CEO Blog: Young people need a seat at the table: The importance of youth voice

This autumn the Government will be releasing its long-awaited National Youth Strategy, and it couldn’t have come at a more crucial time. Young people need more holistic and sustained attention from the Government, and they also need their voices to be heard. The Next Generation UK 2024 report, published at the end of last year, cited that when it comes to decision-making at local and national level, seven in ten young people in the UK either felt that their voices go unheard, or that their voices are heard but ignored. This was reiterated in The John Smith Centre UK Youth Poll 2025, which stated that more needs to be done to reach young people who feel they don’t have a voice in the UK. The Government’s recent announcement that it will lower the voting age to 16, is a really positive first step in the right direction to ensuring young people don’t disengage from democracy, but it needs to take a thorough and integrated approach, to ensure young people feel like their voices are being listened to. 

That’s why young people shaping policy is so important, and why it’s a positive signal that the National Youth Strategy has been directly informed by a country-wide consultation with young people. It has captured their thoughts and feelings about the issues affecting them, with particular efforts to engage those whose voices are too often missing. I sit on the Expert Advisory Board that helps shape the development of the National Youth Strategy and have been impressed by the extensive efforts to gather young people’s views, including through direct involvement of OnSide Youth Zone members, to inform the research and the forthcoming Strategy.  

So why is youth voice so important? Because organisations and institutions that aim to improve young people’s lives must adhere to the principle of for young people, with young people. If we’re delivering or commissioning services aimed at making a significant positive impact, then young people’s invaluable insights must guide how this is achieved. It’s important for the young people we support, too; they need to feel that they contribute to decisions and shape their own services – and to feel valued and respected. It’s no different from how commercial businesses operate – customer feedback drives innovation and as youth organisations, we should do the same. As adults, we can’t fully understand the realities young people face today.  

At OnSide, we are always seeking further ways to amplify and listen to the voices of young people. Youth work is not top-down – youth workers empower young people to make decisions that shape their lives, and our approach mirrors this. There is more that we can and must do to strengthen youth participation, but I am proud of the steps we have taken so far. 

A good example is the role that Young People’s Development Groups (YPDGs) play in a new Youth Zone’s development. YPDGs are groups of dedicated and dynamic local young people who meet every week at sessions run by youth workers, to share their ideas on what they want their new Youth Zone to be. They take part in recruiting key staff, help shape branding, design interiors, and act as the new Youth Zone’s ambassadors. They also inform critical decisions. For example, before opening our London Youth Zones, we consulted the YPDGs from all three soon-to-open London Youth Zones on whether knife wanding and bag searches should be adopted. They advised that they should be, to ensure that Youth Zones are seen as safe spaces – advice that we then followed. Elsewhere we’re working with the young people involved with Crewe’s Youth Zone, The Dome, opening in 2026, to look at a Youth Zone specifically through young women’s eyes, and also to ensure we are designing spaces that reflect young people’s changing needs. It’s been a really insightful piece of work, and we’ll use its findings to inform other future Youth Zones, beyond Crewe’s. 

Another way we have strengthened our youth voice is through our Youth Advisory Board, made up of young people from across the OnSide Network, who input into key decisions and the services we provide. They recently provided insight into just how vital Youth Workers are to the positive Youth Zone experience, and the importance of the consistency in staff numbers, which is informing our training & development programmes delivered through OnSide’s Talent Academy. Last month the Board’s invaluable insight went a step further, when they ran a takeover of the Big Issue. They took the editorial reigns and filled it from front to back with their own unique experiences of what life is like being a young person. From education, health, identity through to music, immigration and fashion – no topic was off limits. It was a fantastic example of the power and importance of youth voice. 

As we await the National Youth Strategy, I do hope to see real, cross-government commitment to the same spirit of youth participation, with the Strategy enabling youth voice and representation at all levels of policy and decision-making, both in design and delivery. It was great to attend the recent publication of the new Civil Society Covenant (see photos), where I was encouraged to hear how it will provide a valuable opportunity to build lasting partnerships with Government where youth voice is not only heard, but meaningfully acted upon — ensuring Government draws on the expertise of civil society to deliver better outcomes for young people.  

Most immediately, the Youth Strategy is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to correct the notion too many young people understandably have – that their views don’t count, and that they’re not worth investing in. Young people deserve to look forward to a future packed with possibility, and we need to do everything within our power to make sure they can.