Making Votes at 16 a Success

Roadmap to Votes at 16

These are 5 key recommendations that provide a framework for a successful implementation of votes at 16, set out by The Politics Project.

Reference: Official Roadmap to Votes at 16

View Roadmap Announcement →

5 Key Recommendations

1

Democratic Education Entitlement

Establish a minimum entitlement to democratic education

  • 1.1Strengthen provision for Citizenship and democratic education from Primary schools to post-16 education
  • 1.2Ensure there is a discrete subject or programme of study that includes democratic education
  • 1.3Strengthen school inspection frameworks on Citizenship and democratic education
2

Educator Support

Support educators and youth practitioners to deliver excellent democratic education

  • 2.1Provide teachers with specialist training and support
  • 2.2Provide youth practitioners with targeted training and support
  • 2.3Ensure there are high-quality resources available to all practitioners
3

Curriculum Modernisation

Modernise the curriculum

  • 3.1Support young people to cast their first vote
  • 3.2Expand support for media literacy education
  • 3.3Support understanding of local and regional government
  • 3.4Ensure the curriculum includes a wide range of democratic participation activities beyond voting and elections
4

Youth Engagement Opportunities

Expand opportunities for young people to engage, lead and influence

  • 4.1Support engagements between young people and politicians to build trust
  • 4.2Support opportunities for youth-led social action, and peer-to-peer learning
  • 4.3Create meaningful opportunities for young people to have a say on policy
5

Communications Campaigns

Support communications campaigns to encourage youth engagement

  • 5.1Create sources of trusted and accessible information for young people
  • 5.2Create accessible resources and information for parents and carers to enable them to support young people to vote for the first time
  • 5.3Develop communications specifically for young people

Introducing the new Youth Platform

Why This Platform is Essential

The 2024 General Election had the lowest turnout (59.7%) since 2001. 18 to 24 year olds and young people are becoming increasingly disenfranchised and disillusioned with politics because there have been no policies which directly benefit them. We must end this dangerous cycle, for if we don't it could threaten our very democracy.

With generative AI making it increasingly easier to generate deepfakes of politicians, people around the UK are finding it increasingly difficult to discern real from fake.

Our Solution

Therefore, we need a trusted, unbiased, accurate platform for young people. It would provide party manifestos, breaking them down and explaining their policies; transforming political jargon into easy-to-digest explanations.

Additionally, it would provide first-time voters with useful information such as their nearest polling station, and other essential voter information.

The platform could also feature an interactive quiz where users rate policy statements on a scale of 1-5, generating percentage scores showing how closely their views align with each political party, complete with detailed explanations of the matches.

    Vote16 AI