Lesson video

Hi, you aright? I hope you're doing well today.

My name's Mrs. Tomassi, and I'm gonna be working for you for your citizenship lesson today.

If you are all settled, you've got everything you need for the lesson and you're good to go, then we'll get started.

The title of today's lesson is, "How is Devolution impacting the UK's Democracy?" This is forms part of the unit on "Should the UK be Called a Democracy?" Hopefully by the end of the lesson today, you'll be able to explain what devolution is, and the impact it's having on the UK's democracy.

There are two key words in today's lesson.

The first is devolution.

This is the transfer of political powers from a central government or parliament to a national, regional, or local government or parliament.

The second key word is regional, and this is relating to a particular area or part of an area of a state or country.

You will see these in bold throughout the lesson.

So if you ever need to, you can refer back to them here.

Two learning cycles, and we're gonna make a start on the first, which is what is devolution? So if we go all the way back now, before 1997, the UK had a centralised system.

So when we think about central, where everything is located inside.

So for example, in that diagram there, everything is inside that circle.

But this means that the important decisions were mostly made by central government.

In the UK, that's the UK parliament in Westminster.

Now, this meant that the UK parliament held all the power of the UK and any decisions that were made, things like health, education, defence, all came from UK parliament.

However, we then have something called devolution.

Now devolution is when some of that power from that centralised system is transferred.

Some of the other national, regional, or local governments of parliaments.

So devolution just to kind of go through what it means, means off or from and then to change or develop.

So this idea of changing and taking some of the powers from the central government and transferring them to those regional local governments.

Choose the correct word to complete each sentence.

When central government makes decisions on topics such as defence, this is known as centralization or devolution? Centralization or devolution is the transfer of some powers from Westminster to a national, regional, or local government or parliament.

Hopefully you worked out that the first one is centralization and the second one is devolution.

We'll keep going over these to make sure that you get that idea that devolution is the transfer of powers.

Now, through devolution, it was meant that the central government has given some of those powers.

So when we saw that first circle and we had health, and education, defence all in that circle, So it looks a little bit different now.

To give you an example there, now UK parliament is holding defence.

However, in that outer bubble, they have transferred some of those education and health powers to other governments.

But it's really important to remember not all powers have been devolved.

So the UK parliament still holds some of those powers and we will have a look at what areas have been devolved and reserved further in the lesson.

Now, we have spoken about devolved governments, but what actually are they and who are they? Do you know any devolved governments in the UK? So some of them are the Scottish Parliament.

This might help you to work out some of the others.

You've then got the Senedd, Welsh Parliament.

And the Northern Ireland assembly.

Now referendums took place to ensure people supported devolution and as a result, they all now have devolved powers.

They each have a first minister who is their leader of the devolved government.

And then they're able to work the same way that parliament does creating laws, et cetera, for them devolved areas.

So do you know any powers that they actually have? So what kind of areas they have devolved power for? So these are things like if we look at that column there, health and social care, education and raining, transport, sports and culture, there are other ones as well, but these are to give you some main ideas.

These are decisions that then devolved governments and parliaments can make themselves.

The things that are still reserved.

So if you think about if you reserve a table or you reserve a space, you are keeping that, that's for you.

So these reserved powers mean that the UK parliament has kept them powers and that's still decisions made by central government.

Now those are things like defence, foreign affairs, constitutional affairs, immigration.

Can you see a bit of a theme between the different powers With the reserved powers, it tends to be those that are gonna impact like the whole of the UK, or maybe the UK's relation with other countries, whereas the devolved powers, there can be differences locally, et cetera, and they might be best suited to each local area making those decisions.

That might help to give you like a broad example when you're thinking what powers might be reserved compared to devolved.

Now check for understanding.

Can you tick all the powers that are devolved to regional governments? You've got the list there.

Immigration, transport, defence, health and social care, education and training, foreign affairs, sports and culture.

Constitutional affairs.

