Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland introduces new four-year plan

26 Apr 2024

The office of the Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland (CYPCS) has released its plan for the next four years, putting children and young people’s experiences, insights, views and opinions at the heart of its goals and strategy.

Released April 19, the Plan 2024-28 was formed by reviewing more than 130 pieces of evidence and research on children and young people’s views, and analysing responses from over 5,000 children and young people, who engaged with a survey asking for their opinions. The CYPCS team also travelled across Scotland, speaking with 375 children and young people during engagement sessions, and reaching a further 7,000 through online assemblies.

The main areas of focus for CYPCS, as identified by children and young people, will be education, poverty, mental health, discrimination, and climate change – and the “golden thread” through each of these issues will be getting young people more involved in decision-making.

Commissioner Nicola Killean, who took up her role in 2023, said: “We’ve had an incredibly busy few months listening to children tell us what they want us to work on and their views came through loud and clear. Their most important priorities are poverty, education, and mental health, and climate change and discrimination are also important issues for us. Threading through this was that they often aren’t involved in all decisions that affect their lives, and they have a right to be.

“Our new plan has been built around children and young people’s views. It lays out my commitment and duties to protect and promote children’s rights and to hold to account those responsible for delivering on them.

“I’m excited get to work on these priorities, with children and young people guiding our work every step of the way.”

To find out more about the Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland’s Plan 2024-28, click here to visit the website

Nicola Killean will co-chair the first day of our upcoming Annual Conference 2024, sharing duties with a member of our young people’s advisory group, Changing our World (CoW). For more information and to buy tickets, click here to visit our conference hub