The National Children’s
Charter for School Age
Childcare in Scotland
The Project
In November and December 2022, A Place in Childhood (APiC) and Scottish Government visited five schools and one young carers group in Dingwall, Conon Bridge, Dundee, Alloa, Mid Yell, and Aberdeen. The goal was to co-create local children’s charters for school age childcare in each area. We picked these places to represent the different types of areas and experiences across Scotland – from big cities to remote rural communities. In total, 125 children between the ages of 4 and 12 took part, from a range of family backgrounds.
Approach
The next step was to go from a local charter for each place, to a National Charter to guide school age childcare across all of Scotland. To do this, APiC invited a team of four or five
representatives from each of the six groups to a National Children’s Charter Workshop in January 2023. In the workshop everyone discussed and improved a draft National Charter that drew together everything that was the same in their local charters. They added more thoughts and ideas, to make it even better and able to meet the needs of all children across the country. They also thought about guiding principles for
childcare.
Outcome
The Charter will be used to guide future decision-making on the Scottish Government’s new system of School Age Childcare, currently in development.