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Children’s Parliament was established in 1996. Their organisational mission is to lead the development of a rights-based culture in Scotland and ensure that children’s voices are actively engaged in shaping our world. They support the Scottish Government, local authorities, and other public bodies to fulfil their legal obligations to promote and protect the human rights of everyone and fulfil their duty of care toward children. Through their rights-based, creative practice, they provide children up to age 14 years old from diverse backgrounds across Scotland, with opportunities to share their experiences, thoughts, and feelings so that they can influence positive change in their lives at home, in school and in the community.

The Children’s Parliament have their annual accounts published on the Companies House website. These provide a breakdown of money received from the Scottish Government from 2020-24.

THE CHILDREN'S PARLIAMENT filing history - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

The 2024-25 annual accounts will be available on the Companies House website in due course, following the end of the financial year. However, at his point we can confirm that the Scottish Government currently expects to provide the Children’s Parliament with funding totalling £320,878 in 2024-25 (subject to relevant financial controls).

Children’s Parliament receives core funding from the Scottish Government via the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund (CYPFEIF & ALEC) which is administered by the Corra Foundation. From 2018-19 to 2021-22 they were awarded £235,000. From 2022-23 to 2024-25 they received £246,750 annually. The Children’s Parliament is on track to meet the agreed outcomes by the end of 2024-25. Corra has indicated, through their formal grant reviews and monitoring, that the Children’s Parliament is delivering value for money and continues to demonstrate good progress towards the agreed objectives.

The Children’s Parliament also evidenced delivery of the aims of the three year grant funding, of £147,000 per year, that they received between 2021-2024 as part of the UNCRC Implementation Programme.

Children automatically become a Member of the Children's Parliament (MCP) when they become involved in projects, run by the Children’s Parliament, that are designed to give them the opportunity to engage directly on issues that matter to them. Children are selected for this opportunity to represent the diversity of all children in Scotland. (Children are not elected to become MCPs).

In 2023-24 the Children’s Parliament worked directly with 1,665 MCPs and indirectly with 5,565 other children. Those children directly engaged include those from minority ethnic groups, those who are neurodiverse, from low income families, young carers and children from migrant/refugee families.

The Children’s Parliament demonstrates a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. Their work includes engaging with a cross-section of children including those whose rights are most at risk. Targeted projects work with children who will gain the greatest positive impact from participating, including those who are disengaging from learning, struggling with confidence or peer relationships, have life circumstances which mean they are under some stress at home or in the community and who have protected characteristics.

The Scottish government does not hold information on the number of nurseries which are closed or mothballed.

Decisions relating to local ELC provision are for local authorities to make, in consultation with the local community. Mothballing should only be for a temporary period and should be subject to regular review, at least annually, against the same requirements which led to the original decision to mothball.

The Care Inspectorate publish a monthly list of all service closures which can be found here: Changes to registration, variations and cancelled services

The annual Care Inspectorate Early Learning and Childcare Statistics publication (Early learning and childcare statistics 2023) sets out information on the availability and quality of registered daycare of children and childminding services for children and families across Scotland. This also includes data on annual service cancellations across the sector.

Although there has been increases in homelessness applications and non-compliance with statutory duties in some areas, 12 local authorities reduced the number of households in temporary accommodation in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23 and 20 councils reduced the number of children in temporary accommodation.

Increasing housing supply is key to reducing levels of homelessness. As part of our £768 million investment in affordable housing in 2025-26, we are providing targeted funding of £40 million in 2025-26 to the local authorities with the most sustained temporary accommodation pressures. 80% of this funding has been targeted to five local authorities in the central belt experiencing the most sustained temporary accommodation pressures to help increase the supply of social and affordable homes through acquisitions, including, where appropriate, properties suitable for larger families.

We continue to work with our partners to increase the delivery of more affordable homes, the majority of which will be for social rent. We are taking all possible actions to help deliver more high quality, permanent homes, providing the right homes in the right places, and ensure a settled home for everyone.

We have a strong track record in affordable housing by supporting the delivery of more than 136,000 affordable homes since 2007, with more than 97,000 of those being for social rent. We remain focused on delivering 110,000 affordable homes across Scotland by 2032 with at least 70% for social rent and 10% in our rural and island communities.

The Scottish Government does not produce projections of nursery closures.

As with other sectors of the economy the childcare sector – which operates as a mixed economy model with services delivered by public, private and third sector services, including childminders – experiences continued changes in the number of services operating. In a given year there will be new services entering the market and other services leaving the sector, as well as other changes to registrations (e.g. to increase capacity or changes in ownership).