Take some time and then we'll go through them.

How did you get on? So the ones that are devolved should be transport, health and social care, education and training, sports and culture.

Brilliant work if you managed to get that.

Now, Izzy says here, "It is not just devolved governments where devolution occurs.

Power can also be devolved to local and regional governments." And this is a good point as well.

So we've seen them kind of the three major, like the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd, Welsh Parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly.

But even within each area, powers can be devolved.

That's to either specific regions or to local governments and the local authorities.

Now we are specifically gonna have a look at some in England because England has a different system of devolution compared to Northern Ireland and Scotland and Wales.

The UK Parliament controls most of England's laws and policies.

There are some limited powers that have been devolved to certain regions, and this is what we're saying when we say regional devolution.

Now these are often called combined or mayoral authorities and most of England's policies and laws are controlled by the UK Parliament.

We'll have a look at some of these regions as we go through.

A good thing to point out is that devolution in England is more restricted than like Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales because it's only executive and not legislative control.

This means they have the ability to make decisions and run services.

They do not have the ability to make laws.

True or false.

Regions in England with devolved powers have more freedom than devolved nations in the UK.

That is false.

Can you think why? Regions in England have the executive control to make decisions, It's the devolve nations, the Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland that have legislative control to make laws for their country.

So that's the main difference there.

We'll have a look a little bit more at some of these regional governments and some examples of some of those cities and sort of some of the issues that they can make decisions on.

So this again, it is similar to the devolve powers.

It's things like transport, housing, health, policing, education and skills.

And what it means is they can manage the local matters instead of having everything decided by UK parliament.

And they also tend to have a directly elected mayor who's in charge of overseeing the powers.

Now to show you some examples, as of April, 2025, there are 16 devolved regions in England.

Do you know any already? Maybe you might live in some of these areas or you might have visited some areas that are devolved regions.

So we'll have a look.

Here are the 16 devolved regions.

They vary in areas, they tend to be bigger cities, or again, like we were saying them combined authorities.

Now it's continuing to evolve and that's important to note.

So in 2024, the government introduced the English evolution bill, which is to expand evolution across England, giving more regions control over local policies and resources.

By February 2025, four new regions were added to the deals.

These were Greater Lincolnshire, Hull and East Yorkshire, Lancashire and Devon and Torbay.

And there are still more local authorities that are negotiating or implementing devolution deals and more areas are expected to gain similar powers in the future.

So it's one to keep an eye on because it will continue to evolve and then I'm sure there'll be more authorities that gain regional powers.

So to give you an example of one to look at, we're gonna have a look at Greater London.

It is known as the Greater London Authority or the GLA, and it's an example of a devolved region.

This means it's run by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.

And they have power to make decisions on transport planning, housing policies and environmental policies.

One thing that they've done.

So in 2023, the mayor of London used his power to expand the ultra low emission zone, which is also known as ULEZ, and that's to cover all of greater London.

What it is is designed to reduce air pollution by charging vehicles that don't meet strict emission standards to enter the city.

The aim is to improve public health by making the air cleaner in London.

This is something that a local authority wouldn't just be able to do.

It has come from having that regional devolved power.

Now another one is that most policing in England and Wales is managed through elected police and crime commissioners or the PCCs.

However, in devolved regions this isn't the case, because it becomes a devolved power.

So in these regions, the mayor often oversees the policing instead of the PCC, then the mayor is responsible for setting the police budget, appointing the police commissioner and ensuring that local police and priorities are met.

So that's another difference between a devolved region and just a local authority.

To give you an example, the West Yorkshire police is overseen by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

True or false.

The regions that are devolved have stayed the same over time.

That's false.

Do you know why? It's constantly evolving with new areas continuing to secure devolution deals.

In 2025, four additional regions gained more devolved powers.

Now that moves us onto the first task.

We've got Jacob here that says, "Devolution only happens when power is transferred from UK Parliament to the other countries in the UK." Explain to Jacob why this is not quite correct, and explain what regional devolution is.

