Youth voice in COVID-19 measures

Written By Louise Grant

Fault Lines: an independent review into Australia's response to COVID-19

Authored by
Peter Shergold AC, Jillian Broadbent AC, Isobel Marshall and Peter Varghese AO
20 October 2022

What it’s about
This report is the first independent review of Australia’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting both strengths and weaknesses in Australia’s response to the pandemic.

Impact of the pandemic on children and young people

  • the biggest impact on children and young people has been the disruption to their education and social development

  • school closures and remote learning have had a significant impact on children's learning outcomes and wellbeing, particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

  • the pandemic has disrupted social connections and extracurricular activities for many young people, which has had negative effects on their mental health and wellbeing.

  • to mitigate these impacts, we need a greater focus on equity in education, social support for young people (particularly if they have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic), and targeted mental health services

Youth voice - throughout the pandemic and in this review

  • Report still provides valuable insights into the experiences and perspectives of young people

  • Children and young people’s perspectives and experiences should be taken into account in future policy and program development - particularly because they have been significantly impacted by the pandemic

  • There were some limitations in engaging with young people in this review - the overall sample size was relatively small (just over 1,200 children aged 10 to 25 years were surveyed). The consultation methods may not have been accessible to all children and young people - particularly those who did not have access to the internet or focus group. There were time constraints, as there was a relatively short period of time to engage young people. Nevertheless, the report drew on research and advocacy by youth-led and youth-focused organisations.

  • There should be more effective mechanisms for engaging with children and young people to understand their experiences and how to improve policies, such as through dedicated youth advisory groups or participatory research projects.

  • It is imperative that children and young people from diverse backgrounds and experiences are included in these processes to ensure that their perspectives are fully represented.

Final thoughts

I would love to see youth advisory groups or participatory action research projects that are dedicated towards embedding youth voice in future government responses to pandemics. It may even be a healing process for our young people who’ve been impacted so much by COVID-19 (which is quite relative to previous blog post)!

Further reading on the topic

Louise Grant
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Experiences of youth, disability and family violence
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A healing framework in context of Indigenous youth