Care Inspectorate data published in September 2024 shows that overall capacity within daycare of childcare services increased from 176,130 registered places at 31 December 2020 to 178,890 registered places at 31 December 2023.

Children’s Parliament was established in 1996. Their organisational mission is to lead the development of a rights-based culture in Scotland and ensure that children’s voices are actively engaged in shaping our world. They support the Scottish Government, local authorities, and other public bodies to fulfil their legal obligations to promote and protect the human rights of everyone and fulfil their duty of care toward children. Through their rights-based, creative practice, they provide children up to age 14 years old from diverse backgrounds across Scotland, with opportunities to share their experiences, thoughts, and feelings so that they can influence positive change in their lives at home, in school and in the community.

The Scottish Government engages with a range of organisations when making policy decisions. It is therefore not possible to directly attribute and quantify the influence of any one organisation. However, it is important to acknowledge since 2007, the Children’s Parliament has worked closely with Scottish Government to impact various policy areas, including:

• Scotland’s Climate Assembly
• COP 26
• Learning for Sustainability Curriculum Development
• Anti Racist Education Principles
• Gender Equality in Education
• Education Reform
• Tobacco Action Plan
• National Performance Framework
• The development of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024
• Scottish AI Strategy
• Mental Health Information and Support (Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board)

We recognise the importance of schools and families working together to promote positive relationships and behaviour in schools. A strong partnership between home and school helps create a consistent, supportive environment where children feel safe, respected, and are better able to learn and thrive.

The Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research published in 2023, highlighted a desire from some staff for greater engagement with parents, as not all parents were perceived as being supportive of schools’ efforts to address behaviour.

In response, the relationships and behaviour in schools action plan 2024-27 emphasises the vital role of parents and carers in supporting positive behaviour. As part of the action plan, we are currently developing guidance on responding to behaviour in schools. The guidance will be available later this year and will include advice for schools on working with parents to support positive relationships and behaviour.

Public bodies are reviewed quarterly as part of the Scottish Government’s Assurance cycle to ensure they are operating efficiently and effectively. We also set frameworks and provide guidance documents. One of the key aims of our Public Service Reform (PSR) programme is to drive efficiency and effectiveness across government and public bodies, making sure we have the public body landscape to deliver the services the people of Scotland need.

Scottish Government also ensures public bodies within our remit are subject to parliamentary scrutiny and accountability through a combination of legislative instruments, oversight bodies, and ongoing engagement with the Scottish Parliament. These include:

• Ministerial Accountability: Where appropriate, Ministers will update the Scottish Parliament on the actions and performance of relevant public bodies during debates, written and oral parliamentary questions and committee appearances. However, Ministers are not the Accountable Officers for Public Bodies, and, although Ministers may appoint the Chair and members of some boards, they do not influence how boards function.
• Parliamentary Committees: Scottish Government and its public bodies are scrutinised through the current 16 parliamentary committees, such as the Public Audit Committee and the Finance and Public Administration Committee which regularly hold inquiries into the activities of public bodies.
• Annual Reports and Audits: Public bodies and agencies are required to submit annual reports and accounts to the Scottish Parliament. These reports and accounts are also subject to audit by the Auditor General for Scotland, who reports to Parliament on the financial health and governance of these bodies. This independent scrutiny ensures transparency and accountability.
• Legislative Oversight: The Scottish Parliament has the power to introduce and pass legislation that sets the framework for the governance and scrutiny of public bodies. This includes legislation such as the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010. The Scottish Government’s annual budget process provides further structures for scrutiny and accountability.

Additionally, members of the public can contact their MSP to raise concerns and have the following mechanisms to scrutinise public bodies:

• The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman: The SPSO provides an independent process for investigating complaints about public bodies. This ensures individuals have a mechanism to question public bodies on their decisions and actions.
• Freedom of Information: All public bodies and agencies are required to be transparent about their activities. This allows the public to access information about their operations, further increasing accountability.

Teaching is a rewarding and exciting career, with opportunities to share passion and expertise to inspire young people on their future pathways. While it is encouraging that intakes for primary teaching are overall above target, we are taking action to encourage more people into teaching, including in the hardest to fill teaching subjects.

These are long-term systemic challenges being faced globally, and we are committed to working together with partners, including teachers, unions, and COSLA, to develop solutions.

With COSLA, we are committed to working together to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels, freeze learning hours and make meaningful progress towards reducing class contact time for teachers.. This will help ease teacher workload and improve outcomes for our children and young people.

Work is being taken forward through the joint Education and Childcare Assurance Board with COSLA on pupil behaviour and workload to overcome some of the challenges facing the profession and encouraging more people to consider teaching as a career.