The young people raised the lack of communication with their serving parent and how this affects them.
The support provided to the whole family during these challenging times was not meeting their needs and it felt like a postcode lottery for the level and quality of support. The young people want to see more consistent and quality support for forces children across Scotland, including in schools not close to armed forces bases.
Support is also needed with their mental health and wellbeing. Services must be designed with young people to meet their needs as they want someone separate from the Ministry of Defence, but who understands service life and how it can affect them.
To prepare for the meeting, the young people met twice to agree what topics were important to them to raise with the Minister. Between them they agreed the three broad areas of education, whole family support and childcare. They came prepared to make sure that their voices were heard at the Government level.
One young person said: “it was a really good experience; it was good to speak to someone in a position of power who can have an influence which will make a difference to forces children.”
Another said: “I think today was good because someone listened to all of our opinions to make a change that will impact other forces families living in Scotland.”
Forces Children Scotland is so proud of the young people for using their voice to speak directly to decision-makers. Their stories are incredibly powerful, and we hope the Minister will take action on the back of meeting with them.
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