Being brave in the face of difficult choices – our manifesto

As Children in Scotland releases its manifesto for the 2026 elections, Chief Executive Dr Judith Turbyne reflects on the process of capturing the views and experiences of our membership and children and young people, and turning them into actionable calls. 

A warm welcome to our manifesto and thanks to everyone who has helped shape it: Our brilliant members; the children and young people we have worked with over the last five years; our fantastic staff and all the other organisations working with and for babies, children and young people across Scotland.

Writing a manifesto is tricky, particularly as a membership organisation. So many policies impact on the lives of our babies, children and young people. And not surprisingly our wide membership will be interested in practically all of them in one way or another. No organisation would have the capacity to work on such a plethora of policies, and we all know that too much stretch means very little impact.

So, we have had to proritise. We have done this by trying to identify the areas of most common interest across the Members, the children we work with and the wider network. In addition, we have taken into account our potential added value and our own capacity, knowledge and skills. Ultimately, we always have to ask the question, where can we have the biggest positive impact?

The result is a manifesto that is a bit different to our last one. Fundamentally it is shorter and has fewer calls. This does not mean that there aren’t many other areas of great importance to children across Scotland. But these are the areas that we think a new Parliament should be concentrating on when it starts its tenure. We are also clear that this manifesto is not meant to last for the whole of the next Parliament, but to be a signpost for the first year; a statement of what we will concentrate on during that time.

It concentrates on five high level policy areas: children’s rights, child poverty, education and development, health and wellbeing, and planning and resources. Across all of these areas there are 21 calls.

As well as our direct calls, we are also asking for the government to brave both internationally and nationally. Internationally, we want to ask it to use its voice and influence where possible to speak up about situations where conflict, food insecurity, famine and disease are undermining children’s rights. And here at home, to stand firm against the anti-migration and wider discriminatory rhetoric and violence that is creating a hostile environment for many of our children, families and communities.

So have a wee read and if you can, take a moment to share our messages with your networks. If there is anything you would like to chat about, please get in touch. This is not a forever document, and we are always striving to put our effort and energy into places where we can have a really positive impact for our babies, children and young people.