What we do

The Children’s Parliament is about enabling the experience of active citizenship. We will do this by:

Working in the community:

• We will establish 20 local caucuses throughout Scotland, each of 20 children, who will meet monthly over a 3 year period. At (and between meetings in smaller groups) the children will explore issues of importance to them. Using the creative arts, the children will work on a programme that is built around our themes. Support comes from Children’s Parliament staff and from locally recruited and supported volunteers who are part of our Ambassadors for Children programme. They will participate in projects and investigations and engage with other children and adults about their issues and concerns.
• To date we have been piloting our community group approach, working with three groups, our pilot phase is currently being evaluated. Watch this space for more.
• In December 05 we had our first national gathering – Download our report here

Working online:

• We will create an opportunity for online membership of The Children's Parliament for every 9 to 14 year old in Scotland. The site you are visiting today is primarily a means by which we can give you very basic information about The Children's Parliament to date. In time, The Children's Parliament site, as a site for children, will be built around the themes which also structure our face to face work.
• Each of our 20 groups will be able to access a password protected part of the site, groups will share work, progress and questions. Safety and inclusive access are key issues and best practice will be followed.
• As online members of The Children's Parliament (MCPs) all other children will be able to take part in online activities, vote on issues of importance and get and share ideas about projects and investigations about children’s active citizenship.
• More information will provided in due course; we see these developments as fundamental to the opening up of access and involvement of all children.

Working with families:

• Our Wee Democracy Project is in development with the support of the Scottish Executive Education Department. It will explore the interface between children’s rights and family life in Scotland today and ask what living in a wee democracy might be like

Working in Schools:

• Our schools programme, being developed and piloted with our partners in South Ayrshire Council will take the thematic and holistic Children’s Parliament model into schools and support delivery of the sector’s commitment to citizenship in schools.