VOICES of children and young people: Covid disruption and the resource divide

Children North East is working with Newcastle University on the VOICES project, gathering the viewpoints of children and young people on the impact of Covid-19 on their lives.

The VOICES team are excited to launch our first evidence report ‘Covid disruption and the resource divide: interim evidence from children and young people in the North East’ with both the full and summary versions of the report available.

Image with sign reading 'What is your story?'

What’s in this report? 

This interim report presents evidence from 180 children and young people (age 5-18) in the North East, as we work to our target of talking with 1,000 children and young people across the North East. Through focus groups and other consultation methods, we found out about what children and young people’s lives are like now, to share this evidence and help organisational leaders bring about change for the better.

Understanding young people’s needs have always been a knowledge gap for policy makers, particularly for children living in poverty, and has been made worse by Covid-19. Our headline findings make clear calls to action, and we also ask policymakers to take note of the more long term, complex, and emergent issues affecting young people.

Our three priorities for action from this first phase report are:

  • confidence in using transport 
  • support from employers about employment and futures 
  • a focus on social interaction (and play) in catch-up or opportunities offered to children and young people 

Image of person on bus

What happens next?

This first interim report shares evidence from the first phase of VOICES up to January 2021. We are working with organisational leaders and policymakers to support change based on young people’s experiences and needs and our next reports will focus on findings from our ongoing North East regionwide consultation.

We are keen for more organisations to get involved in VOICES – please contact [email protected] or [email protected] to find out more.

VOICES is a joint research project by Children North East and Newcastle University. This research is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), as part of UK Research and Innovation’s rapid response to Covid-19.