If you wanna take some time, you could always discuss this with somebody else first.

And then once you've got your response, unpause and we can go through the feedback together.

How did you get on with that? Your response could have looked like this.

Jacob's statement is not quite correct because devolution is not just a transfer of powers from UK Parliament to other countries in the UK.

It also involves a transfer of powers to other local and regional governments.

For example, in England, some powers have been devolved to different regions or combined authorities such as Greater Manchester and London.

These regions have directly elected mayors who have powers to make decisions on policies such as housing, transport and education.

Unlike Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, regional devolution in England usually does not include full legislative powers but focuses more on executive powers to manage local affairs.

Did you manage to get something similar to that? Maybe you might have some different examples, but it's that idea that knowing there are other forms of devolution such as local and regional and those powers look different as well.

So now we're gonna move on to the second learning cycle.

This is what impact is devolution having on UK democracy? So as devolution is evolving, some of the Oak National Academy pupils have some questions they want to explore.

Izzy says, "Does devolution strengthen or weaken democracy in the UK?" Alex says, "What challenges and opportunities does devolution present to UK democracy?" And Sophia says, "How has devolution affected the relationship between the UK government and devolved regions?" Here's lots of interesting questions to explore.

So Izzy says, "These questions are similar and all explore the impact devolution is having on UK democracy." There are several factors that affect how devolution impacts UK, both positive and negative.

Some of these include things like identity, resources and understanding and clarity.

And we're gonna have a look at these in a bit more detail now.

So identity, it can be seen as positive because regions have the power to make rules and laws that fit their communities better.

Devolution means each region can consider important parts of their local identity, history and heritage.

However, there might be some negatives in terms of identity and this could feel that citizens might feel disconnected because giving regions more power could mean that they focus on their own area and they build on a local identity, but then they might not feel connected to the rest of the UK and that can impact national identity.

So to give you an example, in 2014 Scotland held a referendum on independence.

Voters were asked whether Scotland should become an independent country.

The referendum saw a voter turnout of 84.

6%.

A lot of people turned up to vote.

Now the majority did vote to remain part of the UK, therefore Scotland did not become independent.

But what the referendum did was highlighted the strong regional identities so such as a Scottish identity that exists.

For some people, this increased focus on local identity may lead to a weaker sense of a British identity.

The next one we're gonna look at is resources.

Now positive for resources, devolution means areas can focus on what they need.

So to give you an example, cities have big strengths like technology can focus on and build around this to improve their local economy and jobs.

And that works for anything.

If an area needs to invest more into their parks, they can prioritise that, maybe healthcare, et cetera, they can prioritise what their local community needs.

However, the downside is that not all the areas have the same amount of money or resources.

So some regions might then end up having a lot better schools, healthcare and transport.

And again, if one doing better, maybe more people move to that area and then you can see a discrepancy in unfairness and equality between the other areas.

To give you an example, in South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, the region had plans for a bus service improvement.

However, the funding still came from central government.

And what that meant is it could lead to funding shortfalls as seen when South Yorkshire received less funding compared to the other regions.

And the funding issues can lead to tension between central and regional governments, which can affect UK democracy.

The local communities may feel that their representatives lack the power or resources to improve the services and it makes it harder for local leaders to address the specific needs of their area.

And that final one that we are gonna look at is understanding and clarity.

Can you think why understanding and clarity might have a positive impact on UK democracy? It can be positive because citizens have a better understanding of how their local areas and economies operate.

This can help reduce misunderstanding about the local needs and priorities and it can strengthen their trust in the democratic process.

Could you think of something on the other side? Anything negative that could come from this? Well, some powers being devolved and others reserved, it can be confusing.

There's lots to understand which could lead to people when they're going to different areas being confused about what the rules and laws are.

To give you an example, rules and laws may differ between Scotland and England.

More into the understanding and clarity, give you example.

