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nature.scotScottish Natural HeritagePartnership Report 2019 - 2020

Scottish Natural Heritage Partnership Report 2019-2020

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Contents

Executive Summary 4

Context 9

Activity Delivered 11

Insights 12

Recommendations and Next Steps 37

Conclusion 45


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This phase has involved a detailed exploration of SNH staff’s current views, understanding, and engagement with young people. This was done to to identify the conditions needed to mainstream co-design and embed young people across SNH’s decision-making. Young Scot worked closely with SNH’s Young Employee Panel (YEP) and Organisational Development to ensure these strands of work were aligned.

Activity Delivered

A pop up lab – a drop in event for staff

Staff survey with 105 responses

Staff workshops with 47 staff members

Interviews with five staff conducted by a young person

A workshop with representatives from nine partner organisations

A workshop with six young people

Summary of High-Level Insights

Staff’s awareness of SNH’s work with young people

Staff were aware of some of SNH’s work to engage young people but not in detail, and it is not widespread across all staff members and teams. Some staff felt there was little or no overarching strategic approach to engaging young people and there was limited awareness of engagement work beyond specific teams, projects or grant funding. There was some concern that conversations around engaging young people now mainly focused on young employees, rather than incorporating the views of young people more broadly and strategically.

Understanding the value of engaging young people in SNH’s work

Many staff understood the value that young people can bring to SNH such as enthusiasm, knowledge, creativity and different perspectives. This was predominantly linked to the value of internal young employees and the impact that young staff members have made.

Some staff expressed concern, resistance and questioning around the significance of engaging young people in SNH’s work. This was both in the context of employment with other staff members feeling marginalised, and in the context of the wider public with young people being overrepresented in SNH’s work.

Some staff also highlighted that SNH is a science-based organisation and suggested they were struggling to see how young people were relevant to this or could share power in decision making. However, other staff expressed a willingness to share power with different stakeholders including young people, and acknowledged SNH’s responsibility to incorporate the views of all stakeholders in decision making.

Engaging young people in SNH’s work

Some staff reported that they felt that they had no mechanism for engaging and embedding young people’s views in their work. Staff felt this also reflected a lack of mechanism for engaging the wider public in SNH’s work. Staff felt that increasing the number of young employees would also help increase representation across the organisation.

Staff acknowledged that leadership and managers had a role to play in better articulating the need, aims and purpose of engaging young people. Staff identified that having young people embedded in SNH’s governance structures such as a board member and at senior meetings would demonstrate and facilitate this strategic commitment to young people.

Staff felt that staff capacity, resources and competing priorities were barriers to engaging young people. Sharing learning and skills from existing engagement work could help address this. Using existing contacts and networks better would help staff to access young people. Partnership work and funding relationships are also important to help develop mechanisms of engagement. Staff also identified specific processes and operations that could be improved to enhance engagement with young people.

Executive SummaryThis report covers the current phase of Young Scot and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) partnership work delivered between November 2019 and March 2020. This phase built on the success of ReRoute – Scotland’s Youth Biodiversity Panel. It explores how organisation and strategic system changes could further embed the active participation of young people aged 11 – 26 across all areas of SNH’s work. This work goes beyond engaging young people in the benefits of nature, and actively seeks to engage them strategically as key stakeholders and active participants in SNH’s work and decision making.


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Recommendations and ActionsThe following recommendations and actions have been developed based on the insights, priorities and key themes that were identified by SNH staff, young people and partners.

Recommendation 1:

SNH leadership should provide staff and external stakeholders with a clear commitment to strategically engage young people in all areas of SNH’s work

Action A: Leadership should articulate to staff a clear commitment to engaging young people at a strategic level.

Action B: Managers should articulate clear aims, outcomes and purpose of engaging young people – reflecting the value this engagement brings.

Action C: Managers should ensure that engaging young people is clearly outlined in individual and teamwork and delivery plans.

Action D: Leadership should identify key strategic opportunities to embed young people within SNH activity, including Scotland’s post 2020 biodiversity strategy, SNH’s new business and operating models, the rebrand and future corporate plans.

Recommendation 2:

Develop stronger mechanisms to engage young people and the public in SNH’s work, and increase the awareness and understanding of a co-design approach among staff

Action A: Make information, research and statistics more accessible and understandable for young people and the public by co-designing how this information is communicated.

Action B: Leadership should identify and create specific time, resource and capacity across teams and individuals workplans to enable meaningful engagement of young people.

Action C: Review, develop and embed the insights and recommendations from ReRoute across the organisation.

Action D: Recognise the engagement mechanisms that already exist such as ReRoute’s Scale of Engagement, or the existing work with schools and young people, and highlight these so that staff can make better use of them.

Action E: Develop internal mechanisms for sharing staff’s views, opinions and experiences in order to develop a stronger approach to co-design with external stakeholders such as young people and the public.

Recommendation 3:

Develop a network of young people for staff to engage and work alongside

Action A: Develop a network of young people for staff to approach for engagement, using the work with ReRoute as a strong basis.

Action B: Maximise the use of current networks of young people through contacts and partners.

Action C: Establish an organisation-wide strategic panel for young people using a co-design approach.

Recommendation 4:

Increase and share staff’s skills, experience and knowledge of effectively engaging young people using a co-design approach across staff teams

Action A: Develop and share case studies of how engaging young people’s views and experiences has worked in other teams – for example the Freshspace animations or co-design work on Scotland’s Great Trails.

Action B: Dedicate a staff member/position to help facilitating young people’s strategic engagement across different teams.

Action C: Upskill a staff member in each team for engaging young people – network and share skills with other staff.

Action D: Share learning and insights from ReRoute’s work across the organisation.

Action E: Recognise and further implement work already carried out and led by young people such as ReRoute.

Many of the recommendations echo the recommendations developed by ReRoute in 2018. These recommendations will help to develop SNH’s strategic approach to embedding young people across their work and decision making. There is a clear need to do this to ensure young people’s voices are championed within SNH, and that the organisation can capitalise on the skills, views, value and futureproofing that young people across Scotland can offer.


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Recommendation 6:

Ensure external young people are represented in SNH’s governance structures

Action A: Advise Ministers and the Cabinet Secretary to appoint an external young person under the age of 26 to SNH’s Board.

Action B: Involve external young people in the meetings of Senior Leadership Team, Extended Leadership Team and Outcome Managers.

Action C: Encourage environmental organisations and leaders to involve young people in sector-wide governance, such as a young person’s panel working alongside the Environment and Economy Leaders Group.

Recommendation 7:

Review and develop funds so that young people are more strategically engaged and embedded in these processes

Action A: Develop funds administered by SNH to be more accessible to young people.

Action B: Develop funds administered by SNH to include criteria which require projects to include meaningful engagement of young people.

Action C: Share learning and insights from the Future Routes Fund more widely across SNH.

Recommendation 8:

Develop operational procedures to better accommodate young people

Action A: Develop processes and procedures for working with young people such as child protection policies, volunteering policies and processes for supporting young people on work experience to be clearer and more concise.

Action B: Schedule meetings at times that young people can make.

Action C: Ask young people to identify the type and style of engagement they would like with SNH.

Action D: Consider the structure and format of meetings that involve young people.

Recommendation 9:

Work with Young Employee Panel (YEP) to improve internal employment of young people

Action A: Follow YEP recommendations and engage with YEP on any developments to employment initiatives, particularly for young employees.

Action B: Make SNH a more accessible and open employer for young people by following YEP’s recommendations and key suggestions from young people.

Action C: Increase the number of internal young employees.

Action D: Re-develop SNH’s mentoring scheme to highlight the opportunity for mutual learning and skill sharing between different aged employees.

Recommendation 5:

Lead the sector by sharing skills, experience and knowledge of effective engagement of young people using a co-design approach

Action A: Foster better networks between strategic youth committees and panels in the sector to share learning and insights, and to provide a strong platform for young people’s voices in the environment sector.

Action B: Explore funding relationships to consider how SNH can better enable a local and flexibly delivery model for partners.

Action C: Facilitate sector wide and cross-sector conversations, learning and skill sharing on strategically engaging young people.

Action D: Establish new contacts and networks, and challenge long established modes of working to lead creative approaches to engaging young people and learning amongst partners.


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At the beginning of this phase of partnership work, it was apparent that there were other internal strands of work with a strategic focus on young people. In November 2019, the YEP was established and was developing. Also, Organisational Development was setting up Action Learning Set. We agreed to work closely with the YEP and Organisational Development to ensure that the work was aligned and complimentary.

The SNH Partnership Officer employed by Young Scot sat on the YEP and attended meetings to share learning, ideas and to co-develop the joint papers going to SNH’s board meeting in May. The SNH Partnership Officer also sat on the Action Learning Set and shared learning and insights. Due to internal delays in establishing this Action Learning Set, the SNH Partnership Officer was unable to attend the meeting. However, HR staff and Organisational Development attended one of the workshops delivered through the Young Scot partnership, and they were invited to attend the partnership meetings for information sharing.

The staff survey initially had a low response despite it being shared in an internal blog by Francesca Osowska, (Chief Executive, SNH). The survey received 105 responses after 11 weeks. Some of the workshops were difficult to schedule with staff teams, reflecting the priorities and demands on staff within the organisation.

Overall, the partnership benefitted from the strong relationships between staff members developed over the past four and a half years’ working together. This enabled any challenges to be dealt with proactively and opportunities to align the partnership work with other strands of internal work where possible.

