Manifesto for Babies in Scotland

This week, Starcatchers alongside Parent Infant Foundation, Homestart, Mental Health Foundation, NSPCC, Save the Children and Parenting Across Scotland working to support the rights and wellbeing of babies have launched our ‘Manifesto for babies in Scotland’. As part of a wider campaign, we are also asking candidates from all political parties to ‘Speak up for babies in Scotland’. 

With the upcoming Holyrood election in May, we are urging all parties to consider our recommendations in the manifesto. We are asking them how their party’s policies will support babies and their families. 

Babies depend on sensitive, responsive care to grow and develop healthily. But many do not get the nurturing care they need. More than one in ten babies in the UK today are living in fear, confusion and distress. That’s more than 9,000 babies in Scotland. 

The ‘Manifesto for babies in Scotland’ sets out five headline recommendations to address the challenges babies face, noting that inequality is already visible in toddlers’ 

development. One of the biggest asks from the manifesto is for a cross-government strategy to join up policy. The current policy landscape in Scotland is fragmented with a range of early years policies spread across different government directorates. 

Read the Manifesto here.

We are also calling on candidates of all parties to pledge their support by asking them to ‘Speak up for babies in Scotland’ if they are elected in May. They can do this by pledging via the Manifesto for babies in Scotland website here.

A pledge does not imply support for all the policy recommendations – it is a promise to consider babies’ needs and to speak up for them, if they are elected. We hope many candidates will join with us to speak up for babies in Scotland!