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 Forces Children Scotland to celebrate Month of the Military Child. Forces Children Scotland have been a member of Together for almost eleven years.

Tell us about the work of your organisation in Scotland.

We provide support and opportunities to enable babies, children and young people from Regular, Reservist and Veteran families to realise their potential and thrive. Working closely with children and young people, we bring tailored support to schools and community settings.

We also work in partnership across sectors and offer professional development opportunities to share our learning, raising awareness of the unique needs of children from Forces families and ensure that their rights are respected.

What projects are you currently working on?

This April is Month of the Military Child, a time to recognise the strengths and unique experiences of children and young people from Armed Forces families. Throughout the month, we have been sharing stories and perspectives from children from Forces families across our channels.  

 Additionally, we’re working on several exciting projects as a team:

• We’ve partnered with Early Years Scotland to co-produce a suite of resources with Armed Forces parents and early years practitioners for Early Learning Centres and childminders to support babies from Armed Forces families in the best way possible.
• We are co-producing a Deployment Rollercoaster resource for children in early primary school – this resource will complement the existing Deployment Rollercoaster and support younger children through the emotions may experience when their loved one deploys.
• We’re working in high schools in Moray, Fife and Helensburgh to co-produce a digital resource called Map My Move Together, which will deliver child-friendly information for those children and young people moving into the area due to a parent’s military posting.
• Applying our participation principles to service design, members of our team will be undertaking accredited Service Design training to co-design mental health and wellbeing support with children and young people for their experiences of parental separation.

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

Our advocacy efforts are centred around the Forces Children’s Rights Charter, which outlines how Forces children can be recognised, heard and supported.

The Charter was co-produced with over 100 children and young people from Armed Forces families. It is aligned to the UNCRC and explores how families, schools, the MOD and the community can implement the changes that Forces children want to see to protect and promote their rights.

We invite fellow Together members to become Forces Children’s Rights Defenders. We also offer practical guides for those working in Education, Health and Social Services, and Policy and Influencing in how to embed the Charter in their respective settings.

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

Our 2025-2028 strategy, ‘Hear. Involve. Support’, places children and young people at the heart of all we do. We are committed to co-production across our work, including youth-led, school-based forums and other activities with children’s rights at their core.

We strike a balance between youth-led and project-led participation, though in practice, most of our project work is driven by ideas that have come directly from children and young people.

Looking ahead, we’re excited to explore participatory budgeting to further strengthen youth-led participation and embed meaningful power-sharing into our governance.

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

Yes. Working with the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, we recently delivered a report exploring the educational experiences of children and young people from Armed Forces families and identifying what needs to change in policy and practice.

Camouflaged in the education system centres the voices and experiences of 145 children and young people across Scotland. Despite many examples of good practice, children described recurring, cumulative challenges related to Forces life, specifically the frequent transitions, separations and losses they experience because of their parent’s service.

The report identifies several weaknesses within the systems that children encounter, including:

• Poor transfer of information between schools and local authorities
• Reassessment rather than continuity of support
• High-stakes assessment models that disadvantage mobile learners
• Limited understanding of Forces life in some schools
• Inconsistent mental health support, especially at times of deployment
• Lack of joined-up coordination between education, welfare and MOD systems

We’re calling for a move from fragmented, reactive responses towards coordinated, rights-based systems that follow the child, with four key recommendations:

1. Guarantee proactive support during times of transition, separation and loss 
2. Embed a whole-school, rights-based approach
3. Reform teaching, learning and assessment
4. Improve data, accountability and coordination

For a closer look at these findings and recommendations, here’s the executive summary.

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

Together creates amazing spaces for joint work, productive conversations and partnerships to advance the embedding of children’s rights across Scotland. We value the regular newsletters keeping us up to date on the work of Together, partners and the wider UK and global community – it is all things children’s human rights in one place. We also benefit greatly from the weekly Dentons monitoring report of Parliamentary Business.

Most of all, we enjoy being part of Together’s annual State of Children’s Rights Report, an amazing overview and resource showcasing best practice. We love being able to contribute each year to highlight the needs and challenges of Forces babies, children and young people, knowing that it is supporting better systems and support for all.

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

We invite everyone to pledge to be a Forces Children’s Rights Charter Defender.

There are over 13,000 children and young people from Armed Forces families in Scotland, across every local authority. It is likely that every one of you reading this will have had contact with a Forces child, even if you didn’t realise it. Being a Charter Defender will improve the lives of all children in Scotland, not just those from Forces families.

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Become a Together member!

• Find out more information about signing up as a Together member here and join the community.

Consultancy and Training!

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

State of Children’s Rights Report!

• This year’s State of Children’s Rights Report is dedicated to exploring case studies of organisations across Scotland taking forward aspects of a children’s human rights approach in their work, in the hope of sharing learning and ideas.

Donate To Us Today!

• Donate to Together and help us to promote children’s rights in Scotland and improve the lives of all babies, children and young people.