Chamber and committees

Eradicating child poverty in Scotland is a national mission and Mr Swinney’s top priority as First Minister.

We fully appreciate how difficult a cancer diagnosis is for young people and their families. We are committed to making sure the necessary support is available to all who need it, when they need it.

Our Child Disability Payment is designed to mitigate some of the additional costs of caring for a disabled or terminally ill child or young person. It is available to children and young people from the ages of 3 months to 18 years old, who have care and/or mobility needs as a result of a disability.

The Child Disability Payment has paid out over £1 billion to families with disabled children to date.

I have asked Stephen Pathirana, Chief Executive of the Scottish Public Pensions Agency, to respond. His response is as follows:

2,725 officers, over 50% of the retired police officers eligible for the McCloud remedy, were sent their remediable service statement by 31 March 2025. The Scottish Public Pensions Agency has published an extension to the deadlines and all officers will receive their statement by 31 July 2025. The information is available at: https://pensions.gov.scot/sites/default/files/2025-04/2025-04_Police_Circular_McCloud_Remedy_administration_%E2%80%93_Remediable_Service_Statements.pdf

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. More detailed information on the procedure(s) that is planned or undertaken for a patient will be held locally by NHS Boards.

This information is not held centrally.

Local authorities have a statutory duty to promote school meals and to take all reasonable steps to ensure that all children and young people entitled to receive free school meals are given full support to access them.

As I confirmed to the Education, Children and Young People Committee on 2 April, we remain committed to the roll-out of universal free school meals in the longer term.

The Scottish Government does not hold comparative data on senior pay levels across publicly funded Scottish Universities and therefore has no plans to publish this information.

Children’s Parliament was established in 1996. Their organisational mission is to lead the development of a rights-based culture in Scotland and ensure that children’s voices are actively engaged in shaping our world. They support the Scottish Government, local authorities, and other public bodies to fulfil their legal obligations to promote and protect the human rights of everyone and fulfil their duty of care toward children. Through their rights-based, creative practice, they provide children up to age 14 years old from diverse backgrounds across Scotland, with opportunities to share their experiences, thoughts, and feelings so that they can influence positive change in their lives at home, in school and in the community.

The Scottish Government is not involved in increasing children's engagement with the Children's Parliament. That is a matter for the Children's Parliament.

Children’s Parliament was established in 1996. Their organisational mission is to lead the development of a rights-based culture in Scotland and ensure that children’s voices are actively engaged in shaping our world. They support the Scottish Government, local authorities, and other public bodies to fulfil their legal obligations to promote and protect the human rights of everyone and fulfil their duty of care toward children. Through their rights-based, creative practice, they provide children up to age 14 years old from diverse backgrounds across Scotland, with opportunities to share their experiences, thoughts, and feelings so that they can influence positive change in their lives at home, in school and in the community.

The Scottish Government engages with a range of organisations when making policy decisions. It is therefore not possible to directly attribute and quantify the influence of any one organisation. However, it is important to acknowledge since 2007, the Children’s Parliament has worked closely with Scottish Government to impact various policy areas, including:

• Scotland’s Climate Assembly
• COP 26
• Learning for Sustainability Curriculum Development
• Anti Racist Education Principles
• Gender Equality in Education
• Education Reform
• Tobacco Action Plan
• National Performance Framework
• The development of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024
• Scottish AI Strategy
• Mental Health Information and Support (Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board)

The decision to mitigate the effect of the two-child cap was taken following discussions in Government in advance of the draft budget publication on 5 December 2024. This decision was subsequently recorded and stored in the Electronic Records and Data Management System in accordance with records management requirements.

Children automatically become a Member of the Children's Parliament (MCP) when they become involved in projects, run by the Children’s Parliament, that are designed to give them the opportunity to engage directly on issues that matter to them. Children are selected for this opportunity to represent the diversity of all children in Scotland. (Children are not elected to become MCPs).

In 2023-24 the Children’s Parliament worked directly with 1,665 MCPs and indirectly with 5,565 other children. Those children directly engaged include those from minority ethnic groups, those who are neurodiverse, from low income families, young carers and children from migrant/refugee families.

The Children’s Parliament demonstrates a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. Their work includes engaging with a cross-section of children including those whose rights are most at risk. Targeted projects work with children who will gain the greatest positive impact from participating, including those who are disengaging from learning, struggling with confidence or peer relationships, have life circumstances which mean they are under some stress at home or in the community and who have protected characteristics.

Children’s Parliament was established in 1996. Their organisational mission is to lead the development of a rights-based culture in Scotland and ensure that children’s voices are actively engaged in shaping our world. They support the Scottish Government, local authorities, and other public bodies to fulfil their legal obligations to promote and protect the human rights of everyone and fulfil their duty of care toward children. Through their rights-based, creative practice, they provide children up to age 14 years old from diverse backgrounds across Scotland, with opportunities to share their experiences, thoughts, and feelings so that they can influence positive change in their lives at home, in school and in the community.

The Children’s Parliament have their annual accounts published on the Companies House website. These provide a breakdown of money received from the Scottish Government from 2020-24.

THE CHILDREN'S PARLIAMENT filing history - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

The 2024-25 annual accounts will be available on the Companies House website in due course, following the end of the financial year. However, at his point we can confirm that the Scottish Government currently expects to provide the Children’s Parliament with funding totalling £320,878 in 2024-25 (subject to relevant financial controls).

Children’s Parliament receives core funding from the Scottish Government via the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund (CYPFEIF & ALEC) which is administered by the Corra Foundation. From 2018-19 to 2021-22 they were awarded £235,000. From 2022-23 to 2024-25 they received £246,750 annually. The Children’s Parliament is on track to meet the agreed outcomes by the end of 2024-25. Corra has indicated, through their formal grant reviews and monitoring, that the Children’s Parliament is delivering value for money and continues to demonstrate good progress towards the agreed objectives.

The Children’s Parliament also evidenced delivery of the aims of the three year grant funding, of £147,000 per year, that they received between 2021-2024 as part of the UNCRC Implementation Programme.