Scottish Parents' Survey 2021 - children's rights: results

Key Findings

This report presents the findings on children’s rights from the Scottish Parents’ omnibus survey of 1,004 parents of children and young people aged 0-17 across Scotland, run by Ipsos MORI Scotland. The survey was conducted between 1 November and 2 December 2021.

The key findings from the survey were:

• One third of parents (32%) said that they knew a fair amount or a great deal about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). A similar proportion (28%) said they had never heard of it.
• When asked an open question, parents who said they knew at least a little about the UNCRC were most likely to have heard about the UNCRC through their work (28%), their children’s school, nursery, playgroups, or clubs (21%), or courses, training, or studies (18%). 15% said they had heard about the UNCRC through the traditional media and 11% through online sources or social media. 9% had heard about it directly from their child or children.
• The majority of parents (61%) said they were not aware that the Scottish Government is incorporating UNCRC into Scots Law.
• Almost three-quarters of parents (72%) agreed that they had a good understanding of the rights of their child or children.
• 88% of parents agreed that they would feel confident in helping their children challenge breaches of their rights, if their rights were not met.
• Almost all parents (94%) agreed that it is important for parents to be aware of children’s rights.
• Parents were asked if they would like to know more about the UNCRC and what it means for their child or children. Around two thirds of parents (63%) agreed that they would.
• Women were more likely than men to be aware of the UNCRC and were also more likely to strongly agree that: they had a good understanding of children’s rights; that they felt confident in helping their children protect their rights; and that parental awareness of children’s rights is important.
• Parents educated to degree level or above were more likely to be aware of the UNCRC and to say that they had a good understanding of children’s rights than those with other qualifications.
• When asked an open question about where and from whom they would like to learn more about children’s rights, the most commonly given answers were that they would like to learn through schools, nurseries or childcare providers (54%); online (22%); in the media (10%); and from health professionals (14%); the government (11%); teachers (11%).