Announcing STAGE 2 of Covid-19 Project with Scottish Children and Young People!

We’re are excited to be announcing today STAGE 2 of APiC’s COVID-19 Project with Scottish Children and Young People!

The Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland (CYCPS) approached us asking that we recall the Young Consultants who participated in our #ScotYouthandCOVID project during March-April 2021.

To celebrate the commission, we are republishing our report “#ScotYouthandCOVID: Children and young people’s participation in crisis” with a new foreword by the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, Bruce Adamson.

“This report is testament to the will and capability of children and young people to contribute, even in the most difficult of circumstances. It evidences that virtual coproduction methodologies are well suited to the skills and expertise of young people in Scotland. Looking forward, we need to enter an age where children’s human rights are put at the heart of our governance and policy-making. This report provides a framework for how we may proceed in the remainder of this and in future crises” Bruce Adamson, Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland

During the first lockdown of 2020, APiC’s self-funded, young-person-led project and report was one of the only truly participatory projects held with young people at that time. Setting out the important changes and challenges young Scots were experiencing, it involved teams from Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and (Rural) Stirlingshire and Falkirk, each with 4-6 boys and girls, aged 10-16 years. Leith Community Crops in Pots, the  Children’s Parliament Imagining Aberdeen programme, Denny High School, Northfield Academy and Manor Park Primary School helped us with the recruitment.

Remote learning emerged as a critical stressor, and the Young Consultants put forward 5 recommendations for alleviating the most difficult issues they face. APiC sought funding to progress the project with a view to facilitating an effective dialogue between the panel and policymakers. However, the general response at that time was that the pandemic was under control and the worst was over.

Now, during a time of a lockdown as serious, if not more so, than the first, and in light of recent research suggesting endemic mental health impacts of COVID-19 on UK youth, this project will recall the Young Consultants, with a view to:

  1. Revisiting the important themes and recommendations they agreed upon for the 2020 report, exploring what has / hasn’t changed since, and providing a longitudinal perspective of their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  2. Exploring any new changes and challenges which have emerged in the intervening period, and discussing what and where small changes could make the biggest difference.
  3. Looking ahead at the bigger changes young people want or hope to see for our post-COVID future.

“Writing this foreword at the height of increased COVID-19 related restrictions in early 2021, the young people’s recommendations ring truer than ever and seem almost prescient. In the 6 months since the report was published, a return to a system of remote learning and to the other pressures they highlighted here, continues to impact their lives disproportionately…It is hard to appreciate the scale of the consequences for children and young people of failing to listen and involve them meaningfully,” Bruce Adamson, Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland

The hope is that this time round, the views of the Young Consultants are taken onboard by those who can make a difference, and that a genuine dialogue with policymakers and partners on effective responses may be possible. This will align with impending incorporation of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child into Scots’ law.

We will be posting frequent updates from the Young Consultant over the course of the project so follow us on Twitter for updates.