From the Youth Summit to the decision-making table: young people at the heart of our work

At the Fair Education Alliance, we believe a fairer education system can only be built by working in partnership with the young people it affects - not just consulting them but genuinely sharing power with them as co-leaders.  

That belief sits at the heart of our Youth Steering Group (YSG): a cohort of 14–24 year olds with lived experience of educational inequity, who co-lead our work across the year.

In 2025-26, this has included shaping our policy responses to the National Youth Strategy and the Curriculum and Assessment Review, speaking at Party Conferences, presenting to MPs at the Youth Affairs APPGs, and taking part in the Ministerial roundtable on SEND inclusion and consultations with DfE on the Pupil Engagement Framework. The YSG ensures that young people are heard by policymakers and included in decision making that affects them, and bring perspectives to the table that are too often absent from education debates.  

The Youth Summit in February was the event of the year where the group get to take over as leaders - and if you haven't yet watched the highlights video, we'd definitely encourage you to! It captures something of what the YSG makes possible: 180 young people from across the UK, learning, connecting and engaging decision makers, in a space designed and led by young people themselves.  

But the Youth Summit is just one example. YSG member Aisha sat on the judging panel for our new Collaboration Partnerships, helping to select which Mayoral Combined Authorities - Liverpool City Region, South Yorkshire and the West Midlands - will benefit from multi-year partnerships worth over £500,000 each as part of our Neighbourhood to National strategy. Decisions with real consequences, made with young people.  

We're proud of everything the current cohort has achieved, and we're already looking ahead to the next chapter.

Applications to join the 2026 Youth Steering Group will be opening very soon.

If you work with young people aged 14–21 who have experienced barriers to their education and are passionate about tackling educational inequity, watch this space - and start thinking now about who in your networks might want to get involved.

The announcement is made first in the Youth Steering Group’s Youth Bulletin, so encourage them to sign up here if they’ve not already.

Becca Weighell

Head of Youth Engagement

Fair Education Alliance