Leisure & play
Taking part in leisure, hobbies and activities has huge benefits for children and young people but the costs attached often make this unaffordable.
Current policy context
Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) - which has now been incorporated into Scots law - covers a child’s right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.
However, many hobbies come with a cost attached and with persisting poverty levels and the cost-of-living crisis, many families are unable to pay for their children to partake in hobbies and leisure activities. CAB Scotland reported that at the end of 2023, over 235,000 parents and carers had to cut back on spending for their children’s hobbies due to the cost-of-living crisis.
At present, there is no national policy in Scotland which gives children and young people access to free leisure and activities. This is not the case internationally and there are examples that we can learn from, in particularly, from Nordic countries. Finland and Iceland both offer free access to hobbies for children and young people, following different models
Our policy work
Access to leisure and play is something Parenting Across Scotland is passionate about and we aim to raise the profile of this throughout our work.
In 2023 our CEO, Amy Woodhouse, embarked on a trip to Iceland and Finland as part of her Churchill Fellowship, to investigate how these countries are working to increase children and young people’s access to hobbies. In 2024, we partnered with one of our members, Children in Scotland, to explore this topic further in an online webinar where Amy shared her report findings.
Click here to access the blog post Amy wrote for Children in Scotland here >
Access Amy’s Churchill Fellowship report here >
Since then, we have continued to campaign on the topic, through meeting with stakeholders and decision makers, and creating a working group of other third sector organisations passionate about making children’s access to hobbies a reality in Scotland.
In 2025, PAS conducted a short research project looking to find out what parents and carers across Scotland felt are the barriers to their children and young people accessing hobbies. The research consisted of over 570 parents and carers from across 30 local authorities in Scotland. This report showed overwhelming support for a free hobby model in Scotland, fueling our dedication to campaign on this area.
You can find out more about the research here >
Access the published report here here>
In January 2026, we secured funding from Inspiring Scotland to help us support our campaigning and awareness raising efforts of good practice already happening in Scotland, with an event planned for later in the year to help shape a potential future model. Stay tuned!
For some facts and figures about parenting, leisure and play click here >
