We need to start asking 'what if?'

20 October 2026

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The Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza's job is up for grabs. They are impressive shoes to fill. Since 2021 she has gone large on making sure children and young people are heard. Millions of them. A recurring theme from children and young people has been that the system isn’t working, and building interventions for them from within the current system is a mistake. Instead we need to put greater emphasis on radical system design.

Nine years ago, I established The SAND Project, a specialist college for young people aged 16–25 with Education, Health and Care plans, which does things differently. Our premise is simple: Teach young people through the real work they choose to do, so they can build the lives they want in their community. We identify what each young person wants to achieve and build an individualised programme around that ambition. We work closely with families, employers and other organisations to support each ‘trainee’ as they progress. We understand the challenge is not simply getting people through the door. We need to keep them in the room. Engagement is built from the trust between the establishment and the young person - there are no hard and fast rules. At SAND that means we're telling them they matter enough for us to want to teach them things that they WANT to learn. This is often the first time our trainees have had their needs put centre stage. (And I know from being a stroppy teenager that there is nothing that builds resentment and disengagement more than a teacher "wasting my time".)

Kate Davies CEO and co-founder The SAND Project — Kate Davis, The SAND Project

If we really believe what children and young people have told Rachel de Souza, we have to include them in what happens next. Tried and tested approaches such as youth councils, ambassadors, pilot studies, focus groups, user testing groups all make sense. My experience of working with young people (14 upwards) means I always come back to money. Could we pay young people to be part of the process?

This is blue-sky thinking, but what if the student population became its own cooperative company? Young people could charge for their services as advisers to think tanks or participants in pilot schemes. Taking it further, what if we paid young people to attend courses or even individual lessons? What about a Learn As You Earn scheme (LAYE!)? What if a proportion of money earned by students was paid back to the cooperative, to be spent on their own education for resources, property improvements, uniforms, PE equipment…. (even teacher bonuses for particularly good lessons). The more they learnt, the more they would earn, and the more they’d reinvest back into the education system that needs to keep them there. Their investments would help us to understand what worked. I wonder how the cost of keeping young people engaged in education compares with the costs of managing long term unemployment and social dependency..?

Okay, it's a bit ridiculous. And silver bullets generally shoot us in the foot. But we need to get curious about the ridiculous if we want system change. We need more people to start asking ‘what if’?

Young people need to be listened to, but so too do the innovators who are trying to change things for them. They are already doing incredible work from within the system - what could they achieve if they helped to shape a new system? Whether it's a prison with low re-offending rates or a residential centre where care-experienced young people secure great outcomes - we need to find them. Who are the innovators inside those organisations? Who are the people saying yes to their ideas?

So, to the next Children’s Commissioner I say this. We’ve listened enough to know young people are ready, willing and able to share their voices effectively. It's time to respond, keeping them right next to us. Find the people doing 'ridiculous' things. Find the people that said yes to them. My slightly ridiculous idea? Hand the system over to the children and see what happens. You never know, they might even need us.