Policy and Resources
Policy Areas
Children's Rights

Children's Rights

Let's Talk

Let's Talk is a stop and search project in partnership with One Community Scotland and the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit. Read more

Consultation response: Raising the Age of Referral to the Principal Reporter

Staf's response to the Scottish Government consultation on raising the age a child can be referred to a Children's Hearing to 18. Read more

Consultation on Children's Services Planning: provision of statutory guidance

Read our response to the Children's Services Planning: provision of statutory guidance consultation. Read more

How Staf is amplifying the voice of young people with experience of the care and justice systems

Ruth Kerracher, Youth Justice Participation Worker, gives an overview of Staf and CYCJ's new project to amplify the voice of young people with experience of the care and justice systems. Read more

Universal Children’s Day: how we’ll contribute to delivering children’s rights

Today is Universal Children’s Day, marking the day in 1989 that the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. Read more

Children (Equal Protection from Assault) (Scotland) Bill – Ending the ‘Justifiable Assault’ of Children

Widely reported as the ‘Smacking Ban’, this Bill has recently been introduced to the Scottish Parliament by John Finnie MSP, with the aim to outlaw any form of physical punishment against children. Read our short summary of the Bill here. Read more

Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Bill – Standing Up for Scotland’s Children or Simply Standing Still?

Currently at Stage 1 in the Scottish Parliament, this Bill aims to change the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) to 12 years of age from the current level of 8 – the lowest in Europe. Our article questions whether the Bill goes far enough, and whether it truly works to support Scotland’s children and young people. Read more

Latest

Join our team - new roles at Staf

We’re currently recruiting for 3 new roles, each offering a chance to be part of our important work with young people.
Explore the Friendship Anthology

A new collection of poetry, stories, reflections and visual art created by care experienced people across Scotland.
Join us for our new series of online summits

We're running 3 new events on justice, transitions and aftercare.
Series of 3 Summits - Justice, Transitions to Adult Services and Aftercare

Tuesday 30 June, 25 August and 24 November 2026 | 9.30am - 12.30pm | Online [MS Teams]

Young Funder's Grant

Applications for the Young Funder's Grant are now closed. Alternative sources of funding are included here.
The Promise explained: what the Care Review means for the workforce

Scotland’s Independent Care Review has published its final conclusions. Five reports have been published and the main report ‘The Promise’ runs to 124 pages. To keep our members informed, we will set out the conclusions in a series of brief summaries.
Get Involved

Here at Staf we have many ways for people with care experience to get involved.
Grants of up to £750 available to care experienced young people

We are delighted to announce our Young Funder's Grant is now open for applications.
Support for Care Leavers
Relationship Based Practice: What does it really look like?

Mary Glasgow facilitated one of our workshops at our Annual Conference 2017, setting out the principles of a restorative, child-centred and family-minded approach that aims to mitigate the effect of Adverse Childhood Experiences. Find out more and download Mary's presentation.
Our history

Find out more about Staf's history, and the exciting work we are undertaking today.
Local Elections 2022: Manifesto Round-Up

A look at the five main parties and their manifestos heading into the local elections 2022
GIRFEC: A Guide to Getting it Right for Every Child

GIRFEC (or Getting it Right for Every Child) is the national approach in Scotland to improving outcomes and supporting the wellbeing of our children and young people by offering the right help at the right time for the right people. Find out more about the GIRFEC approach.
Shannon's Box

Created by Shannon when in role as our Youth Facilitator, Shannon's Box is designed to make entering care a little easier for children and young people. Find out more about this project.