Most Young People Want A Greater Say In Public Decision Making

Seven in ten (71%) young people would like to have a greater say in decisions about their community, including the health service and schools. However, more than two-thirds of these believe their views are taken less seriously because of their age.

The findings come from a MORI survey specially commissioned by the Carnegie Young Peoples Initiative to coincide with their major report published today (June 26) which sets out proposals for greater involvement by young people in public decision-making.

It was taken a week after the election in which only about 40 per cent of 18-24s are estimated to have voted, an even lower proportion than other groups.

The findings showed that half (49 per cent) of the 16-24 year-olds surveyed both wanted a greater say but felt that their views were not taken seriously because of their age. This equates to approximately 3.5million of Britain's 16-24 year olds.

While around a third (34 per cent) of the general public feel their views on community decisions are not taken seriously because of their age, this rises to nearly to two-thirds of 15-24 year olds (63 per cent) with a quarter (26 per cent) of this age group strongly agreeing this to be the case.

Commenting on the survey, the Chairperson of the Carnegie Young People Initiative, Ravi Gurumurthy said, "These findings reinforce the message which stands out from our report that young people want to be involved but they feel that the present political structure does not allow them sufficient opportunity. If more young people are to be encouraged to vote and play their part in the democratic process, we need to tap into this enthusiasm and make sure they are genuinely involved at an early stage".

Respondents in the survey were asked: "Thinking about decisions in your community, such as how the local community is run and what happens in the health service and schools", to say whether they thought their views were taken less seriously because of their age and whether they would like a greater say in the decisions. The question was placed on MORI's regular weekly Omnibus survey.

While the proportion of young people wanting a greater say in decisions was slightly larger than the general public - 71 per cent compared with 64 per cent, the proportion believing their views were taken less seriously because of their age was almost twice as high - 63 per cent compared with 34 per cent. And the survey also showed some synergy between older and younger people, with half (51 per cent) of those aged 61 or older feeling that age is a barrier to their views being taken seriously.

The Carnegie Young People Initiative was set up in 1996. It specifically seeks to define good practice in involving young people in key public decisions. In the past 12 months it has published separate reports mapping young people's involvement in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, as part of a series in different countries and regions. The Initiative is part of the work of the Carnegie UK Trust, one of the UK's most old established trusts which operates in a number of fields including the arts, rural communities and the Third Age. It combines grant giving with support for policy research.

Technical details

The questions were placed on MORI's Omnibus. 943 interviews were conducted with the general public in Great Britain using stratified random quota sampling. All were aged 16+. Interviews were conducted face-to-face in home using CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing). Fieldwork was conducted between 14-19 June 2001 across 187 sampling points.

• All data are edited and weighted to the known population profile of Great Britain
• All questions are based on all adults (943), unless otherwise stated
• An asterisk (*) denotes a percentage of less than 0.5% but greater than zero
• All figures are expressed in percentage terms. Where they do not sum to 100%, this will be due to either computer rounding, multiple response answers or a number of not stated answers.

Q Thinking about decisions in your community, such as how the local community is run, and what happens in the health service and schools, how strongly would you say that you agree or disagree with the following:

My views are taken less seriously because of my age

I would like to have a greater say in these decisions