Election guidance

Elections are important times for the communities we work with.

For some of our young members, this may be the first time they’re taking an interest in elections – or the first time they’re eligible to vote. As volunteers, you play a key role in supporting them to feel informed and confident during this period. We’re here to support you and our young members during this time.

On Thursday 7 May 2026, elections will take place for Senedd Cymru, the Scottish Parliament and for some local councils. As you may already know, some previously delayed local council elections will also be held on this date.

As we are a charity, we must follow the guidelines set by the Charity Commission and Electoral Commission. This means Girlguiding cannot endorse any political party or candidate in a Girlguiding capacity, including during unit meetings or on Girlguiding‑related social media. As a Girlguiding member or volunteer, you must also follow this guidance.

Supporting young members

Helping girls become active, informed citizens, is important to us at Girlguiding. Since the voting age in Scotland and Wales is Wales is 16, some Rangers may already be eligible to vote. This gives you a great opportunity to help young members learn about registering to vote, how elections work and why taking part in democracy matters.

Even if they’re not yet old enough to vote, you can still support young members in learning about elections and confidently speaking out on the issues that matter to them.

To help you do this, we’ve compiled a range of activities and resources from the Girlguiding programme, as well as materials from partner organisations, designed to educate and engage young members.

Girlguiding programme activities

Our Take Action theme is all about helping girls develop the skills to make a positive difference. It includes activities from campaigning and volunteering, to fundraising and speaking out. Below you can find a few suggested activities, interest badges and skills builders that you can run with your unit to help them learn about Parliament, speaking out and voting.

Take Action programme activities in collaboration with UK Parliament Week

• Rainbows: Rainbow department of small change
• Brownies: Listen up!
• Guides: Why, why… why?
• Rangers: Just one more moment

Take Action interest badges and skills builders

• Rainbows: Influence stage 1 skills builder
• Brownies: Speaking out interest badge
• Guides: Campaigning interest badge
• Rangers: Voting interest badge

Important things to know

• The deadline to register to vote for these elections is Monday 20 April, 11:59pm.
• Young people aged 16 and over can vote in Scotland and Wales. In England, the voting age remains 18.
• In England, you will need photo ID to vote. The government has published a list of accepted forms of photo identification for polling stations. In Scotland and Wales, photo ID is not required to vote. In Wales, voters will receive a polling card, but they do not need to bring it with them to vote.
• If you don’t have an accepted form of ID, you can apply for a free photo ID. The deadline to apply is Tuesday 28 April, 5pm.

All Girlguiding volunteers, members and staff need to follow the Charity Commission’s rules in the period leading up to an election. These rules include restrictions on political activity for charities, which is why it’s important that Girlguiding remains politically impartial.

Below you’ll find a short guide on staying impartial and information on who to contact at Girlguiding if approached by a political party or candidate.

Following the rules

• As a charity, it is important that we remain impartial. We don’t support particular political parties or candidates. If you’re planning an event involving candidates, please contact the external affairs team [email protected] to let us know, so that we can provide any support you may need and please invite all candidates from different parties if you plan to invite any.
• Outside work or volunteering, you're free to support whoever you’d like. But you should not do this on behalf of Girlguiding (including on social media). This applies to any communications on behalf of Girlguiding including from individual units and individuals holding any role in Girlguiding.
• If you're clearly seen to be part of Girlguiding on your social media (e.g. you tag @Girlguiding in your profile or are in uniform in your profile image), you must avoid posting party political messages during the election period.
• It’s also important to avoid indirectly supporting a candidate or party on behalf of Girlguiding by appearing to be associated with them. For example, it’s fine to communicate about issues that parties also support, so long as it’s clear Girlguiding is independent from these parties. It might be that Girlguiding’s position on a particular issue may be similar to that of one of the political parties, meaning Girlguiding can continue to campaign on the issue as long as we make clear our independence from any political party.
• You should avoid directly comparing Girlguiding’s campaigns and policies to those of candidates and parties or seeking their support for our campaigns. It’s safest to steer clear of publishing or communicating about a candidate’s views on behalf of Girlguiding (even if they are similar to ours) during this period.
• If a political party approaches you with a request to use Girlguiding’s manifesto, or other Girlguiding materials to support their party policy then this request must be politely declined. If you don’t feel comfortable doing that, please direct queries to [email protected].
• Girlguiding branding, logos and uniforms must not appear in any political campaign materials - that includes social media posts from candidates.
• You're allowed to invite candidates to an event or unit activity, but we don't recommend doing so as it's important that we aren't seen to be endorsing a particular party. We recommend waiting until after the election and then inviting the elected MP for your local area. Another way of overcoming this is to invite candidates from as wide a political spectrum as possible, or at least the candidates from the main political parties depending on where your constituency is. It’s fine if you’ve invited candidates from all major parties and some can’t come.
• As mentioned, you should let Girlguiding’s external affairs team know if you’re planning an event involving candidates during the general election period. The team may need to advise on whether to invite a candidate based on whether there's a risk of disruption. If the representative from the political party advocates policies that go against our values then it would be acceptable to not invite them.
• You shouldn't deliberately exclude candidates from any of the main parties at the event without having a strong reason - as outlined above.

We're really grateful for all the time and effort you put into Girlguiding and we're here to support you every step of the way. If you're unsure about anything, or would like advice, please speak to your commissioner or reach out to our external affairs team at [email protected].