News
Call to Political Parties to “Put Children First”
Wednesday 13 April 2011
Last week, CHILDREN 1ST issued a call to all the political parties and candidates standing in the Scottish election in May to "put children first."
Since then, the election campaign has seen a flurry of announcements on investing in children’s earliest years, supporting families and addressing child poverty. These are all commitments that CHILDREN 1ST welcomes.
But we are concerned that the focus of parties’ campaigns will now shift elsewhere and the needs and interests of the most vulnerable children and families in Scotland will be marginalised. We are seeking your help to prevent this happening.
CHILDREN 1ST wants all the parties and candidates to commit to creating a child-friendly Scotland, giving every child the best start in life and working in the next Parliament to put the needs and interests of vulnerable children and young people at the heart of all policies. In particular, we would like candidates and parties to say how they will address the issues that cause the biggest problems for children and limit their life chances – violence at home, parents drinking to excess, sexual abuse and difficult family relationships.
We know you share these aims – are you able to help us get the message across? It will only take a few minutes to write to your local candidates asking them to put children first. To help you, we’ve created a template for you to amend to suit and to put in a letter or email message.
To find out who your candidates are, go to these links in the parties' websites:
- Scottish National Party (SNP) - www2.snp.org/candidate_profiles
- Labour - www.scottishlabour.org.uk/candidates2011
- Conservatives - www.scottishconservatives.com/people/candidates
- Liberal Democrats - www.scotlibdems.org.uk/people/holyrood/candidates
- Scottish Greens - www.scottishgreens.org.uk/people/show/5
Or contact our policy team at policy@children1st.org.uk who will be able to help you if you give them the name of the town you live in.
If you do write and receive a response, please let us know – again, email policy@children1st.org.uk or call 0131 446 2300.
Here at CHILDREN 1ST, we always put children and young people first. We know you do too. Now we want our politicians to do the same.
Last updated: Wednesday 13 April 2011
