Rights questions and answers

For information about the Children’s Panel – including specific information for both children and young people, have a look at the Children’s Hearings Scotland website.

You can also find information about hearings, resources for children and young people and information on the rights of children and young people attending Children’s Hearings, on the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration website.

Respect Me has information and resources both for parents and for children and young people, including options for responding to bullying.

The Anti-bullying Network also has a useful interactive section for young people and advice and information for parents and families.

Reunite International assist and advise both in cases of international abduction, but also help parents who fear their children may be abducted. The website also has a list of family lawyers who specialise in child abduction and an abduction prevention guide.

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office also has information available online.

Citizen’s Advice Scotland are registered with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) to give advice and assistance.

The OISC website lists the Citizen’s Advice Scotland offices on their adviser finder webpages, along with other organisations and agencies (although some of these do charge fees).

You can filter the search by location, as well as the specific type of advice you are looking for and whether to include those who charge fees.

The Scottish Refugee Council also offers advice, information and support to refugees and asylum seekers across Scotland.

Legal advice

The Scottish Child Law Centre and Clan ChildLaw may both be able to offer you advice about children’s rights.

IAST

IAST is a specialist Edinburgh City Council service which assists and advises individuals who have immigration related and ‘no recourse to public funds’ issues.

This includes asylum seekers, victims of human trafficking, foreign nationals who are victims of domestic violence, some EU nationals, visa overstayers, and other people subject to immigration control.

In addition, IAST undertakes transitional integration work with people who have been granted refugee status or other forms of Leave to Remain and responds to general inquiries about EU nationals. They can also assist with some applications to the Home Office.

Citizen’s Advice Bureau Scotland provides comprehensive information on their website and advice in their offices or on the free confidential Kinship Care helpline (tel. 0808 800 0006).

Children1st also operate a kinship care service and helpline (tel. 08000 28 22 33).

The Carers Trust provides information and advice and runs support schemes for young carers through local support schemes across Scotland.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection website has general information about online safety as well as information about how to make a report if you are a victim of online abuse or worried that it is happening to someone else.

The Thinkuknow website takes you straight to age-specific information for children and young people as well as information for parents/carers and those working with children and young people.

Contact provides support and advice for families with disabled children.

Kindred specialises in supporting families with complex needs. They operate a helpline and provide practical information, advocacy support and guidance, as well as a counselling service for parents whose children are in the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh whether on an in-patient or an out-patient basis.

Shelter Scotland provide housing advice and information, including advice specifically for young people.

The LGBT Youth Scotland website has advice, information and resources for young people, parents and carers and professionals. There’s a chat line, too (tel. 0131 555 3940).

WhoCares? Scotland helps ensure looked after and care experienced children and young people’s voices are heard, offering advocacy support across most local authority areas.

You can find information and advice about personal information and data protection from the  Information Commissioner’s Office (Scotland).

The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland gives advice about rights in relation to mental health care and treatment.

NHS Choices – Young People and Mental Health offers advice and information about a variety of mental health problems, as well as links to useful resources.

Breathing Space is a helpline staffed by trained advisors. They will listen and provide support and advice (tel. 0800 83 85 87).

If you believe you may have been discriminated against the  Equality Advisory Support Service provides advice and assistance on equality and human rights legislation and how it may relate to you.

You can find information and get advice about all aspects of additional support for learning from Enquire, who are the independent advice service for additional support for learning in Scotland.

Resolve: ASL is an independent mediation service which assists in resolving disputes about decisions regarding additional support for learning.

Govan Law Education Law Unit run a helpline giving information about education law in Scotland. They also provide representation in some education law legal cases.

You can find information about how to complain about public services on the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman’s website. 

If your complaint is about the NHS, NHS inform has a factsheet for children and young people about how to make complaints about NHS services.

The Patient Advice and Support Service offers information about NHS complaints procedures, independent advice and advocacy support.

Complaints about independent healthcare services (not NHS services) should be made to Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

Young people between the ages of 11 and 25 can get free, confidential advice on legal issues, 24 hours a day, from the Young Scot Law Line (tel. 0808 801 0801).

The Scottish Child Law Centre provides free legal advice, guidance and information about the law for and about children and young people.

Clan Childlaw provides free legal advice and representation for children and young people.

The Ethnic Minorities Law Centre provides legal advice and representation to individuals from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities in Scotland.