Greater Manchester Combined Authority, local leaders have gained increased control over public services and worked in partnership with various organisations to improve engagement with community members.

In 2022, the Big Conversation initiative was launched to gather public's views on the future of healthcare in the region.

It engaged with more than 2,000 underserved community members and gathered more than 10,000 individual responses.

This feedback helped to shape the five-year Greater Manchester Integrated Care partnership Strategy.

Now the long-term aim of this is to build a collaborative partnership led approach, particularly with the voluntary and community sector, to reach those underserved communities and make a real difference in people's lives.

And this has come about and been able to do because of the devolved powers and can then improve the understanding for those people that are previously quite hard to reach.

Identify one advantage and one disadvantage of devolution in the UK.

One advantage is regions have the power to make rules and laws that fit their communities.

One disadvantage is giving regions more power could cause them to focus too much on their own area and not feel connected to the rest of the UK.

Now we've got Jacob that says, "I think the regional devolution is impacting the UK positively.

Because regions can take control of the needs in their area.

But I dunno how to structure this answer if I had to write it down." And sometimes that's quite difficult when it comes to the GCSE, you might have lots of ideas but you've got to find a way of putting it into words as well.

We will have a look at how to structure that now.

So when evaluating statements and questions, it's useful to follow a structure for your response.

There are loads of different methods and they all can be really useful.

So if you have a way of already doing it that structures and breaks it down to ensure that you can get those full paragraphs, always use that.

If you're not too sure and you'd like one done for you, you can always use the PEEL method.

It stands for point, make your main argument or point clearly Evidence, provide evidence or facts to support your point.

An example, so giving that real life example to strengthen your argument.

And then always linking it back so you're keeping it relevant.

You link it back to the original statement or question.

Jacob says, "For my point, I could say that I believe regional devolution is having a positive impact on the UK because it allows regions to take control of the specific needs within their areas." So that's it, Jacob's now starting to break down what it is that he wants to say.

Sophia says, "That's a great starting point Jacob.

It is clear, focused and relevant to your statement.

If you wanted to improve it, you could say what the specific needs are.

For example, public transport." Jacobs made a good start on getting his paragraphs together.

Can he expand it further? So Jacob now says, "Does this work for my evidence? Regional devolution gives local authorities more power to make decisions that directly affect their communities.

For example, local governments have the ability to design policies that meet the unique needs of their citizens, such as improving public transportation." Sophia says, "This evidence is clear and easy to understand." That's two parts that Jacob has hit, his next part, can you remember what the next E stands for? So that's the example.

Let's see what Jacobs put for this.

Jacob says, "This is my example.

An example of this is in Greater Manchester.

Greater Manchester provides a good example of its Bee Network, an integrated public transport system designed to improve connections, offer more affordable travel and support the local economy." Sophia says, "That's a brilliant example.

It's very specific and shows how Greater Manchester have used devolution to address a specific local need." And that's another thing, when you're giving you examples, if you've got an example in your local area that you've seen or you know they're always really good to use because you are demonstrating that you really understand what it is you are talking about.

Now, Jacob says, "I'm not too sure how I could link it back to the original statement." Sophia says, "A link makes sure your answer is relevant to the original statement, how about this? Therefore regional devolution is beneficial because it allows decisions to be made that are more relevant and effective for local areas.

This strengthens this democratic process as it ensures people's needs are met in a way that is appropriate for their region." And what do you think about that? Has she summed it up quite well? She's definitely linked it back to that original question, hasn't she? Now it's your chance.

Can you go through and highlight each section for this answer to show which part is the point, what part's the evidence, where's the example and where is the link.

If you need to, you can take some time, highlight through and then when you are ready unpause and we can check it.

How did you get on? So did you manage to work out that the point is that the negative impact on the UK is creating inequalities between regions and reducing national wide unity.

The evidence is that section there that's to make decisions for local areas can result in policies that vary significantly between the areas.

