Family support

Parenting across Scotland campaigns for accessible, holistic family support.

Current policy context

The Scottish Government has made a commitment through Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) to provide the right support to all children, young people and their families whenever they require it.

They have made similar commitments through Keeping the Promise, emphasising the need for increased access to whole family support.

The Whole Family Wellbeing Fund was announced as part of the 2021-22 Programme for Government, investing £500 million over the lifetime of this parliament. Its aim is to better support families on a range of issues and to reduce the number of children and young people in care.

Our policy work

We are long term partners in the Open Kindergarten Project which has been running in Scotland since 2015. Open Kindergartens - which originate in the Nordic countries - provide a space for parents, carers and the children they care for to meet with trained staff who provide support and develop parents’ confidence, skills and knowledge.

We are currently planning for the third stage of development for Open Kindergarten alongside our other partners – Midlothian Surestart, Children in Scotland and the Open University.

Find about our work on developing a Scottish Open Kindergarten model here >

Over the years we have worked on a range of policy issues to increase support for parents and families. These include:

• Formulation of the Early Years Framework
• Work on health visiting
• Development of the National Parenting Strategy
• The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014
• Development of the Pregnancy and Parenthood in Young People Strategy
• NHS Health Scotland Redesigning Health Information for Parents

Members/groups

PAS members have a wide range of specialist expertise in family issues through their experience of providing services to thousands of families throughout Scotland.

We draw on their knowledge of families in all their diversity to inform our policy work. Our members provide a wide range of services to all shapes and sizes of families including:

• One parent families
• Families affected by disability
• Families affected by imprisonment
• Adoptive families
• Kinship carers
• Families affected by drugs and alcohol
• Separating couples