Conclusions

“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

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. 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.