Forces Children Scotland 8 hours ago
Perth & Kinross Council has endorsed the Forces Children’s Rights Charter, after two young people from a Veteran family told councillors why it matters for children from Armed Forces families, and for the ones who will come after them.
Councillors unanimously agreed to endorse the Charter at the full meeting of Council on Wednesday 28 October, following a motion brought by Councillor Chris Ahern, who is the Armed Forces Champion for the Authority. Perth & Kinross is the seventh local authority in Scotland to back the Charter.
Before the vote, Councillors heard from Isabel and Evelyn, two local young people from a Veteran family, who helped shape the Charter. They used their speech to highlight the Forces children who are most easily overlooked: those who are the only military child in their school, those living far from a base, children of reservists, and children in veteran families.
The Forces Children’s Rights Charter was developed by Forces Children Scotland from the views of children and young people from Armed Forces families. Built on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, it sets out 10 commitments covering how Forces children are recognised, listened to and supported by the services around them.
Isabel said:
“I was leaving school while the Charter was being written, so honestly, it won’t change much for me. But that’s a big part of why I wanted to be involved. I wanted the next children to have something we didn’t: a set of promises, written down, that say their lives are understood.
“It shouldn’t matter whether there are fifty Forces children in a school or just one. Every one of them has the same rights, and every one of them deserves to have the adults around them understand what forces life can mean.”
Evelyn said:
“People tend to think you have to live on a military base for forces life to affect you. That’s not true. A parent might be weekending, or deployed for months. For a child in a small community, where there might be no one else going through the same thing, that can feel very isolating.
“Reservists are often seen as doing a hobby on the side, but for the children in those families, it’s real. And forces life doesn’t stop the day a parent leaves the Armed Forces. The Charter covers children in veteran families like ours too.”
Isabel added:
“This Charter wasn’t written by adults guessing what we need. It came from children and young people themselves. We won’t be the ones who benefit most from it. The children coming after us will.”
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