Let’s Be Heard: Sharing Respondents' Pandemic Experiences, Impacts, and Lessons to be Learned in Scotland | Page 2

Background to the Inquiry and Let’s Be Heard

The independent Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry was set up on 28 February 2022 and has been chaired by Lord Brailsford since 28 October 2022. The purpose of the Inquiry is to establish the facts of, and learn lessons from, the strategic devolved response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2022. 

Figure 1: A Visual Overview of the Inquiry’s Areas of Investigation

The Inquiry’s Terms of Reference (ToR) set out the 12 broad areas it is investigating to identify the lessons that should be learned and make recommendations so Scotland is better prepared in future. These include areas such as the provision of health and social care, education, business, and welfare assistance and financial support. 

To support the development of any recommendations the Inquiry might make, it needs to hear from the people who were directly impacted by the devolved strategic response to the pandemic in Scotland. That is why the Inquiry has established a listening project, Let’s Be Heard: Sharing Scotland’s COVID Experience. 

Those who wish to take part do not need to have had COVID-19, as Let’s Be Heard is interested in gathering all types of experiences. The information gathered through Let’s Be Heard has equal value to that gathered in other ways, such as at the Inquiry’s impact hearings. 

As shown in the two maps below, most of the responses received to date have been from people who identified the Central Belt of Scotland as being where their experiences of the pandemic took place. Fife (11% of total), Glasgow City (9%), and The City of Edinburgh (8%), were the three most frequently selected local authority areas. 

Let’s Be Heard has received proportionally fewer experiences from people in North Lanarkshire and West Lothian, and from people in rural areas compared to urban areas. People living in local authority areas in the Highlands and Islands account for 10% of responses.^[1]

[1] Highlands and Islands comprise Argyll and Bute, Highland, Moray, Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles), Orkney, and Shetland. 

Figure 2: Scotland: Submissions by Local Authority

Figure 3: Submissions by Local Authority in the Scottish Central Belt

Let’s Be Heard is keen to hear more from minority ethnic and marginalised groups, especially as it aims to present and emphasise findings in its future reporting on intersectional experiences of unequal and disproportionate impacts in Scotland.

Overall, the responses received from participants who self-identified as "non-white” had several notable characteristics, including some obvious intersections. Some broad findings include:

• 50% of non-white respondents were frontline key workers, which is marginally more than in overall responses (45%);
• 50% were also “not very” or “not at all” financially secure, significantly more than the average in overall responses (20%);
• 35% told Let’s Be Heard they were disabled, more than average (20%); and
• 55% had caring responsibilities, several of whom spoke at length about the experiences and impact of being an unpaid carer. This was 10% higher than in the overall sample (45%).

What has been emphasised through Let’s Be Heard's preliminary analysis is the underrepresentation of voices from minority ethnic and marginalised communities. 

Let’s Be Heard hopes to find more in-depth thematic findings on intersectional experiences and will therefore focus on reaching minority ethnic and marginalised groups for the rest of its National Engagement Period. This will also be a key objective during its Focused Engagement Period.

Let’s Be Heard’s Analysis

The Sample of Responses

For this report, Let’s Be Heard has reviewed a sample of 675 response forms of the more than 4,000 responses received to date, with 224 of this sample being from children and young people. Organisational reports submitted to Let’s Be Heard also inform these findings, but it should be noted that they do not represent all the reports gathered so far.

The sample comprises responses collected from Let’s Be Heard’s online platform and equivalent paper copy submissions, easy read and children and young people’s forms. Responses used for this report were submitted to Let’s Be Heard from May 2023 to September 2023. 

A full breakdown of these responses is shown in the table below: 

These figures are broadly representative of the proportion of each type of form analysed by Let’s Be Heard for this sample size. This is with the exception of children and young people’s forms, which have been over-sampled because they contain far less detail about experiences than other forms. Let’s Be Heard was keen to ensure the voices of children and young people were fairly represented in this report.

It is important to note that everything shared with Let’s Be Heard is done so in a self-selected manner, which means that the decision to participate in the project is left entirely up to individuals. 

Children and young people

For this report, Let’s Be Heard analysed a sample of 224 responses received from children and young people, as Let’s Be Heard has created dedicated resources for children and young people up to the age of 14, this includes a bespoke response form, which is also available for those up to the age of 19. Most submissions came from those aged 10-19 (61.33%), with 1.78% of participants aged five to nine, and none under four.

Overall, responses from children and young people were brief. These focused on a few central themes: boredom, home-learning and the detrimental impact on mental health. These themes consistently overlapped to build a picture of children and young people in Scotland feeling anxious, under-stimulated and lonely during the pandemic. Often, these feelings were associated with inadequate home-learning arrangements and limited social interaction, which were often made worse by experiences of grief and loss.