Process and Approach

The approach throughout this phase aimed to involve SNH’s staff and leadership to take a lead role alongside young people in identifying, shaping and developing key areas of work for the future partnership, fostering a sense of ownership and understanding of SNH’s internal priorities. It also involved external partners to understand their experience of partnership work with SNH and to identify opportunities for improving the engagement of young people through these relationships. This report sets out the opinions, experiences and insights from SNH staff, young people and partner organisations gathered over the five months of activity. It presents key themes that emerged, and the recommendations are based on the priorities that were identified by staff, young people and partners.

ContextSNH and Young Scot have worked in partnership for many years and following the success of ReRoute, Scotland’s Youth Biodiversity Panel, another phase of work has been delivered between November 2019 and March 2020.

This most recent phase of the partnership has explored how organisation and strategic system changes could ensure that SNH continue to be leaders in engaging and empowering young people in the environment sector. This aligns to the Scottish Approach to Service Design, a shared collaborative approach to designing public services in Scotland, led by the Scottish Government and the ambitious legacy of the Year of Young People 2018, where people of Scotland are supported and empowered to actively participate in the definition, design and delivery of their public services, from policy making to live service improvement.

This phase of work has seen Young Scot, SNH, young people and partners working together to identify the conditions needed to embed active participation of young people across all areas of SNH’s work, and to mainstream co-design across SNH’s decision-making. This approach encourages, empowers and enables young people and citizens to participate in designing the services, policies and strategic work that SNH leads on.

It is important that SNH, Young Scot and young people collaboratively take stock of the achievements and challenges to date, to reflect on and understand the current system and needs, and develop a shared vision for the future. This phase has gathered these reflections and has enabled a detailed exploration of staff’s current views, understanding and engagement with young people. Whilst Young Scot’s approach is not social research, it provides an insight into the views, experiences, skills and opinions of SNH staff, external partners and young people. It has also explored the current capacity and needs of staff within SNH for effective engagement and empowerment of young people as stakeholders and service users.


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InsightsStaff awareness of SNH’s work with young people

Staff were aware of some of SNH’s work to engage young people but not in detail, and it is not widespread across all staff members and teams.

Awareness of ReRoute and YEP

Staff were aware of higher profile projects and initiatives to engage young people but often only had a top level or little understanding of this work and the outcomes from it. Staff had high levels of awareness of ReRoute and YEP – 64% of survey respondents had heard of ReRoute and 83% of respondents had heard of YEP. However, staff’s understanding of the purpose of both was not always accurate. For example, identifying ReRoute as a Scottish Government initiative and YEP as a partnership with Young Scot.

Work across the organisation

Staff were aware of other projects and work related to young people across their teams and the organisation, but this mainly focused on the employment of young people. During workshops, staff mapped engagement work with young people onto ReRoute’s Scale of Engagement.

ReRoute developed the Scale of Engagement to think about how to more effectively engage a wide range of young people in nature. The Scale of Engagement is a tool which challenges the perception that young people are either completely disengaged with nature or are extremely engaged and committed. By providing a ‘scale’ with varying levels of engagement, ReRoute hoped to help SNH to consider the different types of opportunity they provide for young people to be engaged and have their voices heard.

64% of survey respondents had heard of ReRoute

83% of respondents had

heard of YEP

Pop up lab/Year of Young People 2018 (YOYP) legacy event

A pop–up event took place in SNH’s Battleby office and was jointly delivered with the YEP as part of their YOYP legacy event. This consisted of a roundtable discussion on the legacy of YoYP 2018 within SNH, and an open drop-in session for staff to share their views on engaging young people.

Staff survey

A survey completed by 105 SNH staff members to explore their experiences of working with young people, their knowledge and experience of ReRoute and YEP, and how they can better engage young people in their areas of work. The full survey insights can be found in Appendix I. It is worth noting that almost a quarter of the survey responses (23) are from the People and Places team who have had the closest involvement with this work so far.

Staff workshops

Four staff workshops were delivered with 47 SNH staff members to explore in more detail what the barriers and opportunities are for engaging young people in their work. The workshops were delivered with the following staff: Biodiversity Team, Outcomes 1 and 2 Managers, Tayside and Grampian Area Teams, and an open session for staff in SNH’s Great Glen House office.

Staff 1:1s

Five interviews with SNH staff members were carried out by a ReRoute member to get a detailed understanding of specific staff roles and how young people are related to this.

External workshop A workshop was delivered with nine representatives from partner organisations to explore their links and strands of work with SNH, and the opportunities for engagement with young people to be increased through these links. The nine partner organisations were: Scottish Forestry, John Muir Trust Scotland, Duke of Edinburgh Scotland, Paths for All, Historic Environment Scotland, Greenspace Scotland, Learning through Landscapes Scotland, The Conservation Volunteers Scotland and Field Studies Council.

Young people workshop

A workshop was delivered with six young people to explore SNH’s work and the opportunities for young people’s engagement within this.

Activity DeliveredTo ensure a variety of insights and experiences of SNH staff, young people and partners were gathered, the following activity was delivered during this phase of partnership work.


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HIGHER level of engagement

LEARNING

VIEWING

Dedication

Current activity

one -off commitment

REGUlar commitment

CAREER

acknowledging

adjusting

Observing

Questioning and promoting

PASSION changing

sharing

encouraging others

LOWER level of engagement

level of engagement

engaging with information

Dedicating time/ resources

Changing personal behaviour

Reaching out to/ encouraging others

Questioning and promoting• Reading a book about nature• Researching something related to nature

and/or the environment• Signing a petition to protect the environment

Learning• Watching an information clip • Reading an article• Downloading/using nature apps

Viewing• Liking a social media post• Sharing photos of nature

Dedication/Career/Passion• Subscribe to a nature magazine• Long term sponsorship of charity• Joining a wildlife/conservation/nature-based

group or activities • Career or studying in environment sector• Regular volunteer with nature organisations

Regular commitment• Taking part in an activity outdoors on a regular basis• Visiting a nature reserve• Actively increasing time spent outdoors• One off volunteering

Current activity/One-off commitment• Enjoying the view• Taking part in a one-off nature related activity

ie: a nature trail

Dedication/Career/Passion• Creating a biodiversity friendly garden• Changing majority of shopping habits to reduce impact on the environment

Adjusting• Walking or cycling instead of driving or

getting the bus• Making some different shopping choices

based on environmental impact

Observing• Going for a walk to enjoy nature• Taking photos of nature

Encouraging others • Having an active role in encouraging others to

take action• Tell other people about specific issues or topics related to the environment

Sharing• Communicating information to others

about nature/the environment

Acknowledging• Sharing a social media post with friends• Talking about personal experiences of nature


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Level of Engagement Activity (that SNH does to engage young people)

HigH

Specific projects, work and partnerships with a young person focus – ReRoute, Young Scot, co-design work on National Walking and Cycling Networks, Scottish Outdoor Access Code

Internal employment initiatives – student placements, young employees, graduate placements, work placements

Internal volunteering initiatives

Young Employee Network and Panel – YEP member attending Board meetings

Work on National Nature Reserves

Outdoor education work

Research and evidence – university and college students, PhDs

STEM initiatives – staff being mentors, MSc and PhD placements

Funding/grant work through partners

Medium

Work on outdoor learning and Learning in Local Greenspaces

Social media communications

Funding/grants to third sector partners

Giving university talks and presentations

National Nature Reserves (NNRs) – one off events and programmes

Transforming the way we work initiatives

Biodiversity partnerships

Area work – student placements

App developed with schools as part of CivTech challenge

On our Wavelength project

Fixed point photography

Low

NNRs – one-off events and programmes

Social media communications

One off events i.e. Dundee Flower Food Festival, Meadow Days

Staff giving university talks and presentations

Biodiversity partnerships

Area work communications

Engaging with school groups

Reporting such as parliamentary reports

Partnership work

Recruitment and talent retention

Core Paths work

Some activity occurs in more than one ‘level’ of engagement. This reflects staff’s different opinions about what type of engagement this offered young people. A large proportion of the comments and discussions highlighted the higher level of engagement through employment initiatives. Other comments highlighted the amount of engagement through National Nature Reserves (NNRs), reflecting that the NNR’s may be more likely to have face-to-face engagement with the public and young people, than other areas of SNH’s work. Beyond this, a lot of the engagement appears to be one-off events, projects and ad-hoc opportunities. There was limited discussion of work taking place outside of staff’s immediate teams, or any overarching strategic approach to engaging young people in SNH’s work.

“In my day to day role I do not see any visible signs of SNH’s work with young people”

It was apparent that a lot of staff have an internal focus within their roles. For example, in the 1:1 interviews, some staff described their working routine mainly involved meetings with internal colleagues and ensuring that their area of work is communicated clearly across the organisation.

An area of work that did have an external focus involving young people was grant funding – such as the Green Infrastructure Fund and Biodiversity Challenge Fund. SNH funds projects or has a partnership role with other organisations who deliver face-to-face engagement with young people. In this regard, a lot of SNH’s engagement with young people could be ‘arms-length’ engagement through other organisations or funding recipients.

“I think the main contact we have with young people is really through the development of the projects that we actually fund on the ground”

There was a clear willingness amongst some staff to try to incorporate young people into the work they do, but a difficulty in identifying the opportunities to do this. Unless there were clear opportunities for face-to-face engagement of young people such as school visits to NNRs or staff giving talks to university students, many staff did not identify examples of how young people’s voices and opinions had been incorporated in their day to day work.

Across all the delivered workshops, staff identified, and categorised activities being delivered which engage young people. A summary of this is detailed in the table below.


