Inquiry reaches participation milestone: more than 10,000 people share their pandemic experiences with Let’s Be Heard

More than 10,000 people have shared their experiences of the pandemic with Let’s Be Heard, the Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry’s public participation project.

Let’s Be Heard has been collecting experiences since it launched in May 2023 with the aim of giving a voice to as many people across Scotland as possible. It is the main way in which people can contribute to the Inquiry’s investigations and share what happened to them during the pandemic in Scotland.

Following the publishing of Let’s Be Heard’s interim report in November 2023, the project moved to its Focused Engagement Period in June 2024, which built on the work undertaken during the National Engagement Period. 

In October 2024, Let’s Be Heard reached an important milestone and heard from its 10,000th participant.

During Focused Engagement, Let’s Be Heard has taken a more targeted approach to examining the pandemic’s impact on communities and areas in Scotland which were underrepresented during its previous phase, through surveys, discussions, interviews, and focus groups.

These have included engaging with: 

• children and young people;
• businesses;
• welfare recipients
• some health and social care service users; 
• minority ethnic and religious groups;
• rural and island communities; and 
• those experiencing digital exclusion, among others.   

Let’s Be Heard is grateful to the organisations who supported participation events, from speaking to the Older Polish People Network in Aberdeen, engaging with young people at Portree High School in Skye, to hosting discussions with New Start Highland in Inverness. The team is also grateful to all for sharing their experiences at the events hosted across Scotland, from Dumfries to Orkney and Shetland.

In June 2024, Let’s Be Heard launched a survey to gather the experiences of people in the business community who had been impacted by the pandemic in Scotland. This included business owners, directors, managers, entrepreneurs, the self-employed, freelancers, and others. This survey closed on 30 September 2024. 

Further surveys were set up to gather experiences from children and young people and educational staff. To date, Let’s Be Heard has received submissions from close to 3,000 educators and 1,000 children and young people.

The children and young people and educational staff surveys close on 29 November 2024, which also marks the close of the project’s public engagement activities. The team will then move into its analysis and reporting stages. 

Dr Alexandra Anderson, Head of Let’s Be Heard, says: “We are grateful to everyone who has shared their pandemic experiences with us, and recognise that for some this will have involved revisiting difficult episodes in their lives. We are analysing every piece of information shared with us and the accounts we have received have been invaluable in helping guide the Inquiry’s investigations and inform its reports.”

Lord Brailsford, Chair of the Inquiry, says: “I am delighted with the response to our Let's Be Heard programme giving us a wealth of information from around the country as we progress our investigations.”

Following the completion of Focused Engagement, Let’s Be Heard intends to publish further reports in 2025. To find out more, and to share your pandemic experiences, please visit the Let's Be Heard website.