Education Scotland (ES) and Young Scot (YS) established a partnership in April 2021 with the purpose of creating the Young People’s Strategic Panel, a co-design group composed of a variety of young volunteers aged between 13-17 from across Scotland.

The purpose of this Panel was to improve how youth voices are engaged within ES and support the embedding of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into the strategic work of ES. Over the 18-month project, The Panel has been exploring the work of ES and the UNCRC through their own lived experiences, collaborating with ES staff, identifying their priorities from issues they had identified and testing out their solutions before producing their recommendations for ES to take forward.

The Panel envisage a future for education that provides a level playing field for learners, with highly trained and skilled professionals supporting them through turbulent experiences, combating stigma and empowering young people with their rights. The group see ES’s involvement in this vision as vital and strategic, providing the mechanisms, resources and awareness that educators need to support their students to the best of their ability.

The Panel want their recommendations to inspire ES to be more involved in the day-to-day lives of children and young people, listening to their voices directly and making proactive changes to the education system on their behalf. The Panel wish for ES to be more transparent about the work they do, and how they do it and to communicate the ongoing cycle of necessary change needed to keep education relevant, engaging and informed.