Children's Rights
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) explains the rights that every child and young person has (the UNCRC covers all young people up to age 18).
These rights cover a wide range of areas including being safe from harm, having access to education and opportunities to develop to their full potential, being free from discrimination, and having their voices heard.
Children’s rights form an important part of the services we deliver in a number of different ways:
- Information – we give young people clear, reliable and trustworthy information to help them make informed decisions about their learning and career pathways. Get career information at My World of Work, and find out more about apprenticeships at Apprenticeships in Scotland.
- Development – we support young people to develop their career management skills, and help them move into learning and work opportunities that enable them to fulfil their potential.
- Voice – we have different opportunities for young people to have a say in the public services that affect them, and we use their views to make our services more effective for them. Read more about our research with young people.
- Equality and inclusion – we want to make sure that everyone can benefit from using our services, and that those who have additional barriers moving into learning and work get the support that they need. Read more about our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.
We have developed children’s rights outcomes and the priority actions we need to take to ensure we make progress against our outcomes. These are our key commitments to children and young people that help us to continue to deliver services that support them to learn, develop, and move into opportunities that are right for them.
Further information can be found in our Children’s Rights Report 2026-29.
- Children’s Rights Report 2026-29
- Children’s Rights Report 2026-29: Easy-to-read summary for young people and their parents and carers
If you have any feedback on our approach to children’s rights, please contact us.