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Complexity of Engagement

Staff’s awareness and understanding of engaging with young people acknowledged that this involved complexity. Throughout the conversations, there was discussion around what is meant by ‘young people’ and whether this focus is internal or external. Staff challenged the concept of ‘young people’ in the workshops and interviews, highlighting that young people are not a homogenous group. Alongside being ‘young people’, staff highlighted that they would also have other protected characteristics and needs. Furthermore, engaging young people involves additional administrative work around health and safety and child protection considerations.

Staff also recognised that the young people that SNH does currently engage with are not representative of all young people in Scotland.

“It’s always the ones that are already interested that will come to you and maybe it’s the harder to reach ones that you want to get. How do you bridge that gap?”

Responses in the survey highlighted that ReRoute and internal employees were not representative of young people in wider society. Furthermore, staff felt that whilst there has been effective engagement with Young Scot, this does not necessarily reflect the full audience of young people.

“Young people who work for SNH are not representative of all young people – they are too informed”

“YEP is not representative of all young people – they are much more highly engaged than average” Additionally, some staff felt that any work with young people tended to be based on academic or educational projects. As some staff outlined, this could be due to pressure on staff to prioritise work that appears to have more tangible benefits for the organisation – such as PhD and MSc student projects that provide insights or research for SNH.

Focus on young employees

Conversations around engaging young people mainly focused on a need for increased numbers of young employees within the organisation. Whilst this focus on employees reflects the work that YEP have been carrying out to raise the profile of young employees and their voices, it also suggests staff are generally less aware of engagement with external young people. In many of the interviews, when asked about how young people relate to the staff member’s role or team, staff would often talk about graduate placements, young colleagues and internal employment initiatives rather than engaging young people more broadly.

Whilst staff have a level of awareness of higher profile work with young people in the organisation, there are lower levels of awareness and understanding of engagement work with external young people across the organisation. This is usually limited to areas of work with obvious face-to-face engagement opportunities.

Where young people are on SNH’s radar

Staff’s opinion on how integral young people are to SNH and its work varied. Overall, staff had a mixed response about how much of a priority SNH as an organisation places on engaging young people. One of the delivered activities invited staff to identify ‘where young people are on SNH’s radar’. Responses were evenly distributed across the radar, suggesting that some staff felt young people are highly prioritised in the organisation, and others felt they were prioritised much less. The responses from staff in the Outcomes 1 and 2 Managers’ meeting were slightly more weighted towards SNH placing less of a priority on young people. The responses from partners were evenly distributed across the radar.

The value young people bring

Staff recognised the value that young people can bring to SNH. Fifty eight of the survey responses identified that young people brought benefits such as enthusiasm, knowledge, creativity, motivation, different perspectives, and new ideas to SNH and 45 responses acknowledged that young people do or could play an important role in the organisation. Staff were particularly positive about the benefits that ReRoute had brought to SNH.

“It’s really refreshing to have young people around”

“The ReRoute panel joined a Leaders’ Forum (now Extended Leadership Team – ELT) event I was involved with organising a couple of years ago. These events…can be a bit dry, but the ReRoute panel really brought such energy and new ideas to the table, which I think had a positive impact on everyone!”

“ReRoute at ELT a couple of years ago. They were inspiring!”

“The knowledge, skills and enthusiasm of the young people in the panel is amazing.”

“Hearing the ideas of the young people, and feeling their enthusiasm”

Understanding the value of engaging young people in SNH’s workWhilst some staff understood and articulated the value of engaging young people, there was resistance and concern from staff around this happening.


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This recognition of the value that young people can bring was primarily related to internal young employees. Staff who had line-managed or worked closely with young employees were particularly enthusiastic about the skills, attributes and contributions they brought. These included new approaches, flexibility, determination, technology and IT skills, fresh ideas, positive influence, how they can challenge the status quo and the role they can play in behaviour change. Some commented on their ability to exceed expectations in the workplace and how they were well skilled to face the challenges and changes required of SNH in the future.

“Young people bring not just enthusiasm but latest skills, thoughts, awareness etc and it’s really important to harness that”

“It was also really good to have someone (graduate placement) outside the team come in and look at the project objectively and bringing in new ideas”

“All graduates have been extremely driven and dedicated”

“Young people are not as jaded as we are”

The partners involved in the workshop highly valued involving young people in their work, particularly strategic approaches to engaging and empowering young people. They recognised the need to capitalise on and harness the energy and drive that young people have demonstrated through their activism on climate change. They also recognised the need that young people have to meaningfully contribute and share their voices in the context of a climate emergency and the ‘eco-anxiety’ faced by young people, and the role that environmental organisations have in offering these opportunities. This was reflected by the participants in the young people’s workshop who wanted more accessible information for young people on Scotland’s natural resources and the climate emergency.

Concerns about the value placed on young people

Although many SNH staff articulated and recognised the value that young people can bring to SNH, there was also a strong theme of concern, resistance and questioning around the significance of engaging young people.

These concerns were mainly framed in the context of employment at SNH. Some staff expressed concerns that young people were currently getting more attention and ‘special treatment’ compared to other employees in the organisation. There were also comments around age discrimination and older or middle-aged staff feeling marginalised or excluded due to the attention focused on young people. Almost a quarter of responses (26) highlighted that there should not be a focus solely on young people but instead on all groups, and a further 18 responses highlighted that the focus needs to be broader than just young people.

“Why do young people get to go to Board meetings and other staff don’t?”

“I find (the question of what role young people have in SNH) rather difficult to answer as it requires discrimination based on age to define roles”

“(They are the) same as every other employee”

“Whilst I fully support the younger workers coming into the organisation, it is creating very strong competition for internal jobs which leaves many of us that are perhaps moving on in our careers feeling left behind, and unable to progress/change our careers. Delicate balance here.”

“SNH should work with PEOPLE and not pigeonhole young OR old people. Both are stereotypical and unhelpful. I often feel older members of staff are penalised at the expense of the young - they might be older but if in a new role in SNH they are in effect ‘new/young’. Although if you’re older you usually can’t apply for things that the YOUNG can.”


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The comments also highlighted that issues faced by young employees, such as lack of career progression, were issues faced by all staff. They also suggested that younger employees created strong competition for internal jobs and that no distinction should be made between older and younger employees. Some comments also focused on what young people could learn from older generations, as opposed to the value young people can bring to SNH. These comments and insights from staff also suggest that they themselves may feel disempowered and that their voices are not heard internally.

Resistance to engaging young people was also discussed in the context of external young people, as well as internal employees. For example, some staff felt that young people would be overrepresented in SNH’s work in comparison to other groups with protected characteristics, or that young people should be treated the same as any other demographic.

“I’m used to thinking of young people as equal to any other part of the population”

“I’m unsure why we need to prioritise collaborating with young people any more than any other age group?”

“I think young people can be advocates for greater environmental action...but again I wouldn’t say they could necessarily do that over and above any section of the population”

“Young people are one of many other protected characteristics and I would worry that they are overrepresented compared to other groups with protected characteristics”

Whilst a valid point, it may not recognise the barriers that young people in particular face to having their voices heard and the measures SNH may need to take to ensure young people’s voices are actively engaged with in decision making processes.

“Just because you’ve been doing something for a long time doesn’t mean you can’t think in a different way or be taught different”

Whilst SNH does engage with some young people, there was also a sense amongst some staff that this engagement was ‘tokenistic’. This suggests that the value of meaningful engagement is perhaps not recognised or communicated well enough in these instances. Some survey responses expressed that any current engagement felt like a box-ticking exercise and that some staff did not understand the value and benefits of involving young people in their work.

“There could be a prejudice that young people can’t bring very much to the table”

“I think attitudes are starting to change in SNH but it’s too slow, young people are still seen as more of a nuisance than a resource.”

“I think we underestimate young people possibly, or maybe we think that they can’t perform as highly as they might”

SNH as a science-based organisation

Some staff also raised that SNH is a science-based organisation and highlighted that decisions need to be based on science which requires a certain level of skill and understanding, and that they struggled to see how young people were relevant to this. The suggestion of sharing power with young people around policy development or decision making was problematic for them because of the need for this to be based on research and evidence. Staff also expressed that to engage people in general, those people need to be informed with the right facts and information and that engaging young people couldn’t involve “just getting anyone’s opinions”.

“SNH is a scientific organisation with knowledge and skills which young people and other members of the public don’t have”

“SNH have expertise as a science-based organisation and we shouldn’t be willing to share too much power”

“Most of our work is science and research and how we bring people into how we do that is challenging – we need to teach the scientific principle in a really engaging way”

Whilst research and evidence for decision making is important, if SNH has a role to inform and engage the public in nature, then it has a role to engage the public, including young people, in this scientific approach. For example, making the research understandable and accessible to those who do not have a science background and ensuring that young people’s voices are included in social research.

During the young people’s workshop, participants highlighted that they would like to see the information, research and statistics that SNH have made more accessible and understandable for young people and the general public. They talked about the reintroduction of beavers, goose management, and deer management as examples where they would like to see more accessible information. They also felt that SNH should provide opportunities to have open conversations with young people so they can share their views and co-design how specific information is communicated. ReRoute’s recommendations on online communications were to involve young people in creating online content, to share a variety of content in different formats, and to use a range of social media platforms relevant to young audiences.


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Many staff recognise the value that young people can bring to SNH, but some find this challenging in the context of SNH’s employment, ensuring equal representation of all communities, and having a science-based approach. Some staff acknowledged these challenges and the need to address them in order to engage young people more effectively, especially as decisions made in SNH will have implications for nature well into the future.

