Supporting young people to cast their vote with confidence
The UK government has committed to lowering the voting age so that 16 and 17-year-olds can vote in all UK elections, giving around 1.5 million additional young people the right to participate.
Young people who have just gained this right are more likely to take part in elections if they understand how the voting process works and what they need to do, making access to high-quality democratic education essential for building their knowledge and confidence.
Our 2026 youth opinion research found that 78% of young people think they should learn more about politics in school and college, yet only 30% of under 18s had heard about it there within the last year.
Andrew, Youth Voice Champion
"We can support people to become informed by educating people on who the political parties are, what they offer, and how to vote."
The Democratic Education Framework
We have partnered with The Politics Project to develop the UK's first Democratic Education Framework to support teachers and youth practitioners in England and Northern Ireland understand, assess and strengthen the democratic education they provide to ensure that young people can become informed and confident participants in democracy.
Its six interconnected strands show you what high-quality impartial democratic education looks like in practice, supporting young people to understand how democracy works and how they can participate. The Framework includes practical resources for strengthening your practice, including case studies and delivery pathways.
Piloting the Framework
The Framework is launching in a pilot phase for the next six months, and we are inviting you to be part of it. The pilot will run until January 2027 and is open to schools and colleges in England and Northern Ireland.
The Framework is hosted on Democracy Classroom. To take part, simply visit Democracy Classroom and complete the self-assessment tool. By assessing your current democratic education provision, you'll automatically be contributing to the pilot and helping to shape the future development of the Framework.
We provide education resources for use in both formal and informal education settings to support young people to learn more about the UK’s democracy and their own vote.
If you’d like to discuss this work in more detail, please contact: [email protected]
