No at-scale 'first vote' programme for 1.6 million newly enfranchised 16-17-year-olds

Votes at 16 is legislating now and the education system is not ready. Roughly a fifth of secondary schools provide no citizenship education, GCSE Citizenship entries have fallen to about 21,000, and 84 per cent of state school teachers say the curriculum does not prepare pupils to vote. The strengthened citizenship curriculum from the 2025 Curriculum and Assessment Review is published only in 2027, likely after the first cohort of 16-year-old voters is enfranchised. The Electoral Commission's seven new democratic education programmes, run with The Politics Project, ACT, Shout Out UK and Young Citizens, are small pilots rather than universal coverage.

People who vote in their first eligible election are markedly more likely to vote for life. A low-turnout, unevenly prepared first cycle would hand opponents evidence against the reform and set class-based turnout gaps from age 16.

A national First Vote entitlement co-funded by DfE and the Electoral Commission before the next general election: a guaranteed democracy induction and mock election in every school and college, with teacher CPD at scale, delivered through a consortium of the existing providers rather than new pilots.

// Build together: Counterparty: DfE and Electoral Commission co-funding; existing providers deliver through schools and colleges.

Enfranchisement is legislating now, a fifth of schools teach no citizenship, and the strengthened curriculum lands only in 2027, after the habit-forming first cycle.