“The workplace is a mature place – there’s wisdom, knowledge, and experience but at the same time ….we keep making mistakes as a society so it’s really important to have young people on board”

“To treat young people differently from older people is a form of ‘positive’ discrimination/’affirmative action’. I am uncomfortable about discriminating in order to address past and current discrimination. However society is not simple and it is understood that priorities change depending upon age. By not involving young people we are in effect perpetuating a form of discrimination when it comes to decision making. How to involve young (people’s) opinion is however difficult and whilst SNH is successfully addressing work experience I still think we could better embed younger opinions in our decision-making process. To do so without some form of affirmative action would be difficult, but worth investigating.”

Recommendation and Actions Identified

Make SNH information, research and statistics more accessible and understandable for young people and the general public by co-designing how specific information is communicated.

StakeholderSNH

(Staff & Board)Scottish

GovernmentThe

PublicYoung People

Partners

Average amount of power allocated to the stakeholder

32% 23% 17% 14% 14%

StakeholderSNH

(Staff & Board)Scottish

GovernmentThe

PublicYoung People

Partners

Average amount of power allocated to the stakeholder

28% 18% 18% 18% 18%

Sharing Power

During the pop-up lab, staff workshops and partner workshop, participants were asked to determine how much power five different stakeholder groups (SNH’s Staff and Board, Scottish Government, the Public, Young People, Partners) should have when decisions are made in SNH.

On average, SNH staff felt that more power should be distributed to SNH’s staff and board and Scottish Government, followed by the public and then young people and partners holding the least amount of power.

Representatives from partner organisations allocated slightly less power to SNH and Scottish Government, and slightly more power to the public, young people and partners.

Staff’s reservations about sharing power because SNH is a science-based organisation were reflected in two responses. They suggested that SNH should hold much more power (90% and 75%) than young people (0.5% and 5%). One staff member commented that views external to SNH “need to be incorporated but within a framework which recognises the science above opinions”. Another staff member commented that the power should specifically be given to the ‘informed public’.

Partners highlighted that SNH is “paid by taxpayers for expertise”, suggesting that this science and evidence base needs to be clearly communicated with the public, and that the public’s engagement with this process could be better facilitated. As other staff members highlighted, the public should be involved in “collaborative management of Scotland’s nature” because “we are a public body and should respond to public views”.


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Some staff identified that SNH staff and board should be informed by all other groups so that decisions are not taken in isolation, and that they have a role to implement public and Scottish Government decisions. Other staff members commented that this should be a shared process across all stakeholder groups, that it should involve a co-design approach and that a mix of ages and viewpoints should be represented. They also identified the role of partners being linked to the public’s views, and representatives in the partner workshop highlighted that partner organisations have expertise to feed into decision making. As one SNH staff member commented, there should be “equal partnership between management agencies”.

Some SNH staff combined the stakeholders of ‘public’ and ‘young people’, or stated that young people are a subset of the public and should be represented relative to the proportion of the public that they make up. This reflects staff concerns that young people should not be overrepresented in comparison to other groups in society. However, other staff suggested that because “young people are part of the public, we should find a way of enhancing their voice”.

Additionally, staff expressed reservations about young people’s voices being heard, for example by attending board meetings, when staff members are not able to do this themselves. This suggests that some staff may feel disempowered and that their voices are not heard internally.

Developing internal mechanisms for sharing staff’s views, opinions and experiences will help develop a stronger approach to co-design with external stakeholders such as young people and the public.

Staff’s insight in this activity reflects some willingness to share power, acknowledges a responsibility to incorporate the views of all stakeholders and underlines the difficulties of balancing a science and evidence-based approach with the views and experiences of others.

“It makes us acutely aware that whatever is happening in the world today is going to be inherited by the young people and (they) have a longer period to live with that”


Develop internal mechanisms for sharing staff’s views, opinions and experiences in order to develop a stronger approach to co-design with external stakeholders such as young people and the public.

Engaging young people in SNH’s work Some staff reported that they felt that they had no mechanism for engaging and embedding young people’s views in their work at SNH. Whilst new processes and frameworks could be established, there is a strong base of engagement work which can be better utilised and developed on.

How young people would like to be engaged

During the young person’s workshop, the young participants identified the following factors as essential to meaningful engagement with young people:

Flexibility

Transparency

No discrimination

Engaging during hours that allow for education, work or caring responsibilities

Easily accessible communications (i.e. website, social media)

Using a co-design approach

Treat young people as equals

Demonstrate you are listening to young people, and not just those in power

These factors are also echoed throughout ReRoute’s recommendation report and insights.

Increasing the number of young employees

Staff expressed a need to increase the number of internal young employees to increase representation. Staff highlighted the Scottish Government target for government bodies to have five percent of employees under the age of 25 by 2021, and that SNH are currently not on track to meet this target.

“We need more young people in the organisation so that their views are embedded in day to day decisions”

“The future vision (for SNH’s engagement of young people) needs to be categoric that it will get more young people in the organisation”

Increasing the number of young employees

Staff expressed a need to increase the number of internal young employees to increase representation. ReRoute recommended in 2018 that SNH meets the Scottish Government target for government bodies of at least five percent of employees under the age of 26 by 2020. ReRoute also detailed specific actions around SNH’s strategic approach and policies on recruitment, increasing the number of paid entry-level positions and increasing the length of graduate placement contracts to enable career progression. Staff highlighted the Scottish Government target was not met, that the deadline had been extended and that SNH are currently not on track to meet this target.


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“We are an aging work force and need to seriously invest in the future of our organisation by employing and developing young people. We have neglected this aspect of succession planning for about 10 years. We need to create ways of freeing the bottleneck at D grade and create new C grade and other entry level posts to enable more young people to be brought into the organisation on paid jobs and create further opportunities to enable individuals to have a career path through the organisation.”

“We need positive recruitment of young people - this should be part of succession planning.”

Staff suggested a mentoring scheme between different aged employees which would allow for mutual skills and knowledge sharing between staff members, and may help to reduce the generational gap and concerns felt by some staff.

During the young people’s workshop, some participants highlighted the need for SNH to reduce barriers to engaging young people by having a young work force and ensuring they are trained and upskilled as part of their roles. They also identified the following things which they felt would make SNH an accessible and open employer for young people: inclusive opportunities, jobs that reflect young people’s skill levels, flexible dress codes, policies that actively engage young people in employment, demonstrate environmental values internally through low carbon behaviours, offer apprenticeships and volunteer opportunities, simplify application processes. Furthermore, ReRoute have specific recommendations on championing and increasing the numbers of young employees within SNH.

Increasing the number of young employees is needed and will bring the benefits and value that staff have highlighted. This is explored further in the work of YEP. However, only increasing the number of internal young employees is limited because, as staff have already highlighted, internal employees are not representative of all young people. There is a need to engage young people with wider array of backgrounds, experiences and opinions alongside initiatives to increase numbers of young employees.

“The challenge would be to not just empower the committed engaged people and give them room to grow, but also to give power and self-confidence to young people from communities which are not empowered, with low expectations”

“We can’t create enough posts within SNH to have good representation of young people – we need another mechanism to engage other external young people”

YEP’s board paper provides recommendations and further detail on how to improve processes for new and existing young employees. These have been developed by young employees who provide important insights from their own experiences.


Increase the number of internal young employees.

Redevelop the current mentoring scheme to address the mutual learning and skills sharing between age groups.

Make SNH an accessible and open employer for young people by following YEP’s recommendations and the key suggestions from young people.

A mechanism for engaging young people

In discussions in the workshops, it was often highlighted that staff were willing to engage young people in their work but felt they had no approach or mechanism to do this. Whilst there is some current engagement with young people, particularly through partnerships and funding, staff did not use these as avenues for working with young people and that the learning, skills and experience from this engagement was not shared further beyond the staff directly involved in it.

“We’re not encountering young people – they are not our peer group”

“There is a lack of mechanism to engage young people. For example with Outdoor Learning and Education we don’t get any feedback from young people”

“For creating a project, I don’t have a mechanism to ask children what they would identify as priorities”

“How does SNH find ways of hearing young people’s voices?”

It is interesting to consider that staff reported reasonable levels of confidence around engaging young people in their survey responses, but staff’s concerns about having no mechanism for engagement does not reflect this.

How confident do you feel engaging and involving young people in the work you do at SNH?

The participants in the young people’s workshop said they would want to see SNH actively involving young people across projects, including the local projects connected to SNH’s place-based approaches work and in the planning of events.

ReRoute is a strong example of engaging young people using co-design. Although the panel of young people was initially focusing on engaging young people in Scotland’s Biodiversity Strategy, this broadened out to reflect on SNH’s engagement with young people more generally. ReRoute’s recommendations included ways that SNH can strategically engage young people in their work.

External partners also identified that various other organisations in the sector have established youth committees and panels. There is an opportunity to establish an organisation-wide strategic panel for young people using a co-design approach. Whilst this mechanism for engaging young people is effective it must be underpinned by a co-design approach to embed the panel across the organisation.


Establish an organisation-wide strategic panel for young people using a co-design approach.

30%Very

confident

23%6%* Slightly

confident

42%Somewhat confident

*Not at all confident


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A mechanism for engaging the public

Staff felt this lack of mechanism to engage young people reflected a broader gap in SNH of engaging the pubic in their work. Whilst staff acknowledged SNH carries out commissioned research and surveys to capture the opinions of the public, a wider strategic approach to engaging the public in their work was missing.

