Children’s Rights Manifesto

In their manifesto for the 2026 election, Action for Children focus on three main issues that need to be addressed.

• Safety: Taking action against children being criminally exploited in Scotland.
• Happiness: Tackling the issue that many children suffer from poverty.
• Foundations: Ensuring that families get the support they need when and however long they need it.

You can read their full manifesto here.

Carers Trust Scotland together with Carers Scotland, the Coalition of Carers in Scotland, MECOPP, Shared Care Scotland and the Scottish Young Carers Services Alliance, have launched the 2026 Carers Manifesto. They want all of Scotland’s unpaid carers to feel valued, included, and supported as equal partners in care. They include three main points to reach their goal:

• Ensure unpaid carers are supported
• Ensure unpaid carers can stay well
• Ensure unpaid carers are financially secure

Read their full manifesto here.

In their Manifesto for the 2026 Scottish Parliament election, Children First demands that the next Scottish Government must put children first, protect children and protect childhood by delivering solutions to three pressing issues.

• A comprehensive offer of Whole Family Support to tackle child poverty and give every family the emotional, practical and financial support they need.
• A consistent Bairns Hoose to put children’s recovery at the centre of the justice system.
• A commitment to urgently tackle Online Harm, its impact on child development and the right to a safe childhood.

Read their full Manifesto here

Child Poverty Action Group Scotland shared a manifesto for the 2026 election that brings together views from thousands of young people in Scotland about what should happen to remove barriers and make school better for children and young people on low incomes. Children and young people make five main calls in the ‘School Shouldn't Cost’ manifesto:

• End child poverty: Make sure our families have what they need so we can come to school ready to learn. 
• Fund every school to fully remove cost pressures from our families and help us overcome poverty-related barriers to learning. 
• Help us with the basics we need to learn, take part and feel included at school: free school meal expansion, uniform support, resources and devices for all and support for curriculum costs. 
• Opportunities for all: Help all of us benefit from life changing school trips and from activities in our communities 
• Involve us!: We can help make our schools and Scotland better - be ambitious about youth voice. 

Read the full manifesto here.

The Human Rights Consortium Scotland (HRCS) together with Amnesty International have created their Civil Society Working Group manifesto 2026. It centres around three main demands to help ensure that everyone in Scotland has their human rights respected.

• Introduce a Scottish Human Rights Bill
• Implement the UNCRC Act to full effect
• Remove Barriers to access to justice

Read their full manifesto here

ERCS has published their manifesto for the 2026 election. They focus on guaranteeing everyone’s right to a clean environment, presenting the following main demands:

• Enshrining the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment in a Scottish Human Rights Act
• Taking action to protect Scottish water from pollution
• Providing affordable, fair and full access to environmental justice

Read their full manifesto here.

In their manifesto ‘Our Rights, Your move’ for the 2026 election, HRCS makes nine calls to further realise human rights for everyone in Scotland. This manifesto is to inform prospective parliamentary candidates, and everyone directly engaged in or influencing the development of political party manifestos.

• Incorporate international human rights standards into UK and Scottish legal landscape
• Embed human rights
• Tackle health inequalities
• The immediate reduction of poverty and tackling the cost-of-living crisis in Scotland
• Protect and ensure disabled people’s rights
• Taking action and developing policies against racism and racial discrimination
• Develop and guarantee fair and humane migrant rights
• Access to justice for human rights violations
• Embed environmental rights into Scots law

Read their full manifesto here.

Parenting Across Scotland’s Manifesto for the 2026 Scottish Parliament election, outlines six key policy calls that, if introduced, would make a positive impact on the lives of parents, carers and their families in Scotland.

• Increase the Scottish Child Payment to reduce child poverty
• Ensure that parents and carers are confident champions of their children’s rights by increasing their understanding of the UNCRC
• Put parents’ and carers’ views and experiences at the heart of policy development and implementation
• Deliver universal and intensive whole family support to all that need it, incorporating Open Kindergartens as an effective means of universal provision
• Give ‘parenting with adults’ its own emphasis within national policy, recognising that parenting doesn’t stop when children turn 18
• Invest in a national hobby framework so that every child and young person can take part in a hobby of their choice

Read their full manifesto here.

The Scottish Youth Parliament’s 2026-31 Manifesto “Dear Scotland’s Future” has five main topics that matter the most to Scotland’s Children and Young People.

• Accessible, Equitable, and Inclusive Education
• Safe and Supportive Communities
• A Sustainable and Renewable Society
• A Just and Fairer Scotland
• Empowering Young People to Claim their Rights

Read their full Manifesto here

SCVO share priorities for Scotland’s Essential Sector for the next Scottish Government, in their Manifesto they outline six main points.

• Deliver Fair Funding - reform the public sector funding landscape for voluntary organisations
• Create a partnership of equals - A successful, equitable partnership between the voluntary and public sector
• Commission with communities
• Modernise regulation
• Secure the future of volunteering
• Protect the voluntary sector’s voice

Read their full manifesto here

Young Women Demand set out six policy priorities to ensure that the voices and experiences of young women and girls are at the heart of party manifestos.

• Protect and promote young women’s human rights through the introduction of a Human Rights Bill for Scotland
• Prevent and eliminate violence against young women and girls by providing sustained funding for women’s and youth organisations
• Address online violence against young women and girls through the robust regulation of digital technologies
• Tackle misogynistic and sexist views, attitudes and behaviours amongst young men and boys through increased educational interventions
• Equitable healthcare access and outcomes for young women and girls, particularly in mental health and sexual and reproductive healthcare, by prioritising women’s health as a key policy area
• Equal opportunities for young women and girls to get involved in politics, democracy and decision-making processes

Read their full manifesto here

YouthLink Scotland sets out three national commitments in their manifesto for the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections.

• A Right – A Legal Right to Youth Work for All Young People
  Every young person should have an entitlement in law to access youth work services, regardless of postcode, background, or income.
• A Space – Universal Access to Spaces for Youth Work
  Guarantee free, fair, and consistent access to public spaces – such as schools, leisure centres, and community venues – for youth work providers, and create new, dedicated youth spaces in every community.
• A Future – Sustained and Increased Investment in Youth Work
  Implement fair funding principles with ring-fenced, multi-year funding at both national and local level, rebuilding the workforce and ensuring long-term stability.

Read their full manifesto here

Who Cares? Scotland has published their manifesto for the 2026 election. “Connected by Care” has five priority calls to action.

• Ensure the Promise is kept in full and fully resourced, with processes to track its delivery up to and beyond 2030.
• Keep Care Experienced people’s voice at the heart of the Promise, implementing the statutory right to independent, relationship based, lifelong and accessible advocacy for all Care Experienced people who need it.
• Every child in care should be offered mental health support, and Care Experienced people of all ages should be able to access trauma-informed support. Services providing spaces for connection including befriending should be accessible to Care Experienced people of all ages.
• Adopt a whole-school approach to supporting Care Experienced children and young people, such as their ‘Communities that Care’ model.
• Introduce the Scottish Human Rights Bill which includes Care Experienced people within the equality duty.

Read their full manifesto here