We have first-hand experience of the issues faced by children and young people across Scotland. We use that experience to campaign for change and influence government to achieve better outcomes for more children.
To change lives, we need to change laws
We campaign to raise public awareness of the issues affecting children and young people in Scotland and we influence government using our own evidence-based research to make change happen.
Our campaigns and influencing are currently focused on:
- mental health and wellbeing
- children in and leaving care
- child sexual abuse and exploitation
- equal protection
Our recent influencing work in Holyrood
- Barnardo's Scotland called on the Scottish government to do more to tackle child exploitation after giving evidence to the Criminal Justice Committee on tackling online child abuse, grooming and exploitation.
- We continue to promote actions that will help Scotland keep The Promise, including investment in family support and wider changes to legislation such as the Children’s Care and Justice Bill by ensuring changes to the youth justice system are properly resourced.
- We have been continuing our work urging the Scottish government to bring the UNCRC Bill back to Parliament, two years after Holyrood unanimously voted in favour of the legislation.
Our key achievements in 2023-24
- We campaigned for changes to the Children’s Care and Justice Bill, which successfully passed in April.
- We responded to the Scottish Government’s consultation on a proposed new Care Leavers Payment.
- We continued to campaign for actions to tackle child poverty, calling on the Scottish Government to raise the Scottish Child Payment to £30 and take action to end the young parent penalty.
Contact us
To organise a meeting, speak to someone about our work, or to arrange a visit, contact the Scotland Policy Team at [email protected].