“SNH staff think the public is more engaged than they actually are – the role of SNH is to inform and engage the public and I don’t think staff yet understand how to do that”

“There is a disconnect between SNH and communities – especially disadvantaged communities”

“There’s an opportunity to develop a mechanism that lets us engage with young people but we also need mechanisms for engaging other groups for example people with disabilities”

Staff felt that SNH could develop stronger mechanisms for engaging young people and the public in SNHs work. ReRoute’s recommendations identify multiple ways that of developing these mechanisms within SNH. These include developing and using the Scale of Engagement with young people, staff and stakeholders, or including young people as a specific stakeholder in decision making processes at SNH. The insights and recommendations in ReRoute’s report should be reviewed, develop and embedded across the organisation.

Developing any engagement approaches with young people would have wider benefits and learning for engaging the public, and other groups within society. Staff need to feel empowered through co-design, so that the views of young people, the public and stakeholders can be represented alongside their own.


Develop stronger mechanisms for engaging young people and the public in SNH’s work, such as using the Scale of Engagement tool or identifying young people as a key stakeholder in decision making.

Review, develop and embed the insights and recommendations from ReRoute’s report across the organisation.

Leadership

Through discussions and insights, ways of building and developing the engagement work that already exists at SNH were suggested. Staff felt that SNH’s leadership should articulate to staff a clear commitment to engaging young people at a strategic level, and ensue staff understand the relevance of young people to all areas of work, and embed young people in teams’ decision making. One of ReRoute’s recommendations was also to include young people as a specific stakeholder in decision making and co-design in SNH.

Across all delivered activity, staff highlighted that engaging young people was not necessarily seen as part of their role and work plan. Staff felt that in order to include young people in their work, they would expect to have it written into their job description or be requested by their managers to do it. Thirty six percent of survey responses identified “managers prioritising work with young people in work plans” would make it easier for them to collaborate with young people in their role. Managers should ensure that engaging young people is clearly outlined in individual and teamwork and delivery plans. ReRoute’s recommendations suggested identifying two key areas per team or activity to involve young people in through co-design.

“I haven’t been given any steer or encouragement to (engage young people)”

“I have not felt encouraged to (engage young people). I’m well aware that in recent years SNH has been upping its engagement, especially through ReRoute, but I have not felt that trickle down to me, certainly”

“It’s not that we don’t consult young people at all its just that my day to day job doesn’t do that”

“It’s a hard one as it’s not something I’m directly required to do in my job”

“Beyond the board members’ aspirations, meaningful engagement would require commitment at all levels”


SNH’s leadership should articulate to staff a clear commitment to engaging young people at a strategic level.

Managers should ensure that engaging young people is clearly outlined in individual and teamwork and delivery plans.


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Providing clarity

Staff also wanted a clear explanation of the purpose of engaging young people. This perhaps reflects a lack of understanding of the value of engaging young people and how it links to their work. However, it also highlights a need for identifying the outcomes of engagement work so there is a clear aim.

“What do we mean by engaging young people – in nature, in SNH’s work and decision making or with SNH as a potential employer”

“I’d really want clear aims of what is expected and why.... if its just being planned as ‘we think its good to engage young people’ that’s a bit vague and wouldn’t work so well necessarily”

Staff felt that managers should articulate the aims, outcomes and purpose of engaging young people which would reflect the value that this engagement brings. This is particularly important given that a lot of the engagement work that staff identified is either face-to-face engagement of young people with nature (for example through National Nature Reserve events) or with young employees. Some suggestions from staff on ways to increase engagement with young people include having one to three dedicated days a year (either paid or voluntary) to work with young people or give a talk in schools.

Whilst these may provide valuable opportunities for staff to interact and share their knowledge with young people, it may reduce engagement to one off events, and could fail to embed a strategic approach to engaging with young people’s views and opinions. There is a lack of opportunities for young people to be involved in decision making and to have their voices heard in wider areas of SNH’s work, and leadership teams and managers articulating this as an aim and purpose would be beneficial.

SNH’s leadership teams has a role to play in highlighting young people as a key stakeholder and to embed young people across SNH’s work. This could include identifying key strategic opportunities to embed young people within, including Scotland’s post 2020 biodiversity strategy, SNH’s new business and operating models, the rebrand and future corporate plans. ReRoute also highlighted the need for strategic opportunities their recommendations. The leadership team and managers have a role to ensure staff teams primarily understand the need to strategically engage external young people in their work and highlight the value that young people can bring.

“I’d rather see young people as stakeholders and definitely partners as well because we need them to help us succeed and we need their help to maintain these sites into the future and keep the outcomes being achieved”


Managers should articulate the aims, outcomes and purpose of engaging young people which would reflect the value that this engagement brings.

Leadership should identify key strategic opportunities to embed young people within, including Scotland’s post 2020 biodiversity strategy, SNH’s new business and operating models, the rebrand and future corporate plans.

Young people in SNH’s governance structures

Incorporating external young people into SNH’s governance structures is a clear way to include young people’s views and experiences at a strategic level and to demonstrate leadership and commitment to engaging young people both as employees and as active citizens and stakeholders.

Across various discussions, staff identified that a way to do this is to have an external young person on SNH’s board. ReRoute also recommended that an external young person be appointed to the board to allow for more diverse representation, and that young people be embedded across SNH’s governance structures. SNH could liaise with and advise ministers and the Cabinet Secretary to appoint an external young person under the age of 26 to SNH’s Board. Appointing someone under the age of 26 was also one of ReRoute’s recommendations in 2018.

“(There’s) definitely a need to have a permanent young person on the SNH Board”

Partners also highlighted that across the environment sector in Scotland, strategic engagement of young people was becoming a norm, with organisations creating youth committees and youth leadership roles. Partners’ representatives felt that there is a need for SNH to continue demonstrating their commitment to young people at a governance and strategic level. Additionally, SNH could encourage environmental organisations and leaders to involve young people in sector-wide governance, such as a young person’s panel working alongside the Environment and Economy Leaders Group.

Staff also highlighted an opportunity to involve external young people in meetings of the Extended Leadership Team, Senior Leadership Team and Outcome Managers, as well as all general committees and meetings across the organisation. Additionally, 36% of survey responses felt that a dedicated staff member to help facilitate engagement of young people across teams would be beneficial. Similarly, some staff suggested upskilling a staff member in each team for engaging young people and encourage networking and skills sharing with other staff.

“Each unit needs to have a young person contact with the necessary training, skills and knowledge. Ideally this should be a young or younger member of staff.”


Incorporate external young people into SNH’s governance structures.

Advise ministers and the Cabinet Secretary to appoint an external young person under the age of 26 to SNH’s Board involve external young people in meetings of the Extended Leadership Team, Senior Leadership Team and Outcome Managers.

Encourage environmental organisations and leaders to involve young people in sector-wide governance, such as a young person’s panel working alongside the Environment and Economy Leaders Group.

Dedicate a staff member to help facilitate engagement of young people across teams.

Upskill a staff member in each team for engaging young people and encourage networking and skills sharing with other staff.


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Resource, staff capacity and priorities

Many staff discussed the main barriers to engaging young people were budget restrictions and pressure on staff to prioritise other areas of work.

“We used to do a lot of work with young people through working with Ranger services, local schools & colleges, careers fairs, Duke of Edinburgh, John Muir Award, etc - but this was all stopped due to other priorities”

“Nothing is prohibiting this at the moment other than the resource of time in my own role to invest in non-priority work”

One staff member acknowledged that a barrier to implementing the ReRoute recommendations was the demands on their time and competing priorities.

Staff felt that considering these barriers, creative and practical ways of engaging young people were needed. There is an opportunity to recognise the engagement mechanisms that already exist such as ReRoute’s Scale of Engagement or the existing work with schools and young people, and highlight these so that staff can make better use of them within SNH, particularly to share staff learning and knowledge from work that has already taken place.

However, staff also felt a need for leadership to identify and create specific time, resource and capacity across teams and individual workplans to enable meaningful engagement of young people. This was also echoed by external partners who may be funded by SNH to deliver work with young people.

Recommendation and Actions Identified Recognise the engagement mechanisms that already exist such as ReRoute’s Scale of Engagement or the existing work with schools and young people, and highlight these so that staff can make better use of them.

Leadership to identify and create specific time, resource and capacity across teams and individual workplans to enable meaningful engagement of young people.

“I’ve been left to implement recommendations that ReRoute made, which are very good recommendations, but I don’t have enough time or support to implement the recommendations because I keep being given other work to do.”

Shared learning

The most popular option identified in the survey for making it easier for staff to collaborate with young people was to develop case studies and examples of how engagement has worked in other teams. For example, the Freshspace animations of co-design work on Scotland’s Great Trails. This suggests that whilst engagement is happening, the learning and experience from this work is not shared internally.

“I wouldn’t know how to approach and engage young people to be interested in my subject area. Its about how to pitch it, asking them what they are interested in and also to not be patronising. How to manage the conversation so you both get what you need”

Furthermore, staff commented on the need to share learning and insights from the work with ReRoute across the organisation. The survey reflected that there was a high awareness of ReRoute, but for some staff the understanding of the projects aims and outcomes was inaccurate. Staff expressed that they were aware of ReRoute, but not how it relates to their own work or what their recommendations are. There are 45 ReRoute recommendations which span different topics and teams and there is a need for this work to be shared more widely and transferred to staff’s own teams, roles and work plans. As staff have identified that their capacity and time is a barrier to implementing the ReRoute recommendations, more could be done to capitalise on the learning from this process.

External partners also commented that they would like to see ReRoute’s recommendations embraced more widely across the organisation and sector. Organisations such as the John Muir Trust and RSPB Scotland shared that they have carried out their own internal audits of work with young people using ReRoute’s recommendations as a framework. Partners felt that recognising and further implementing work already carried out and led by young people such as ReRoute and Europarc Youth Manifesto would prevent organisations from ‘re-inventing the wheel’ when resources are under pressure. The participants of the young people’s workshop highlighted that SNH should ensure any work that is already done with and by young people should be recognised and further implemented.


