General Election Youth Hustings
General Election Youth Hustings
With a UK General Election due to take place during the delivery period of the programme, this iteration of Digital Dialogue: Wales included youth hustings.
The youth hustings were for young people aged 14-25 in Wales, giving them the opportunity to meet with and ask questions of their parliamentary candidates in the run up to the General Election.
Who took part
The hustings were delivered in Mid and South Pembrokeshire, Wrexham and Cardiff West constituencies. 200 learners from eight schools and colleges took part.
At the Mid and South Pembrokeshire Hustings, we also had young people from the Community Youth Team at Pembrokeshire Council taking part.
The learners met with candidates from the major political parties: Conservative Party, Green Party, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and Reform UK. In total 13 candidates/party representatives took part across the three hustings that took place. Each hustings involved 4-5 candidates.
You can see the full list of politicians who participated here
Delivering Youth Hustings
Planning stage
With the growing expectation of an autumn election, we made plans to deliver 10 youth hustings in late September / early October 2024:
We approached our teacher network in November 2023. 33 teachers responded to say they were interested in taking part in some way.
We reached out to Local Authorities to discuss ways to work together and approached interested schools to understand the proportion of interest for online/in-person events and subsequently what schools were available to host in-person events.
A candidate selection policy was written by TPP and checked by the Electoral Commission. We began approaching known candidates in early 2024.
Learning resources were created to help teachers prepare their learners for the hustings.
Once the election was called
The 2024 General Election was called the week before half term in Wales, giving us just four weeks to deliver the hustings.
The relationships that we had built with teachers, the political parties and several Local Authorities were key in enabling us to deliver the hustings in the time available.
Despite those relationships, the time constraints proved challenging. Some candidates were not confirmed candidates until a week or two after the election was called and, understandably, response times to our invitations were often slow. Several schools, previously keen to take part, were unable to do so, citing the exam period, capacity and a lack of transport as barriers.
With limited time, as well as the exam period restricting school and college capacity, we resolved to focus on three constituencies where planning had advanced the most. These were Cardiff West, Mid and South Pembrokeshire and Wrexham.
Facilitation
The hustings took place between the 20-28 June. Two hustings were held in person, the first in Mid and South Pembrokeshire and the last in Cardiff West. The Wrexham hustings took place online, facilitated by The Politics Project.
Learners at Pembrokeshire College and Radyr Comprehensive chaired their hustings, with support from us. Each school/college/youth group had equal opportunity to ask a question and the questions selected reflected the broad range of questions submitted. The variety of topics was praised by candidates.
Boys and Girls Club
Through the Democratic Engagement Fund Partnerships meetings, we connected with the Boys and Girls Club. During the General Election, we shared our learning resources, provided party contact information and contacted candidates on their behalf, to help them secure candidates and representatives for the events.
Overview of the hustings
This video provides a quick overview of the youth hustings we organised.
Feedback from Hustings
Teacher feedback
100% of teachers either strongly agreed or agreed that their learners are more interested in politics and feel more motivated to engage with democratic processes and had improved their understanding of the Welsh political system and social and political issues in Wales after the Youth Hustings.
Having the local candidates on site in the college brought the reality of politics home to learners, and demonstrated that it is possible - and important - to stay informed. It demonstrated the link between local and national events.”
Learner feedback
Learners also highlighted the benefits of hearing from candidates directly:
Candidate feedback
Candidates also fed back how much they enjoyed the Hustings, and how useful they were in enabling them to communicate to young people.
Case study: The Politics Project supports learners at Pembrokeshire College to chair a youth hustings
In June 2024, The Politics Project collaborated with Pembrokeshire College to arrange a youth hustings in advance of the general election. To ensure the event was youth-led, we provided two interested learners with a 'How to Chair' guide and agenda, and offered both online and in-person support to prepare them for chairing the event.
The hustings event, held on June 19, 2024, was a resounding success with 80 young people from five schools and one youth group in attendance, along with four parliamentary candidates and one party representative. Both chairs, despite having prior public speaking experience, had never spoken at an event of this scale and were initially nervous. However, they performed exceptionally well, growing in confidence throughout the event. Reflecting on this, one chair noted:
The event also provided chairs with the opportunity to develop skills such as “communication” and “listening”, and realise they too “have the skills required” to “get involved in front line politics”.
Both chairs struggled to narrow down the most enjoyable part of the event, noting instead “the feel of the hustings” and “the energy in the room which was just mind blowing”. Later explaining “the delight seeing so many young people over Pembrokeshire keen on politicians answering their questions”. Certainly, the evaluation of the hustings indicated that the highlight for most young people was the opportunity to ask questions directly to candidates. Alistair Cameron, Liberal Democrats candidate, said that “it was great to hear questions from young people… it helped me to understand some of the issues affecting young people today”.
When asked why it was important for them, as young people, to chair the event, both chairs explained that it increased the accessibility of the event for young people in attendance. It“broke down barriers for the audience and learners involved”, because it wasn’t “people in suits turning up but, instead people closer in age, who are more relatable”. In agreement with this, one chair explained how “it boosted many people’s capabilities…maybe they thought they were chairing it so I can chair it”. Stuart Marchant, Reform UK candidate highlighted these, “moments of realisation and empowerment among the learners as they grasped the importance of their role in shaping the future through democratic participation”. Similarly, Alison Whitehurst, Aspire Learner Voice and Tutorial Co-ordinator at Pembrokeshire College, said that the hustings “developed and built [learners'] interest and confidence to engage”.
