.”

“

The Digital Surgeries programmeis a great way to help pupils from across the UK to understand, engage in and (even) enjoy politics. And it’s a two-way dialogue; I’m sure I learned as much - if not more - from the pupils than they did from me. At a time when perhaps the greatest threat to our political system is apathy, programmes like Digital Surgeries play an important role and deserve support.”

Wolfson of Tredegar KC

Lord

NEXT STEPS:

Following these findings we want to go on explore the following opportunities and questions:

• Given the positive experience of students and teachers delivering the preparatory materials, we want to pilot developing a longer version of the programme that acts as a “minimum offer” on democratic education in schools that can help to ensure that all young people get an opportunity to learn about politics.

• Following our findings around group size and our ambition to ensure that all students in a school get the opportunity to engage with political contact, we will look to pilot a range of models that balance the need to engage for large numbers of young people and have engagements in small groups, with a particular emphasis on ensuring sessions don’t add a burden to teachers.

• We want to work with academic partners to recreate findings around demographic indicators, explore the impact of preparation and explore the long term impact of political contact.

• We want to explore opportunities to develop support for youth political contact in more informal spaces, such as youth clubs.

• We want to develop support for schools looking to use political contact for advocacy, to maximise opportunities for student voice.

• We want to continue to support teachers, students and politicians to design and deliver political contact engagements, and support them to maximise their impact.

CONCLUSIONS

As we have developed and grown the Digital Surgeries programme we have seen the huge benefit that effective political contact can have on young people and politicians.

We have seen transformations in individual students who have felt heard, and have seen teachers who have never worked with politicians before go on to embed political contact across their schools. We also seen the enjoyment that politicians get out of engaging with young people, and are grateful to the politicians and teachers who have given their time to work with us and support students.

The biggest lesson we have learnt is the importance of preparing young people effectively for their engagements prior to their sessions.

For so many students their engagements with us are the first time they have spoken to a politician, and they can be nervous and unsure what to expect. Equipping them with the knowledge, skills and confidence to meaningfully engage is central to giving them the feeling of empowerment that political contact can achieve.

The context a surgery is delivered in is central to the capacity of a session to build trust and lead to advocacy, with informal, student-led sessions with small groups being most effective. We have also seen that there is a significant opportunity for youth advocacy through political contact. This is a key area for growth and development to support and embed youth voice.

The students felt like they had a real connection with politicians, rather than them feeling very abstract and alien.”

Nicole Ridley, teacher at Malet Lambert

One of the biggest opportunities for expansion of political contact work is in local government. From our experience, the majority of school visits are with MPs, with few local councillors going into their schools to meet with students. However, if we could support just 1 in 5 of the 20,000 local councillors in England to do just one school visit a year we could work with every secondary school in England. We have found local councillors willing to engage with schools, and with the right support for teachers this would be an exciting opportunity.

We have seen that when supported, teachers are able to deliver political contact that has a positive impact on their students. Where this happens it becomes valued and embedded in schools, strengthening democratic education.

We believe that there is a huge opportunity to use practice developed in the Digital Surgeries programme to reimagine engagements between young people and politicians, ensuring that youth political contact is more meaningful and equitable.

If that happens the opportunity for youth political contact to be central to building trust, understanding and to co-create change will be significant.