Scotland's children and the new parliament

The establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 has raised the profile of children's issues and allowed more time for debate and legislation. This has led to some key developments, including a decision to establish a Children's Commissioner, more legislative provisions enabling children's views to be taken into account, and a more explicit commitment to ‘child and family centred’ working. A Ministerial Task Force has been established to ‘drive forward progress on integrated children's services’. Some pre‐school and school age child care services have seen significant growth but the structure of services remains fragmented. A National Education Debate has strengthened the Scottish Executive's resolve to maintain its distinctive education policies and reaffirm its commitment to comprehensive schooling and an ‘equality of outcomes’ approach. New Community Schools put education in the driving seat of change, offering a vehicle for establishing new kinds of services and relationships between services, sectors and age groups. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.