On 18th November 2025, Members of Children’s Parliament and Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament took part in the Annual Cabinet Meeting with Children and Young People.
This meeting gives children and young people the unique opportunity to bring the issues most important to them directly to the First Minister and their Cabinet. It followed the Executive Takeover in June, when children and young people met some of the most senior civil servants in Scotland.
In the meeting, at St Andrew’s House, Edinburgh, seven Members of Children’s Parliament from Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Dundee and Fife discussed progress and need for further attention on their calls to action, representing children from across Scotland.
Their key issues shared were:
Children are worried about climate change. They don’t learn enough about the environment or have enough opportunities to have a meaningful say on their future. Scottish Government needs to find solutions to these worries and put children at the heart of their climate action.
Bullying is a big reason for mental health problems. Scottish Government needs to prioritise preventing bullying and supporting children with poor mental health in schools.
Vaping is often seen by children as a ‘healthy’, ‘cool’ alternative to smoking. Scottish Government need to reduce children’s access to vaping and increase their understanding of its impact.
To read our child-friendly blog post on the calls to action and the Members of Children’s Parliament’s journey, please click here.
The children presented their issues as ‘lifecycles’ to capture the process of their two-year cycle of work, where they collated evidence from children, worked with Scottish Government policy teams to drive change and continued to ensure their issues were up to date and relevant with the ongoing challenges faced by children in Scotland.
I want people to know how much we care about this and how much we’ve done to make changes.
Member of Children’s Parliament
To find out more about our previous meetings, click the image links below:
