EA Bulletin: 395 Wales

The Children’s Commissioner for Wales, the Senedd Commission and the Electoral Commission have worked in partnership to create new resources that support young people to learn about the Senedd and how to vote, so they feel confident to participate in the 2026 Senedd election. We welcome you sharing these new resources with your relevant networks.  

The resources cover key topics including:  

• Children’s rights and the importance of voting
• The role and history of the Senedd and how it’s changing in 2026  
• How to register and vote at a Senedd election 

The resources include: 

• An assembly: assembly slides to introduce the 2026 Senedd election and share key information about taking part. 
• Lesson plans: three lesson plans that explore in more depth why voting is important, the role of the Senedd and how to vote in the election.   
• Short activities: a series of short activities to start the conversation about the election and how young people can get involved. 
• Educator guidance: guidance on how to use the resources, election FAQs and key vocabulary.  

Download the Senedd election resources. 

The Senedd will be running two train the trainer sessions for teachers to understand how to get the most out of the resources: 

• Thursday 6 November 15:30 -16:15
• Thursday 4 December 15:30 -16:15

More resources from the Electoral Commission 

A new lesson plan on designing a voter registration campaign for the 2026 Senedd election.

You can also find a collection of year-round lesson plans and short activities about democracy and elections in Wales on our education resources page. These include: 

• a series of short activities and lesson plans on mis- and disinformation created in partnership with Shout Out UK
• resources for running a registration drive at your school or youth group  
• guidance on how to embed democratic education within the Curriculum for Wales. 

We also have a range of videos for young people about the Senedd and Senedd elections. 

Further resources on democracy, elections and the Senedd  

Here are some useful resources from a range of organisations working to support young people ahead of the 2026 Senedd Election:  

• Children’s Commissioner for Wales
• The Senedd Commission
• Democracy classroom 

In 2023 and 2024, the Electoral Commission consulted all the parties on the Great Britain party register and the members of the Senedd Political Parties Panels and Scottish Parliament about proposed changes to the Code of Conduct for Campaigners at devolved Scottish and Welsh elections.  

These changes concerned handling absent vote applications and handling postal ballot packs. After discussion, all the parties on the Scottish Parliament and Senedd panels agreed to a set of changes. We have now published the updated code on our website. 

 Handling absent vote applications 

The updated Code now states that campaigners should: 

• Encourage voters in the first instance to use the online electoral registration service to register to vote.  
• Ensure that the local Electoral Registration Officer’s (ERO) address is clearly provided as the return address for paper registration and absent vote application forms.
• Ensure that if a voter asks them to take their application form and return it to the Electoral Registration Officer, the voter has sealed it in an envelope.
• Send application forms to the ERO within two working days of receipt and before the statutory deadline. 

Postal voting documents 

The updated Code now states that campaigners should never handle anyone else’s postal voting documents which would cover the entire postal voting pack a voter receives (previously it only covered handling postal ballots).

As set out in Bulletin 393, on 4 August we launched a consultation on the guidance for Returning Officers on assistance with voting for persons with disabilities.

We are grateful for the feedback we’ve received to date. The consultation closes on 26 October and we want to hear from as many people as possible. You can respond by filling in this form or emailing your views to  [email protected].

As a reminder, the Welsh government is introducing legislation ahead of the May 2026 polls, to align the accessibility provisions for elections in Wales with the changes introduced by the Elections Act 2022.  

These changes have provided a timely opportunity to review our existing guidance, drawing on the evidence gathered as part of our monitoring and evaluation from the elections which have taken place across the UK since the changes were first introduced, to help ensure everyone can vote independently and confidently. There should be no barriers to voting for disabled people, and everyone should have the right to vote on their own and in secret.   

As set out in Bulletin 394, on 8 September the Electoral Commission launched a consultation on our new Code of Practice for Accredited Electoral Observers. There is still time to leave feedback on the new Code. 

The consultation will run until 2 November 2025. You can respond by filling in our survey, emailing your views to [email protected] or writing to us at: Electoral Observers Officer, The Electoral Commission, The Boat, 49 Queen's Square, Belfast, BT1 3FG. 

As a reminder, feedback will help us improve the draft before the final version is laid in the Scottish and Westminster Parliaments and Welsh Senedd, as required by law.

Once we have considered the responses to this consultation, we expect to lay the Code in December.

Once passed, the updated Code will replace the existing version, and accredited observers will be expected to adhere to it throughout the duration of their accreditation.