Develop case studies and examples of how engagement has worked in other teams, for example the Freshspace animations of co-design work on Scotland’s Great Trails.

Share learning and insights from the work with ReRoute across the organisation.

Recognise and further implement work already carried out and led by young people such as ReRoute.


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Establishing networks of young people

Further opportunities for developing current work practices to increase effective engagement with external young people were also identified. In the survey, 42% of respondents wanted a network of young people they could contact.

“It’s always very easy to say well lets just ask young people what they would like to do but its about getting them in the first place”

There is an opportunity for staff to maximise the use of current network of young people through contacts and partners. For example, some staff identified the schools involved in the Learning in Local Greenspace Project as potential contacts and that the evaluation of Outdoor Learning could be approached more effectively in order to involve young people’s views. Other staff members identified school Eco Committees as potential networks to engage with.

Developing a network of young people for staff to approach for engagement, using the work with ReRoute as a strong basis, could be beneficial for staff.

There is also an opportunity for staff to maximise the use of current network of young people through contacts and partners. For example, some staff identified the schools involved in the Learning in Local Greenspace Project as potential contacts and that the evaluation of Outdoor Learning could be approached more effectively in order to involve young people’s views. Other staff members identified school Eco Committees as potential networks to engage with.

“How does SNH find ways of hearing young people’s voices? More evaluation of outdoor learning needs to incorporate young people’s opinions and experiences”.

“It’s getting that dialogue going so we want young people to understand what we are doing and why we are doing it but we also want to know what they think of it and what they want”

External partners discussed other youth committees and panels that are being established across the sector and how SNH could help foster better networks between these strategic youth initiatives in order to share learning and insights. SNH would also be providing a strong platform for young people’s voices in the environment sector.


Develop a network of young people for staff to approach for engagement, using the work with ReRoute as a strong basis

Maximise the use of current network of

young people through contacts and partners.

Foster better networks between strategic youth committees and panels in the sector to share learning and insights, and provide a strong platform for young people’s voices in the environment sector.

Education and outdoor learning

Staff often highlighted education and outdoor learning as areas where work could be developed. Staff felt that more funding for outdoor learning for both primary and secondary schools was needed. Some staff felt that energy and resources need to focus on younger primary ages because they felt this has bigger returns than engaging older young people (i.e. 13 – 19 years old).

“Engagement with nature has to start younger – children aged 3 or even younger. It is a struggle and requires more effort to engage young people later on if they don’t have this level of engagement when they are younger”.

Whilst engaging primary school aged young people may require less resource or have clearer indicators of success, engaging older young people is important particularly given the current activism and engagement of this age group around the climate emergency. ReRoute developed the

Scale of Engagement to challenge the perception that this older age range were either engaged or disengaged, and the tool can be useful to ‘meet young people where they are’ and consider different approaches across the scale.

Staff also identified that the Curriculum for Excellence could provide opportunities to develop work on education, outdoor learning and engaging young people. They highlighted the work of Professor Pete Higgins and the need for school pupils to have immersive and less structured experiences with nature. Similarly, partners identified links to the Learning for Sustainability goals and framework and felt more support was needed to upskill teachers. They also highlighted that more could be done to challenge prevalent models and approaches to engagement, e.g. ‘because it’s good for you’.


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Partnership work

There is a willingness from partners to increase the engagement of young people in their work. The representatives attending the workshop expressed a need for funding relationships which were not driven by quantity, but had a focus on more quality engagement that enabled them to effectively work with ‘seldom heard’ communities in nature. Partners felt that they were often set increasingly difficult targets to engage higher numbers of specific groups such as young people, but that the funding relationships did not always acknowledge the amount of time, space, new approaches, creativity and resources this required. SNH could explore their funding relationships to consider how they could enable a more local and flexible delivery model for partners.

The feedback from partners was extremely positive and they expressed a desire for similar opportunities in the future to share information and skills on the topic of young people, and to network.

“We should do much more of cross sector partnership work like this”

“Great creative space to work with other organisations”

“Can SNH facilitate an event – hosted and run by young people which highlights creative approaches to engaging young people?”

“Keep this ‘forum’ going”

They acknowledged that there is little forum for shared learning around young people in nature, and more significantly about the strategic engagement of young people in decision making in the sector. Partners felt that SNH had a leadership role here to facilitate both sector wide and cross-sector conversation, learning and skills sharing on strategically engaging young people.


Explore funding relationships to consider how SNH can enable a more local and flexible delivery model for partners.

Facilitate both sector wide and cross-sector conversation, learning and skills sharing on strategically engaging young people.

Develop current processes

It was identified that processes and approaches could be better planned to facilitate the engagement of external young people. For example, some staff discussed the need for marine contracts to include high quality photography to enable the engagement of the public and young people in issues that are not easily accessed or visited. Staff also highlighted a need for better data management within SNH to share data, images and engagement resources.

“Marine environment is much less accessible for people – it is hard to engage children and adults with anything that is offshore”

Additionally, both staff and young people identified the Biodiversity Challenge Fund as an opportunity to increase effective engagement with young people. SNH could develop funds they administer to be more accessible to young people. Furthermore, they could develop these funds to include specific criteria which require funded projects to include meaningful engagement of young people. Staff identified that young people are involved in many of the projects funded by the Green Infrastructure Fund so learning from this process could be shared internally. Interestingly, the Future Routes Fund, which is funded by SNH and developed with SNH, ReRoute and Young Scot, was not well known or discussed across staff activity. The fund is designed to be accessible for young people, for example using a simplified application process, providing flexibility and support to help recipients shape their ideas and projects, co-designing the fund criteria with young people and having young people on the judging panel. There is potential to share the learning and insights from the Future Routes Fund more widely across SNH.


Develop funds SNH administer to be more accessible to young people.

Develop funds SNH administer to include specific criteria which require funded projects to include meaningful engagement of young people.

Share the learning and insights from the Future Routes Fund more widely across SNH.

Operational changes to better engage young people

Some changes could be made to SNH’s processes and operations to help further facilitate engagement of young people in its work. Staff had identified the amount of paperwork involved in hosting a student placement or volunteer, an whilst this had been simplified , required a lot of staff time. There were also considerations around health and safety and child protection that were needed. Staff acknowledged the role of Equalities Impact Assessments in generally engaging the pubic and young people. SNH could develop their processes and procedures for working with young people, such as child protection policies, volunteering policies, and processes for supporting young people on work experience, to be clearer and more concise.

Staff discussed the need to ‘meet young people where they are’ and reduce the barriers to young people being involved by adapting approaches to suit their needs. For example, staff highlighted that a ‘nine to five’ working hours model excludes opportunities to engage young people who are likely to be in education, training or employment during these hours. Scheduling meetings at times that young people can make – for example outside of typical working hours or liaising with young people about suitable meeting times - could help address this.

This was also echoed by partners, who recognised that time, space and culture were important considerations to ‘reach young people where they may be’. Both partners and SNH staff highlighted the importance of asking young people to identify the type and style of engagement they would like with SNH. This would help to provide a space or shape a service which is accessible, equal and meets the needs of both young people and organisations mutually.

“We need to meet young people where they are and help facilitate discussions”


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Staff also identified that the way meetings are structured could be a barrier. As well as the timings of the meetings, the formal structure, format and language used could be off-putting for a young person. Considering the structure and format of meetings that will involve young people and making small adjustments can make the experience feel more open and accessible. An example of this is during YEP meetings members introduce themselves including the pronouns they use.

“Anyone going into a new organisation would find it daunting, but more so for a young person, especially given the age profile we have”…I think you could find it quite stuffy….its not very vibrant, its not very interesting, its not very chatty, its not very dynamic”

Staff highlighted that there are many ‘long-established working processes and partnerships’ that may prevent staff from recognising how to involve young people. It was suggested that staff could ‘looking beyond teams’ to establish new contacts and networks and challenge long established modes of working, to lead creative approaches to engaging young people and learning amongst partners. This which would be beneficial in developing approaches and avenues for engaging young people. Staff had highlighted that this was something young employees were particularly good at, as demonstrated through the workshop on the ‘IPBES’ drivers delivered by the biodiversity team with young employees to explore new approaches.

Representatives from partners organisations also highlighted that collective action, partnership approaches and cross-sector working would facilitate young people’s involvement in the current funding climate.

Evidently, there are many opportunities to increase the engagement of young people by developing and building on contacts, networks and processes that already exist as well as establishing new ways

of working and challenging approaches which need updating and adapting. Considering the challenges faced by many organisations, and the value that young people can bring in addressing these challenges, young people can play a vital role in futureproofing SNH and ensuring that it meets the needs of young people and wider stakeholders. Developing a strategic approach to engaging young people across all areas of SNH’s work could also provide opportunities for addressing challenges and identifying opportunities more broadly across SNH’s work.

“Where we as an organisation need to think differently (is) thinking of different ways of engaging people to get the benefit, both for us and them”

“Its also (about) looking at where we are as an organisation, what our priorities are, where do we need skills going forward because our priorities and the skills we have now might not be what we need in ten years’ time”


Develop processes and procedures for working with young people, such as Child Protection policies, volunteering policies and processes for supporting young people on work experience, to be clearer and more concise.

Schedule meetings at times that young people can make.

Ask young people to identify the type and style of engagement they would like with SNH.

Consider the structure and format of meetings that will involve young people.

