Decision-making: children and young people's participation

Gathering the views of children and young people

Children and young people have been asked their views, ideas and experiences on a wide range of issues.

We have collected some of these reports and have focused on the period from 2017 to the present day. We have included a few earlier reports, which we felt were appropriate. We have also provided links to a number of relevant websites.

These reports have been highlighted by our expert working group. They are not necessarily the only or ‘best’ examples. All views expressed in the reports are those of the individuals and organisations involved and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Scottish Government. We do not take responsibility for their content.

We aim to review these recommendations on an annual basis. 

If you have any reports that you would like us to consider for inclusion on this page, please email us at ChildrensRightsandParticipation@gov.scot

When you are planning on engaging with children and young people, check if there is any previous engagement on that topic. Look at the reports below. There might already be a report on the views of children and young people on your issue - there may be no need for you to carry out any further engagement. If you do need to engage on your issue, look at practice examples to get some ideas on how you could go about doing this.

Collections of views of children and young people

Children in Scotland, Scottish Youth Parliament and Young Scot have brought together a wide range of reports on different topics. You can access these reports either through the links below or in the reports section. 

Children and young people’s evidence bank (Children in Scotland)

The Evidence Bank provides a collection of direct quotes from children and young people taken from published reports and articles on a wide range of topics. Organisations can submit their own children and young people’s evidence (from published reports and articles) by registering on the site.

Topics include:

• additional support for learning 
• childcare and early years 
• culture, media and the arts 
• education and learning 
• food 
• health and wellbeing 
• inclusion 
• participation and engagement 
• places and spaces 
• rights 
• services 

Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP)

Scottish Youth Parliament is the democratic voice of Scotland’s young people. The charity’s members engage with thousands of the young constituents they represent each year on key policy issues, and these views are captured in a database. 

SYP’s detailed policy work, led by its young members, include responses to a large number of Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament consultations.

SYP also develops a five year policy manifesto, which sets out the views of young people across Scotland, including those from many seldom heard groups. Read more at the Scottish Youth Parliament site.

Young Scot Observatory

One of Young Scot’s aims as an organisation is to find out what it is like to be a young person in Scotland today. Over the last few years they have collaborated with a range of partners to gain insight into a wide variety of topics. Their online library, the Young Scot Observatory, is a collection of all of this insight work.

In 2019, Young Scot launched their first #YSVoice report as part of the Young Scot Observatory.  This interactive report is a compilation of all of their insight work with young people over the previous year, from one-off surveys to Co-Design workshops and residentials. Insights are grouped by categories, providing a one-stop-shop for a variety of topics (e.g. what young people told us about education, what young people told us about health and wellbeing etc). The report is to be produced every six months.  

The following categories are included in the Young Scot Observatory:

• arts, culture and heritage    
• COVID-19
• climate and environment 
• employment
• equality and diversity 
• Europe
• Gaelic
• health and wellbeing 
• media, technology and digital 
• money and finance 
• politics 
• schools and learning 
• transport
• travel
• volunteering
• Young Scot services

Reports and websites