Executive summary
Introduction
Digital Dialogue: Wales, delivered by The Politics Project and funded by the Welsh Government’s Democratic Engagement Fund, supports meaningful, informed conversations between young people and their elected representatives.
Young people gain the knowledge, skills and confidence to engage in the democratic process through informed interactions. The programme takes four teaching hours to deliver, with three hours dedicated to workshops and one hour to deliver a Dialogue session. These interactions take place both online and in-person, in classrooms across Wales. The programme empowers learners across Wales to become ethical, informed citizens – in line with the Curriculum for Wales and the Well-being of Future Generations Act.
Why it matters
Youth engagement in politics remains disproportionately low, with only 37% of 18–25-year-olds voting in the 2024 UK General Election, compared to 73% of over-65s.
Young people in Wales report low levels of trust in politicians, limited knowledge of the Senedd, and reduced motivation to engage with formal politics. Digital Dialogue: Wales addresses this democratic gap by creating spaces for young people and politicians to have meaningful dialogue about issues that young people care about.
What Digital Dialogue: Wales delivered
This phase of the programme took place between March 2023 and April 2025. There were:
27% of sessions were conducted partially or fully in Welsh. 8 of the Dialogue sessions were Leader Dialogues, connecting learners with the Senedd Party Leaders.
In this phase of the programme we also delivered three youth hustings in the run up to the General Election, to increase young people's access to candidates standing in their constituencies.
Impact on learners
Knowledge
The programme consistently improved learners’ political knowledge. After participating, those who felt they understood the Welsh political system rose by 20%. Primary learners saw the greatest gain, with a 23% rise in their understanding of the "role of a politician".
Trust and relationships
The programme had a strong impact on learners’ relationship with, and trust of, politicians. After taking part in the programme, there was a 9% increase in trust in politicians and a 17% increase in young people feeling that politicians represented them.
Skills
Learners who agreed that they “knew how to question a politician" increased by 17% and those that felt they knew how to research a politician increased by 9%.
Democratic engagement
Learners also became more politically active, with the number of learners who felt they could vote increasing by 10%, and feeling they can influence change in society increasing by 11%.
Percentage of Learners Who 'Understand the Welsh Political System'
Percentage of Learners Who 'Know How to Question a Politician'
I'm seriously considering a career in politics. I'm now taking steps towards a career in that and wouldn't have been without the project”
Impact on teachers
Improved confidence
Teachers supporting the learners also benefitted from the programme. Teachers who felt they had the confidence to deliver politically-neutral content to learners rose from 56% to 94%. There was also a 30% increase in the number of teachers reporting they had the skills to encourage political engagement in learners after taking part in Digital Dialogue: Wales.
100% reported that they felt confident and equipped to deliver the programme, and felt supported by The Politics Project. 100% of teachers would recommend Digital Dialogue: Wales to a colleague.
Percentage of Teachers Who Feel 'Confident Delivering Politically Neutral Content'
Percentage of Teachers Who Feel They 'Have The Skills to Encourage Political Engagement in Learners'
Impact on politicians
Better understanding
The politicians who took part in Digital Dialogue: Wales reported a positive impact. 100% said that the programme gave them a better understanding of young people and their priorities and reported stronger relationships with their constituents.
In total, 47 of the 60 (78%) sitting Senedd members toke part in the programme with 28 writing written endorsements about the programmes value. All would recommend taking part in the programme to other politicians.
The sessions have allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of their concerns and priorities, reinforcing the importance of involving young people in political conversations from an early age."
I enjoy my Digital Dialogue sessions and ensure they are prioritised as they are so enjoyable."
Impact on the community
Supporting voting
Digital Dialogue: Wales boosted teachers’ confidence in assisting learners with the voter registration process. After taking part, 82% of teachers felt confident in “supporting learners to register to vote”.
Embedding the programme
In this phase of the Digital Dialogue: Wales we saw the programme being embedded into schools; 40% of schools delivered the programme across a whole year group.
Pledges and real-world change
36 Dialogue sessions led to a pledge - a commitment by a politician during a Dialogue session to do something on behalf of the learners.
These included coordinating work experience, redesigning school meals and raising questions in the Senedd.
This led to increases in trust in politics by learners in these engagements. The number of young people who believe that "politicians represent me and share my views", was 15% higher in Dialogues where a pledge was made compared to Dialogues where a pledge wasn’t made.
Below is an example of a pledge made by Lee Waters MS, where he promised to raise the concerns of learners at Bigyn Primary School over the lack of NHS dentists in Llanelli in the Senedd.
Click here for a full list of pledges.
Key learnings
We have identified the following key learnings from delivering Digital Dialogue: Wales.
Asking questions
Digital Dialogue: Wales has a more profound impact for learners that asked a question during a Dialogue session. Learners were 22% more likely to feel that a “politician cared about their views” if they asked a question and were 27% more likely to say that they found the session interesting.
This suggests that learners are more engaged in sessions where they have the opportunity to actively participate, and it shows the positive impact of learner-led engagements where learners are able to talk about issues that matter to them.
Mid-size groups
Mid-sized groups (groups of 21 to 40 participants) demonstrated a more consistent positive impact across knowledge, confidence and trust indicators compared to small groups (groups of less than 20) or large groups (groups of 41 or more).
We believe this is due to fewer opportunities for participants to engage and ask questions in larger groups, and more opportunities for discussion than smaller groups. This highlights a key trade-off between the quantity and quality of impact in these sessions.
Primary learners
Dialogues are just as impactful for Year 4 to 6 learners compared to Dialogue sessions with older learners. Across many indicators, in particular those around political knowledge and understanding, the programme actually led to a bigger positive change for primary learners. The number of Year 4 to 6 learners who agreed they understand the Welsh political system increased by 25% after taking part in the programme, compared to 14% of Year 7 to 11 learners and 7% of Year 12 to 13 learners.
Not only do primary learners benefit from Digital Dialogue: Wales, but democratic education at a younger age can have a high impact.
Multiple engagements
Learners who take part in three or more sessions greatly improve their confidence in sharing their views and talking about issues they care about. Learners who participated in one session saw a 4% point increase in confidence talking about issues they cared about, compared to learners who participated in three or more sessions where it was 16%.
Exposure to multiple politicians, the experience of coming up with more questions for them and answering their questions clearly improves learner confidence.
Conclusions
Digital Dialogue: Wales continues to offer a proven, impactful model for delivering democratic education at scale. The programme effectively supports young people to engage in politics, helps teachers feel confident delivering democratic learning, and strengthens relationships between politicians and the communities they serve.
The programme continues to effectively tackle one of the most complex issues of our time: building political trust. It is effective at improving knowledge about political systems and building young people's confidence and skills to engage with politicians and the broader democratic system.
We also see the role the programme can play in helping schools to embed democratic education, leading to sustained, long-term engagement. The programme has broad support from politicians and teachers who view it as an effective tool for education and engagement.
Looking ahead, there is a clear opportunity to map political engagement across Wales and collaborate with partners to ensure all young people can have meaningful contact with politicians during their time at school.
We also see potential to share our learning more widely, particularly around how to improve both the quantity and quality of political engagement with young people. This includes supporting politicians to build positive relationships and follow up on their commitments to learners.