Establish new contacts and networks and challenge long-established modes of working – to lead creative approaches to engaging young people and learning amongst partners

Recommendations and Next StepsBased on the priorities and key themes identified by staff, young people and partners, the actions have been grouped under strategic recommendations.

Recommendation 1:

SNH leadership should provide staff and external stakeholders with a clear commitment to strategically engage young people in all areas of SNH’s work

Action A: Leadership should articulate to staff a clear commitment to engaging young people at a strategic level.

Action B: Managers should articulate clear aims, outcomes and purpose of engaging young people – reflecting the value this engagement brings.

Action C: Managers should ensure that engaging young people is clearly outlined in individual and teamwork and delivery plans.

Action D: Leadership should identify key strategic opportunities to embed young people within SNH activity, including Scotland’s post 2020 biodiversity strategy, SNH’s new business and operating models, the rebrand and future corporate plans.

Recommendation 2:

Develop stronger mechanisms to engage young people and the public in SNH’s work, and increase the awareness and understanding of a co-design approach among staff

Action A: Make information, research and statistics more accessible and understandable for young people and the public by co-designing how this information is communicated.

Action B: Leadership should identify and create specific time, resource and capacity across teams and individuals workplans to enable meaningful engagement of young people.

Action C: Review, develop and embed the insights and recommendations from ReRoute across the organisation.

Action D: Recognise the engagement mechanisms that already exist such as ReRoute’s Scale of Engagement, or the existing work with schools and young people, and highlight these so that staff can make better use of them.

Action E: Develop internal mechanisms for sharing staff’s views, opinions and experiences in order to develop a stronger approach to co-design with external stakeholders such as young people and the public.


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Recommendation 3:

Develop a network of young people for staff to engage and work alongside

Action A: Develop a network of young people for staff to approach for engagement, using the work with ReRoute as a strong basis.

Action B: Maximise the use of current networks of young people through contacts and partners.

Action C: Establish an organisation-wide strategic panel for young people using a co-design approach.

Recommendation 6:

Ensure external young people are represented in SNH’s governance structures

Action A: Advise Ministers and the Cabinet Secretary to appoint an external young person under the age of 26 to SNH’s Board.

Action B: Involve external young people in the meetings of Senior Leadership Team, Extended Leadership Team and Outcome Managers.

Action C: Encourage environmental organisations and leaders to involve young people in sector-wide governance, such as a young person’s panel working alongside the Environment and Economy Leaders Group.

Recommendation 4:

Increase and share staff’s skills, experience and knowledge of effectively engaging young people using a co-design approach across staff teams

Action A: Develop and share case studies of how engaging young people’s views and experiences has worked in other teams – for example the Freshspace animations or co-design work on Scotland’s Great Trails.

Action B: Dedicate a staff member/position to help facilitating young people’s strategic engagement across different teams.

Action C: Upskill a staff member in each team for engaging young people – network and share skills with other staff.

Action D: Share learning and insights from ReRoute’s work across the organisation.

Action E: Recognise and further implement work already carried out and led by young people such as ReRoute.

Recommendation 5:

Lead the sector by sharing skills, experience and knowledge of effective engagement of young people using a co-design approach

Action A: Foster better networks between strategic youth committees and panels in the sector to share learning and insights, and to provide a strong platform for young people’s voices in the environment sector.

Action B: Explore funding relationships to consider how SNH can better enable a local and flexibly delivery model for partners.

Action C: Facilitate sector wide and cross-sector conversations, learning and skill sharing on strategically engaging young people.

Action D: Establish new contacts and networks, and challenge long established modes of working to lead creative approaches to engaging young people and learning amongst partners.

Recommendation 7:

Review and develop funds so that young people are more strategically engaged and embedded in these processes

Action A: Develop funds administered by SNH to be more accessible to young people.

Action B: Develop funds administered by SNH to include criteria which require projects to include meaningful engagement of young people.

Action C: Share learning and insights from the Future Routes Fund more widely across SNH.


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Whilst staff were aware of some of SNH’s work to engage young people, it was not widespread across all teams and tended to focus on internal employment. Staff felt there was no overarching strategic approach to engaging young people in SNH’s work and decision making.

Many staff understood and articulated the value that young people bring to SNH’s work, both as employees and young people more broadly. However, some expressed concern about this, both in the context of other employees feeling marginalised and young people being overrepresented compared to the wider public. Whilst staff expressed a willingness to share power with different stakeholders including young people, there were reservations around involving the public and young people in SNH’s science-based approach. Some staff acknowledged SNH’s responsibility to incorporate the views of all stakeholders in decision making.

Staff felt that increasing the number of young employees would increase representation across the organisation but there is a need for wider representation from external young people as well. Staff felt that they had limited mechanisms for engaging and embedding the views of young people and the wider public in their work. Staff identified various areas where existing mechanisms and approaches could be developed. These included leadership, young people on SNH’s governance structures, sharing learning and skills across the organisation and sector, maximising the use of existing contacts and networks, and adapting processes and operations to be more accessible for both staff and young people.

Staff identified key actions to help develop SNH’s strategic approach to embedding young people across their work and decision making. There is a clear need to do this to ensure young people’s voices are championed within SNH, and that the organisation can capitalise on the skills, views, value and futureproofing that young people offer. Young Scot would be delighted to continue working with SNH and support their work to embed young people across the organisation.

ConclusionIn this phase of partnership work, Young Scot delivered the agreed activities in order to explore the views, experiences and ideas of young people, SNH staff and partners. The substantial amount of insights has highlighted key reflections, concerns, themes and opportunities for SNH to consider in developing a strategic approach to embedding young people in their work.

Recommendation 8:

Develop operational procedures to better accommodate young people

Action A: Develop processes and procedures for working with young people such as child protection policies, volunteering policies and processes for supporting young people on work experience to be clearer and more concise.

Action B: Schedule meetings at times that young people can make.

Action C: Ask young people to identify the type and style of engagement they would like with SNH.

Action D: Consider the structure and format of meetings that involve young people.

Recommendation 9:

Work with Young Employee Panel (YEP) to improve internal employment of young people

Action A: Follow YEP recommendations and engage with YEP on any developments to employment initiatives, particularly for young employees.

Action B: Make SNH a more accessible and open employer for young people by following YEP’s recommendations and key suggestions from young people.

Action C: Increase the number of internal young employees.

Action D: Re-develop SNH’s mentoring scheme to highlight the opportunity for mutual learning and skill sharing between different aged employees.

Young Scot would be delighted to support SNH in exploring, developing and delivering these recommendations and actions. The insights and actions indicate that there are opportunities to build on the strong engagement work SNH has demonstrated and to develop a robust internal framework for future engagement and embedding of young people across all areas of SNH’s work.

Whilst some staff have highlighted challenges around engaging young people, many have articulated actions that can overcome barriers and have identified opportunities to future-proof and improve SNH’s services more broadly.


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Appendix I – SNH Staff Survey ResultsThis survey ran from 6th December 2019 until 21st February 2020 and received 105 complete responses.

People and Places

Biodiversity and Geodiversity

Strathclyde and Ayrshire

Marine Ecosystem

Wildlife Management

Forth

Southern Scotland

Northern Isles and North Highland

Nature Reserves

Workplace, Facilities and Services

Supporting Good Development

South Highland

Natural Resource Management

People and Organisational Development

Information and Cyber Security

Finance, Planning, and Performance

Communications

Tayside and Grampian

Sustainable Coasts and Seas

Argyll and Outer Hebrides

22%17%

7%7%

6%6%

5%5%5%

3%3%

3%3%

2%2%2%2%

1%1%1%

About Staff: Activity

Around a fifth of survey respondents identified as working on the People and Places activity.

About Staff: Grade

Around half of survey respondents identified as working in Grade D.

Have you heard of ReRoute?

Around two thirds of respondents stated that they had heard of ReRoute.

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

6%

8%

17%

14%

7%

1%

48%

64%Yes

29%No

8%I’m not sure


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What is your understanding of ReRoute?

Of the 67 respondents who stated that they had heard of ReRoute, 61 provided a freely typed response to this question. These responses were then categorised into seven key themes. These themes are broken down into tables in Appendix II.

How useful was this collaboration for your own work within SNH?

Of the 13 respondents who had collaborated with ReRoute:

7 rated the experience Very useful

4 rated the experience Somewhat useful

2 rated the experience Extremely useful

Have you personally worked with or collaborated with ReRoute?

Of the 67 respondents who stated that they had heard of ReRoute, most had not worked or collaborated with them.

Aims of ReRoute with young people generally

Partnership work

Aims of ReRoute with SNH

Broad description

Specific activities being undertaken

Don’t know or not sure

Other

37%

21%

18%

8%

6%

1%

12%

Responses may have been categorised into more than one theme which is why the graph does not total 61 responses.

13%Yes

51%No

3%I’m not sure

Theme ResponsesWays of providing feedback 4

Ability to bring new energy and ideas 4

ReRoute’s presence at events 3

Mechanism for information sharing 1

Direct communication with young people 1

Useful insights from the research conducted 1

Advice on how to engage with young people 1

Having a dedicated Young Scot staff member 1

Knowledge 1

Young people’s development 1

What was positive and worked well about your collaboration with ReRoute?

What was challenging and could have been improved about your collaboration with ReRoute?

