Tamsin from the Children and Young People’s Panel on Europe talks about funding for science and health post-Brexit.

Over the last few months, we have all heard of coronavirus – it’s impossible not to. We have all been working from home and have been isolated from the rest of the world stuck inside our own little bubbles. There are loads of scientists who are currently looking for a vaccine and the funding that they will be getting for that will be coming from the EU.

Our panel (the Children and Young People’s Panel on Europe) has said that we want the funding for science and health to be maintained by the UK Government. We want to make sure that essential services are still given everything they need to operate properly and with the funding that they rightfully deserve. We also think that it is paramount, despite Brexit, that we have continued contact with the EU when it comes to science and health because we think that if COVID-19 has taught us anything, it’s that countries working together and communicating is essential.

Funding for science and health is important for children and young people because we need the health service and research to be in place for when the people we care about get ill and need help. We need the key services to be there when we need them.

Funding for science and health is extremely important to me because the NHS have helped my family multiple times and because of this I think that the science and health sectors should get the funding that they deserve.

We want the amount of funding that the science and health sectors receive to be increased or maintained. We want to make sure that girls and minority groups feel like they belong when they go along to science, engineering, and mathematics workshops.

We need the health service to be there for when we get ill. Some people can get so ill that they are off school for a large period of time and then this has an impact on their education. We want to make sure that the funding is in place to make sure these situations as rare as possible.

We are asking that you read all of our information by following the hashtag #YoungBrexitVoices on Twitter and then make up your own opinion on what needs to be done after Brexit. Then voice your opinion – because your voice really does matter!

Read our infographic on funding for science and health here.