About the programme

Digital Dialogue: Wales supports young people to have meaningful conversations  with the politicians that represent them, building trust and relationships on both sides.   

Young people gain the knowledge, skills and confidence to engage in the democratic process through informed interactions with their elected representatives. These interactions take place both online and in-person, in classrooms across Wales.  

Digital Dialogue: Wales takes four teaching hours to deliver, with three hours dedicated to workshops and one hour to deliver a Dialogue. It supports one of the four purposes of the Curriculum for Wales - to support learners to become ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world. The programme is funded by the Welsh Government’s Democratic Engagement Fund.

Across Wales, there is still a huge disparity between the number of young and old people engaging in the democratic system. In the 2024 UK General Election 37% of UK 18-25 year olds voted, in contrast to 73% of people aged over 65 (Ipsos, 2024). Less than half of young people in Wales say they’re interested in politics and only 15% report they know a lot about what the Senedd does (Electoral Commission, 2025).

This gap means that young people continue to be underrepresented in decision-making, which is leading to inequalities based on age. Our own research shows a breakdown in relationships between young people and politicians. We found that only: 

This affects young people’s willingness to engage with traditional democratic structures, and reduces motivation to engage with the politics they see as not working for them. Young people are then excluded from power due to their lack of engagement with formal political structures.

One of the most common engagements between learners and politicians is the ‘school visit’. From our experience, we knew that many of these opportunities were being under-utilised, often reduced to photo opportunities for schools and politicians alike. Despite this being the most common method of engagement, only 5% of schools receive a politician visit (Weinberg, 2020).

Digital Dialogue: Wales reimagines these engagements, giving learners and politicians the chance to meaningfully engage with each other, broker positive relationships and improve trust. Research shows that democratic engagement is bolstered by trust in political systems and elected representatives (Kolpinskaya and Bennett, 2024). We want young people in Wales to be motivated to actively participate in democratic life.

In 2021 we developed and successfully piloted Digital Dialogue: Wales, delivering 8 Dialogue sessions for 91 secondary school learners to speak with 6 politicians. 

The pilot was followed by an expansion of the programme in 2022, delivering 72 Dialogue sessions and supporting 1333 learners to speak with 48 politicians. 48 teachers were trained and supported to deliver the programme. Primary school learners participated in the programme for the first time, with two primary schools taking part. We also delivered ‘Leader Dialogues’ - Dialogues that allowed learners from across Wales to speak with the Senedd party leaders.  

In 2023 we received funding through the Welsh Government’s Democratic Engagement Fund to expand Digital Dialogue: Wales further, aiming to deliver 160 Dialogue sessions and support 4000 learners to have meaningful interactions with 100 politicians. 80 primary, secondary and further education college teachers would be trained and supported.

In addition to growing the programme’s reach, we also would explore different formats to support young people to engage with politicians and continue to develop the Leader Dialogue sessions. A new element of the programme would be youth hustings, which would be delivered in the run up to the UK General Election. 

This report shares the impact of the programme since 2023.

Digital Dialogue: Wales supports the delivery of the Curriculum for Wales by supporting young people to recognise their democratic rights and responsibilities in line with the “ethical, informed citizens” purpose, in the Welsh Curriculum. 

The programme supports the Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) by supporting politicians to consider and discuss the long-term impact of their decisions on future generations. Digital Dialogue: Wales also supports the extension of the franchise to 16 and 17 year olds, helping young people to build the knowledge, skills and confidence to be active citizens.