Established in 1996, Children’s Parliament has grown to become Scotland’s centre of excellence for children’s participation and engagement.

Using creative, participatory methods (including murals, artwork, poetry, storytelling and films), Children’s Parliament support children from diverse backgrounds to express their views and experiences on what it means to be healthy, happy and safe and what this should look and feel like in their everyday lives.  

Their mission is to inspire greater awareness and understanding of the power of a children’s human rights-based approach and support the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

The Challenge

The evidence (data) Children’s Parliament gathers is both qualitative (e.g. stories, quotes, artwork, film interviews and case studies) and quantitative, in the form of survey and questionnaire responses.  

Children’s Parliament challenge is to (a) systematically record, collate and analyse the evidence they have gathered from across their work and (b) present this to children and adults across Scotland in an engaging, understandable, child-friendly way to demonstrate the positive impact of a children’s rights-based approach in homes, schools and communities.  

This challenge presents an opportunity to develop a process and tool which can be used by wider civil society to record, analyse and demonstrate the impact of implementing a children’s rights-based approach across legislation, policy and practice in order to bring about systemic culture change.  

Finding a solution to this challenge would unlock the value of the wide ranging data Children’s Parliament holds, supporting them on their journey to implement children’s rights in Scotland by communicating the positive outcomes of their work in a way that engages new audiences and increases awareness of children’s rights amongst the general public and public bodies.

Applications for this Challenge Project are now closed. If you have any questions, please contact the creative informatics team at creativeinformatics@ed.ac.uk.