The example given there was about the Senedd, Welsh parliament and the free prescriptions.

And then the link is when people in different regions have different experiences, it can undermine national unity and fairness, which are key elements of a strong democracy.

And by following this structure, it means that you can hit all that criteria and show that you fully understand the strengths or the weaknesses of devolution.

And this is really useful to follow this when you are structuring your GCSE exam answers.

Now it's gonna be your turn.

So using what we've learned in this cycle, you have a statement, "Devolution has strengthened democracy in the UK." Evaluate this statement, include one PEEL paragraph in support of this view, one PEEL paragraph against this view and a conclusion state in your own opinion.

Now what you might want to do first is to take some time and go over first of all what your opinion about this is.

You then might wanna plan it out.

So maybe just jot down some ideas of what's for, what's against, where you stand overall.

And then you can start structuring your actual answer.

Again, you might wanna put something down your page like write the letters P-E-E-L, and just what your ideas might be for each of it before you give it a go.

But take some time because the more you can actually practise these kind of responses and making sure that you can hit all those different points is what's gonna help when you come to writing your actual answers in the GCSE papers.

And following this structure and getting used to this structure is gonna help you across the different topics as well, not just when you are talking about devolution.

So take your time ,when you're ready, unpause, and we can have a look at the feedback together.

Good luck and I hope you can get a nice strong response here.

So how did you get on? Now, hopefully you've managed to plan something and then you've managed to structure an answer.

If you struggled at all, you could have a look through this feedback.

And it might help you to go back to your own response and then you might be able to add in some more points where necessary.

For your supporting statement, it could look like this.

Devolution has strengthened democracy in the UK by providing regions with the power to make laws and decisions that better suit their local communities.

For example, Scotland's devolve government has the authority to propose and hold national referendums on matters of national importance such as the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.

This referendum allowed Scottish citizens to directly express their views on the nation's future.

The high voter turnout of 84.

6% demonstrates engagement from members of the electorate.

This greater autonomy allows for more relevant and represented decision making, which helps to ensure that citizens feel their voices are being heard on issues that directly affect them.

Then for your against, it could look like this.

However, regional devolution within the UK can also create confusion and division between local authorities.

With some powers being devolved to local governments while others remain controlled by central government.

It can become unclear which laws and regulations apply in different areas.

For example, local authorities in different regions might have varying policies on issues like public transport, housing, or local taxes.

This can be confusing for citizens who move between these areas or for businesses operating in multiple locations.

This variation in rules can make it harder for people to understand their rights and responsibilities, potentially leading into a fragmented sense of community and weakening the unity across the UK.

Then to conclude, in conclusion, while devolution has certainly allowed for more tailored and relevant policies in different regions, it also introduces challenges such as confusion over different laws and potential divisions within the country.

Overall, I believe devolution has strengthened democracy by giving people more control over local matters, but has led to complications that need to be carefully managed to ensure the UK remains united and cohesive.

Hopefully you can see by following those PEEL paragraphs, it's created a real structure and it allows that response to flow through to a clear and concise conclusion.

That's what you wanna work towards.

If you have a read through of yours, and go over and see if few bits you can add and if you've got that great flow, brilliant job.

'Cause this is something that takes a lot of time and practise to get right.

And if you ever want to, you can do the same style for other topics to ensure practising those longer essay style questions.

For now, this brings us onto the conclusion for today and we're just gonna summarise.

So devolution is a transfer of powers from the government in Westminster to other national, regional, or local governments or parliaments.

In England, regional devolution is constantly evolving with more regions being granted additional powers.

These regions are known as combined authorities.

Devolution positively and negatively impacts the UK's democracy.

Some positives include tailoring policies and laws to local needs and improving local economies.

Some negatives include inequality and unfairness as different regions have different policies and laws and citizens feeling disconnected.

So thank you for working with me today and hopefully you've got better understanding and maybe where you stand with how devolution is impacting the UK's democracy.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.