Theme ResponsesInvolvement was limited 2

Clarity around ReRoute’s capacity for work 2

Lack of capacity to implement ReRoute’s work 2

Lack of awareness 1

Nothing 1

Could have communicated better with Young Scot 1

Lack of planning in advance 1

Could have been more organised around deadlines 1

Translation of corporate speak 1


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Appendix II – Survey Tables

Main Theme Secondary Theme Responses

Aims of ReRoute with young people generally

Promoting young people’s engagement with nature 15

Promoting young people’s engagement with biodiversity 11

Allowing young people’s voices to be heard 5

Promoting young people’s work with natural heritage 2

Understanding young people’s perceptions of nature 2

Increasing young people’s knowledge of conservation 1

Building young people’s confidence 1


Partnership work Partnership with Young Scot 18

Work with YEP 2

Scottish Government initiative 1


Aims of ReRoute with SNH

Informing and influencing SNH’s work 7

Advisory role to SNH 5

Young people working on SNH’s strategy 3

Helping SNH to codesign projects 3


Broad description

Youth Biodiversity Panel 9

Young people aged 16 or over 2

Young people stuff 1


Specific activities being undertaken

Workshops and events 3

Research and reporting 2

Communications 1

Work on the Route Map to 2020 1

Making decisions around funding 1



Don’t know or not sure 4

Unaware of project outcomes 2


Other

Positive opinion regarding ReRoute 2

Not integrated into main work 1

Personally worked with ReRoute 1


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Recruiting and retaining young people as SNH staff

Encouraging people to consider working for SNH 8

Helping to retain young employees 4



Low or little understanding 6

No understanding 4

Do not understand the benefit of YEP 2


Broad descriptionEmployees under the age of 30 11

Partnership with Young Scot 1


Aims of YEP with young people generally

Improving opportunities for young people to engage with SNH’s work 8

Working in the interest of young people generally 2


Providing opportunities for the wider staff team

Providing advice to SNH 5

Working in the interest of SNH employees 1


Other

Not integrated into main work 1

Read about it on intranet 1

Resources still being developed 1

What is your understanding of YEP?


Providing opportunities for young SNH staff

Allows young employee’s voices to be represented 48

Ability for young employees to interact with the Board and senior management 16

Ability for young employees to influence strategy or agenda 4

Support for young employees 4


Positive views of YEPInspiring to older members of staff 1

Positive opinion regarding YEP 1


Personal experience of YEP

Had offered to help out but was not taken up on 1

Personal experience of sitting on the panel 1


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In your opinion, what role do young people in Scotland have in SNH’s work?


Benefits that young people bring

Young people bring fresh ideas 24

Young people bring enthusiasm 20

Young people’s views can positively influence other generations 9

Young people bring creativity 3

Young people help identify knowledge gaps 1

Young people’s involvement can help behaviour change 1


Important role

Important or fundamental role 25

They are the future of the organisation 13

Key focus of future work 5

Wide variety of opportunities for young people 2


Should not just focus on young people

Same as any other demographic 19

Young people can learn from other generations 6

Comment on age discrimination 1


Opinions on SNH engaging with young people generally

Young people will be directly impacted by the future 20

Must engage young people with nature generally 4


Role of young people in SNH should be bigger

Role should be bigger 9

Should encourage employment of young people 7

Role is increasing 1

Need to develop young people’s skills 1

Young people should be involved in decision making 1


Function of role

Tends to be on academic or educational projects 4

Graduate placements offer opportunities 3

Advisory role 1

Help out with work that would otherwise not get done 1


Problems with involving young people in SNH

Not enough opportunities to develop 3

Tokenistic 2

Lack of understanding of benefits of involving young people 2

Find it difficult to retain young people 1


Limited roleLimited role 7

Varies dependent on area of work 1


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Type of young people that SNH currently engage with are not representative

ReRoute or SNH young people are not representative 2

Effective engagement with Young Scot but not wider audience 1

How do you personally engage young people in your specific role and work at SNH?


Not at all or not really

Not at all or not really 31

Lack of opportunity to do so 6


Working or supporting young colleagues

Working directly with young colleagues 16

Supporting young colleagues 14


Events, workshops or site visits

Through events 10

Delivery of lectures, workshops or talks in educational establishments 6


Involvement in placements and volunteering

Involvement in graduate placements 12

Involvement in volunteer program 4

Involvement in school experience placements 2


Working with other organisations

Through working with other organisations or external projects 12


Personally are a young person

They are a young person at SNH 4

On Young Employee Panel 3


Other comment

Work with everyone 4

Looking forward to the new young employee network 2


Research Supporting dissertation projects 3

Through research 1


Other work

Work with young farmers and landowners 1

When working on policies 1

Getting advice on communication methods 1


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Can you identify any areas of your work that young people could potentially be engaged in?


General topic areas of interest

Climate change issues 5

Project work (general) 4

Marine work 2

Peatland restoration 1

Coastal resilience 1

Fisheries 1

Value of nature 1

Path or access 1

Wildlife management 1

Rural skills 1

Protected sites 1


General work tasks

Communications or social media 9

Meetings 3

Admin 2

FOI 1

Data Protection 1


Types of work experience

Volunteering 7

Work shadowing 6

Apprenticeships 1

Mentoring 1


Specific SNH projects

NNR 2

Ranger Service 2

Citizen science 2

Placemaking 2

SSSI 1

SPA 1

SAC 1

IPBES drivers 1


Types of research or evaluation

Survey or field work 5

Dissertation or student projects 4

Recording of species 2

Evaluation of youth-focused projects 1

Gathering of opinions 1


Problems with involving young people in SNH’s work

Not enough resource currently available 5

Would not be keen to delegate difficult tasks 2

Restrictions may stop bringing young people into workplace 1

Young Scot age range too difficult to cater to 1


6160



Anything Anything Anything


SNH strategy work

Developing strategy 2

Developing policy 1

Involvement on board for Staff Suggestion Scheme 1


Other

Reference to previous answer 3

Outdoor activities and learning 1

STEM 1

Comment on question 1

Comment around age discrimination 1


Everything Everything 7



Working with schools 1

Working with third sector partners 1

Working with SYP 1

Working with stakeholders 1

Parliamentary work 1


Other


Outdoor activities and learning 1

STEM 1

Comment on question 1

Comment around age discrimination 1


Everything Everything 7



Working with schools 1

Working with third sector partners 1

Working with SYP 1

Working with stakeholders 1

Parliamentary work 1


Improvements to SNH

Enhance the graduate placement program 2

Improvements in digital and technology 2

Staff development 1


No or nothing No or nothing 4


N/A N/A 1


6362


What would make it easier for you to collaborate with young people in your role at SNH?: Other

Theme Responses

Resources 8

Employment opportunities 4

Work that is not specialist 3

Don’t need to specify only young people 3

N/A 2

Don’t know or not sure 2

Shift in culture around engaging young people 2

Leadership from management 1

Support to NGOs 1

Work with everyone 1

Opportunities for volunteering 1

Flexibility to work with local communities 1

Young people are welcome to get in touch 1

Should have a dedicated contact 1

Ability to delegate work to young people 1

“Speed dating” to meet young people 1

Ability to identify skillsets 1

Learning best practice from other organisations 1

Should encourage wider diversity in employment 1

More support in setting up placements 1

Consistency in including young people 1

Contact with educational establishments 1

Opportunities for work experience 1

Focus on skills rather than age 1

Opportunities for student or graduate placements 1

Please share any further comments, thoughts, reflections or questions on SNH’s work with young people.


Problems SNH face engaging with young people

Lack of resource to properly dedicate time to young people in the workplace 8

Benefits of engaging young people still not realised in wider organisation 4

Management need to change perception of engaging with young people 2

Management need to change perception of employing young people 1

Too much focus on what can’t be done rather than can 1

Previous projects with young people have been stopped 1

The target percentage of young employees is hard to reach 1

ReRoute does not have wide enough engagement 1

Not much opportunity to involve young people within their particular specialism 1


Changes that need to be made within SNH

SNH need to invest more in recruiting young employees 5

SNH need to invest more in retaining young employees 3

SNH needs to do more promotion of their work within schools 3

Young people should be a focus for succession planning 3

SNH need to work on improving their diversity of engage-ment in general 2

Greater collaboration with external partners needed 2

Need to offer a range of opportunities for young people to be involved with SNH 1

Need to distinguish between engagement with young people in nature and engaging young people in employment 1


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Should not just focus on young people

Should not be a distinction between older and younger employees 6

Older employees could also benefit from support 5

Placing focus on young people is positive discrimination 2

There are limited opportunities for progression in SNH no matter the age range 2

More interested in the skills that individuals can bring than their age 1

Not sure what constitutes as ‘young’ 1

There needs to be more focus in wider society about realising the potential of employing young people 1


Positive view of SNH’s engagement with young people

Engaging with young people positively raises SNH’s profile 2

Important to listen to the views of young people 2

Have had positive feedback from work experience placements 1

Pleased to be part of an organisation that is making such changes 1

Placements allow work to get done by young people that would otherwise not be able to be completed 1

Positive opinion of graduate scheme 1

Things are improving 1


Suggestions

Paid apprenticeship schemes 2

Needs to be a young person on the board permanently 1

Pairing younger staff with older 1

Short term mentoring of young people 1

Training on collaborating with young people 1


Other

Young people are enthusiastic and eager to learn 2

Positive opinion (general) 1


Working with young people can be dangerous

1

Staff should retire at an appropriate age to free up posts for young people

1


Negative view of SNH’s engagement with young people

Younger workers coming in can create strong competition for internal jobs 2

Do not see any evidence of SNH working with young people 1

Don’t know what SNH is trying to achieve 1

Young Scot Enterprise is a Scottish registered charity (SC029757) and is a company limited by guarantee (202687) with its registered office at:

Rosebery House, 9 Haymarket Terrace, Edinburgh, EH12 5EZ

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