Membership Spotlight highlights the work of our member organisations and outlines how other individuals and NGOs can support them. Together is shining a light on a long-term member Children’s Parliament, specifically the National Programmes Team. They have been a member of Together for twenty-five years, joined in 2000. The National Programmes Team for the past three years have been focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI) which has become a matter of national importance to children’s rights across Scotland.

Tell us about the work of your organisation in Scotland.

Children’s Parliament was founded in 1996 with the dream that children in Scotland grow up in a world of love, happiness and understanding. Through a Children’s Human Rights Approach, we provide children up to 14 years of age with opportunities to share their views, experiences, and ideas so that they can influence positive changes in their lives at home, in school and in the community. We use creative, participatory and play-based methods to support children to meaningfully engage in decisions that affect them. We support children to influence policy, practice and legislation, and we build the capacity and win the hearts and minds of adults to realise children’s rights.

The National Programmes Team is dedicated to working with children across Scotland on the big issues – matters of national importance to children’s rights across Scotland. For the past three years, we’ve been focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI).

What projects are you currently working on?

Exploring Children’s Rights and AI Project

Through the Exploring Children’s Rights and AI project, run in partnership with Scottish AI Alliance and The Alan Turing Institute, we have been finding out what children think about AI and its impacts on their lives and rights. Working directly with more than 140 children from 6 schools across Scotland, we have supported this cohort to learn about their rights and to consider all the different areas of their lives where they may be interacting with AI both directly and indirectly (for example, where it is used in education, healthcare and social care). Through creative workshops we explored the children’s feelings about these uses and helped them to develop their own calls to action – 12 things that they feel adults need to change in order for AI to support children’s rights in Scotland. The whole process has been documented through reports and films, and we have recently launched two extensive learning resources – one for adults who work with AI on children’s human rights and why they’re relevant to the field, and the other a full teaching and learning pack for educators to use with primary-aged children. You can find all of these outputs on the project webpage.

Children’s Human Rights Defenders

At Children’s Parliament, we support a team of Children’s Human Rights Defenders – experienced Members of Children’s Parliament who participate in democratic processes at local, national and international level. Using a Children’s Human Rights Approach, the programme empowers children to influence national policy, practice and legislation on key issues for children across Scotland. The children participate in a two-yearly cycle of events with the Scottish Government – including annual meetings with the Scottish Cabinet – most recently attending the 2025 Executive Team Takeover in Glasgow, where they shared calls to action on Climate Crisis Education, Vaping, and Mental Health and Bullying in schools. This two-year process offers a unique opportunity to work with the top decision-makers in Scottish Government to drive change on the issues children have voted for. Additionally, the children work directly with policy teams to further ensure that progress is made, and children are kept up to date using the feedback loop.

Skills and Knowledge Framework

Other work includes the recently launched Children’s Rights Skills and Knowledge Framework for the Scottish workforce. This was a partnership project with Together, JRS Knowhow, JustRight Scotland, and Welsh Observatory on Human Rights of Children, commissioned by the Scottish Government. We have also recently relaunched (and continue to add exciting teaching and learning resources to) our Dignity in School Hub – resources which have also been developed through long-term collaboration with children and school staff across Scotland to support school’s pedagogy and adoption of a Children’s Human Rights Approach.

How do you support children and families to learn about their rights?

All of our work is about children’s rights, whether working with partners locally and nationally to demonstrate a Children’s Human Rights Approach in Practice; working with children to influence national legislation, policy and practice; or working with individuals, organisations and public bodies to build their capacity to support the realisation of children’s rights. Everything we do is about driving cultural change across civil society to create a nation that values children and upholds their human rights.

Children’s Parliament works mainly within primary schools across Scotland as well as in community settings. We often work in partnership with others to tailor the projects to the needs of the children we work with and to ensure that our work and the children’s voices have the widest reach and a high level of impact on policies and practice across Scotland and beyond.

At the start of every project, we run workshops introducing the children (and the adults who work with them) to children’s human rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), emphasising that this agreement is one of the most important documents ever written for children and is designed to ensure that all children live happy, healthy, safe and with human dignity. We also involve children’s parents and carers in the process, so they learn about the impact of children’s rights.

How can children and young people make their views heard to influence your work?

Children’s Parliament has a long tradition of making children’s voices heard and providing safe and child-led spaces in which children can share their views, ideas and take ownership of the projects they are involved in. Our Members of Children’s Parliament will always have the opportunity to share their views and findings with important adults in their lives, decision makers, and stakeholders including local authority or Scottish Government leads. The resources we have recently launched for both adults (‘Why Children’s Rights Matter in AI’) and children (supported by educators via the ‘Children’s Rights and AI Teaching Pack) were created in direct response to the children’s call to action for improved education around AI and children’s rights. They are also rooted in the views of the children from the project – addressing the issues they felt were most important and incorporating direct feedback on the activities from the children. The outcomes of projects also inform internal Children’s Parliament policy, with – for example – changes being made to our travel policy following the children’s calls to action from an extensive piece of work on the climate crisis.

Does your organisation influence policy development on issues affecting children and young people? If so, please share an example.

In the AI project, we supported a group of children to present plenary sessions at the Scottish AI Summit in both 2023 and 2024. These presentations were entirely guided by what the children wanted to say, how they wanted to say it, and delivered by the children themselves to a room packed with some of the most significant figures in AI policy, regulation and development in Scotland. Members of Children’s Parliament from the project also presented their calls to action directly to senior figures in Scottish Government in a bespoke event where the children asked attendees to commit to changes they would be able to make in the short, medium and long term. Each of these events was made possible by the in-depth, creative work we did with children across Scotland through many days of workshops in schools, at residentials, and remotely via video calls to allow children in different locations to share their ideas and experiences. By exploring complex themes through a range of artistic practices and creative activities, we allowed each child to engage and express themselves in a way that felt comfortable to them, knowing that their views would be taken seriously and feed into meaningful outputs. These outputs – whether reports, short films, the calls to action leaflet, or in person events – are all designed to ensure that the children’s authentic voices are captured and shared with those who are able to make a difference.

What do you enjoy most about being a member of Together?

Being part of Together ensures our work with children is amplified and connected and has a wider impact, it’s like being part of a children’s rights family.

How can other organisations or individuals get involved or support your work?

Children’s Parliament works in a variety of settings, depending on the programmes or projects that we are running, and are always interested to hear from organisations who are interested in engaging with children’s human rights and finding out what children think and feel about the issues that affect them. Our specialism lies in the creative and relationship-based direct work we do with children, creating the space and trust needed to support children to advocate for themselves and other children on the issues that really matter to them. If you are interested in our work or would like to discuss specific opportunities with us, please get in touch: info@childrensparliament.org.uk.

As an individual, if you would like to become part of a network of adults across Scotland who stand up for children’s rights, please consider becoming an Unfeartie.

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Would you like to find out further information about joining Together’s membership?

Are you a Together organisational member and would like to collaborate for a Membership Spotlight? Email: caitlin@togetherscotland.org.uk

Consultancy and Training

Together provides training and consultancy to organisations looking to strengthen how they support children’s human rights. 

For twenty-five years, Together has been helping organisations and individuals from a range of backgrounds and roles to improve their awareness and understanding of children’s human rights in practice. This has included work on the Skills and Knowledge project, which explores what professionals need to know and apply to be able to implement children’s human rights. 

The UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 will impact public bodies, private sector organisations and third sector organisations all over Scotland, as they look to further their work on children’s rights. Together can support organisations to identify situations in which they are already implementing children’s rights in practice, alongside how they can evolve their work using a Children’s Human Rights Approach. 

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