The Digital Conversation
As digital challenges and inclusion rise to the top of the children’s sector agenda, Children in Scotland’s Head of Development & Engagement, Simon Massey, shares the charity’s plans for the year ahead and how it will bring together sector knowledge and discussion on key issues.
2025 was a year of challenges for the children’s sector, with funding, child poverty and mental health and wellbeing all consistent themes. Children is Scotland plays an important role in the sector by bringing together subject experts and new research, providing a platform for collaboration and finding solutions to these challenges. So, we asked ourselves what topic could we make the most positive impact on in 2026 and beyond? The answer lay in digital.
The digital world is fully integrated into virtually all aspects of life now – from how children play, to farming to how we sleep. There is much less distinction between online and ‘in real life’ (or IRL) anymore and this presents so many opportunities as well as challenges.
This is a major issue facing children and young people, their parents or carers, the people working with them, and even the people in power. There’s the perception that some people are romping ahead with it, while others feel they are getting left behind. Some are terrified of digital transformation, while others are beyond excited.
We know from both the discussions we have at Children in Scotland, and what we’ve heard from Members and at roundtable meetings on digital exclusion, that there is really interesting work already being done.
So, we decided that we want to help take these conversations to the next level. We want to bring together voices, views and experiences of people from across Scotland to explore some of the issues, try to understand more and share what we learn. We’re thinking things like:
- What does ‘digital’ mean to people?
- What’s already working well (and what isn’t)?
- How can we balance children and young people’s health and wellbeing with the opportunities digital experiences offer in an equitable and accessible way?
- What new narratives does digital bring into our understanding of the world and how people function within it?
- What do we need in place to ensure people can benefit from digital developments?
- What are our hopes and fears?
We’re going to do this over the next two years, taking our time with a collaborative approach to develop plans and deliver different activities, sharing what we learn as we go along.
Saying that, we have already started undertaking activities in the latter part of 2025 including launching our new Children in Scotland website and the updated My Rights, My Say website, as well as signing up to Scotland’s Digital Inclusion Charter.
As part of our planning and initial scoping, we have been listening to the things the young people involved in our participatory groups have already told us as well as getting initial ideas from our staff, engaging with some of our closest partners and applying for funding for a couple of projects.
With all this already done, some of the things already identified for 2026 and 2027 include:
- Our part of a consortium delivering a project funded by the Connecting Scotland Digital Inclusion Fund
- Calls relating to digital in our Manifesto for the Scottish Election 2026
- Expanding our child protection training to include online safety
- Activity around Safer Internet Day in February
- Working with Open University in Scotland to develop a better understanding of topics we identify through our scoping
- The autumn/winter edition of the Children in Scotland Magazine having a digital focus
- Using our autumn 2026 in-person Networking Event as an opportunity to bring people together to discuss key issues
- Supporting our staff to undertake learning opportunities that will positively impact on our work and their development
- Our Annual Conference in May 2027 focussing on what we have learnt and showcasing best practice and innovation
- Continuous review and improvement of our direct services for children, young people and those who support them
- Scoping and aiming to secure additional funding and / or corporate partnerships that will help to deliver the activities we identify – ourselves or with partners.
Not bad for January, eh?
I mentioned collaboration which, if any of you know us, is one of our core values and we really want to be collaborating with people across the sector. We’re aiming to gets the views, voices and experiences of children and young people we work with and their families, but we also want to firmly embed the workforce in the activities as well.
So, if you or your organisation is doing something exciting in the world of digital, you’ve some experiences of using digital to overcome challenges, or you are just starting to think about how you will embed digital into your plans, please let us know. You might be in a position to write a blog or deliver a session on our Member Learning Programme or facilitate a Member Forum session. Or you might have a suggestion for a piece of research we should try and secure funding to do. We’re open to hearing your ideas and suggestions.
If reading this has sparked something for you and you’re already working with us on something, please have a chat with your contact at Children in Scotland about it. If you’ve not got a contact with us, then please get in touch.
Even if you’ve not got any suggestions at this point, please make sure you join us by signing up to receive our e-newsletter and following us on our LinkedIn and Bluesky social media channels. You can get involved at any point!
