This data comes from a search and submission call to evidence that was run in 2024. The data-set comprises the evidence that we were able to find according to our inclusion criteria, and are able to code according to our Observatory coding framework; which may include documents, audio files and video files. While we have done our best to conduct a thorough search, there may be further sources that have not yet been included, or which are not possible to code according to the Observatory coding framework.
Due to the nature of the data-set, not every search will yield interesting results.
We update the data-set annually. It was last updated in December 2024 and the next update due Autumn 2025. We can accept and hold new evidence in the meantime – please see the upload link at the bottom of this page if you have something to add. The graphs on this page show data from when the site was most recently updated.
Criteria
The inclusion criteria for evidence on the Observatory includes:
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Voices of young people up to the age of 25, or analyses a youth voice activity which captured the views of young people up to the age of 25
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Items published Jan 2020 or later, with a data collection period within the prior 12 months, or where data collection began in 2018 but continued into 2019
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Items published in English
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Voices of young people from the UK only (including studies focusing on young people in only one nation, multiple or UK-wide)
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Items that demonstrate how young people are heard both directly (i.e. gathered information directly from young people) or indirectly (e.g. reports on data from another source or an evaluation or case study) NB we will code these to clearly indicate which is which
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Items that are publicly available
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Articles that report both the voices of adults (over the age of 25) and young people, providing it is possible to clearly distinguish views expressed by young people
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Both academic and non-academic literature, and a range of methodologies including evaluation and learning reports where relevant
The inclusion criteria for evidence on the Observatory excludes items when:
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Anonymity of young people is compromised
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Text is unclear or poorly written
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Activity seems in any way exploitative or unethical e.g. young people pressured to take part
A note on coding:
Some of the sources on the observatory refer to multiple youth voice activities. It is not possible to code every single type of activity separately, so where this is the case we treat the source as one piece of evidence, which is then coded according to its data. If this refers to multiple types of activity, they will be amalgamated for the purposes of coding.