25 Calls Campaign

25 Calls was a campaign marking the 25th anniversary of Children in Scotland. Launched in autumn 2018 and running for 18 months until March 2020, it brought together voices from across the sector to propose how children could experience greater equality and strengthened human rights.

This took the form of 25 calls focusing on policy, practice, legislation and changes in social attitudes, published in our magazine, online and shared at an anniversary networking event in Edinburgh. We then published multiple responses to the calls from partner organisations and individuals in support of the campaign.

The calls cover four themes:

• Strengthening rights and participation
• Supporting children, families and communities
• Challenging inequalities
• Improving education, skills and learning experiences

Researching and creating the campaign calls, we spoke to people who work with children every day, researchers into children’s development, charities who stand up for children’s rights, schools and nurseries, parents and carers, and children and young people themselves.

From summer 2020, four blogs were published as part of the ’25 & Up’ series, revisiting calls on the topics of family support, the role of the arts in children’s lives, the impact of poverty, and the need for a strengthened children’s sector workforce.

Through the campaign:

• 93 organisations and individuals endorsed and published response blogs on our website and in our magazine
• 70 MSPs added their names to a Holyrood motion supporting the campaign
• Two local authorities used the 25 Calls campaign as the basis for updating their equalities policies.
• Some of the calls link to and inform our policy work and our Manifesto for the 2021-26 Scottish Parliament.