PAS Manifesto 2026
Today we launch Parenting Across Scotland’s Manifesto for the 2026 Holyrood Elections. The Manifesto outlines six key policy calls that we believe, if introduced, would have a profound and positive impact on the lives of parents, carers and their families in Scotland.
To create this manifesto, we reviewed all the calls, campaigns and policy activity PAS has been involved in over the last five years, as well as the key policy areas our members and partners were working on. We’ve also looked at what parents and carers were saying about their lives and needs, and our 2024 Parenting Evidence Review proved very helpful in this regard.
Because so many things affect families’ lives, it was tempting to put everything we gathered into the manifesto. Thankfully our wise members and Board talked sense into us and together we agreed that a PAS Manifesto should reflect the calls that are most PAS. They should be calls that we can talk about with authority because we’ve done the groundwork in this area.
We open our manifesto by encouraging all political parties in Scotland to think about some big and important questions;
- How do we define a family in 2026 and ensure our definitions are flexible, inclusive and reflective of Scotland as it is today and in the future?
- How can we raise our expectations about what a good childhood looks like in Scotland?
- What does quality whole family support look like, and how can we make it a reality for all families who need it?
- How can parents and carers be part of the journey to ensuring that all children realise their rights?
- How do we achieve our ambitions for tacking child poverty?
PAS’ six manifesto calls provide our best, focussed response to these questions today. Collectively they help broaden our understanding of what families mean, they tackle the challenges families face, they place rights, participation and social justice at the core of policy making, and they provide a positive aspiration for children and young people’s lives. They are as follows:
- Increase the Scottish Child Payment to £55 to reduce child poverty
- Ensure that parents and carers are confident champions of their children’s rights by increasing their understanding of the UNCRC
- Put parents’ and carers’ views and experiences at the heart of policy development and implementation
- Deliver universal and intensive whole family support to all that need it, incorporating Open Kindergartens as an effective means of universal provision
- Give ‘parenting with adults’ its own emphasis within national policy, recognising that parenting doesn’t stop when children turn 18
- Invest in a national hobby framework so that every child and young person can take part in a hobby of their choice
We’ll be spending the period up to the election sharing our calls with political parties, members, partners and supporters. We’ll also be releasing further evidence that supports their case – so look out for our hobbies research with parents and carers, our Open Kindergarten project evaluation and further work on parenting with adults for starters.
And following the election, we’ll continue to promote these calls through our policy, projects and engagement activity. These are calls we are committed to working on.
PAS will also be supporting other manifestos, where we share their views and values – so you will see PAS supporting the End Child Poverty Coalition manifesto and a manifesto for babies, for instance.
There’s a lot at stake in the 2026 elections, but also a lot to play for. As ever, PAS will remain willfully optimistic that positive change can happen for babies, children, young people and their families. We look forward to working with our members, partners and supporters to turn these calls into action.