News

Read our latest news stories.

Are you a child or young person without British citizenship? Here’s some advice on how to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme

Children and young people, including care leavers, must apply to the EU Settlement scheme if they are an EU, EEA or Swiss national. The deadline to apply is 30 June 2021. Read more

Clan Childlaw welcomes first 3-year Plan to implement The Promise

Clan Childlaw warmly welcomes the publication of Plan 21-24, the first of three plans which will implement The Promise over a ten-year period. Read more

Clan Childlaw welcomes the strengthening of sibling rights in Children's Hearings

Children's Hearings Rules are changing to make sure brothers and sisters can give their views when decisions are being made which affect them seeing each other. Join us to hear more about the Rule changes on 19th April. Read more

Have evictions been banned during Coronavirus?

Find out what you need to know about tenancies and evictions during Covid-19 Read more

Clan Childlaw welcomes important new legal protections for siblings passed by the Scottish Parliament today

25th August 2020: Today the Scottish Parliament passed the Children (Scotland) Bill, an important step forward for children's rights and legal protection for children's sibling relationships. Read more

Clan Childlaw calls for participation rights for brothers and sisters in Children’s Hearings in the Children (Scotland) Bill

We are supportive of proposed amendments to the Children (Scotland) Bill. Stage 3 proceedings will take place in the Scottish Parliament on 25th August. Read more

Brothers and Sisters in Children's Hearings - What did the Supreme Court decide? Panel Discussion took place 21st July

Lucy Frazer and Alison Reid from Clan Childlaw were joined by Lynda Brabender QC who represented ABC in the Supreme Court for a Child Law Network panel discussion exploring what the decision means for young people who would like to be part of children’s hearings being held for their brothers and sisters. Read more

New Webinars and Toolkits on legal issues affecting children and young people

We've launched a series of recorded presentations and toolkits on legal issues our solicitors are helping care experienced children and young people with during the Covid-19 pandemic. The resources are free to download and explain the law, how to recognise when there's a legal issue, and steps to take to assert rights. Read more

Press Release – Children’s Hearings held to be compatible with Human Rights in relation to brothers and sisters

18th June 2020: The Supreme Court today published its judgment in relation to Clan Childlaw’s leading case involving the rights of brothers and sisters in children’s hearings. Read our response to the judgment here. Read more

Housing Law Response Project - Covid 19

Young people in Scotland can now get free expert legal advice to tackle homelessness from Clan Childlaw’s new Housing Law Response Project. Read more

Research examining rights of children to participate in family law cases published

The research led by Prof. Kay Tisdall and Dr Fiona Morrison in which Clan Childlaw participated found a number of barriers and challenges to children’s participation in family proceedings in Scotland. Read more

Urgent Housing Advice - Covid-19

If you need somewhere to live or are worried that you might become homeless, contact us for help. We can provide housing and homelessness advice. Read more

Information for children and young people during coronavirus and lockdown

We've added new short guides for children and young people and the people that support them to our Coronavirus Support and Information Hub. Read more

Children's Hearings Advocacy

Clan Childlaw is contributing to the development of the National Practice Model for Advocacy for the Children’s Hearings System. Read more

Resource: Summaries of recent child law judgments

New summaries of recent court judgments relating to children and young people added to our web resources. Read more

Stand Up For Siblings marks two year anniversary

It’s been a busy two years since Stand Up For Siblings launched in March 2018 Read more

Using the law to defend rights: Seminar report published

We've published a summary and presentations from our joint event with Human Rights Consortium Scotland 'Using law and the courts to defend people’s rights – recent cases, developments and third sector involvement' which took place on 4th November 2019 Read more

Clan Childlaw welcomes Independent Care Review final reports published today

Wednesday 5th February - The Independent Care Review, which began its work in February 2017, has published its final reports, calling for a major overhaul of care in Scotland. We welcome the reports and congratulate everyone who gave their voice to the Review. Read more

Latest

Brexit: Young people, Families and Homelessness

8 June, 10.00 - 12.00. This free lawyer-led workshop will explain why young people and families need to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme and explore the effect of Brexit on housing and homelessness rights.
Children's Hearings: What you need to know

21 May, 10.00 - 13.00. This training course will introduce Children’s Hearings, including why they exist, who attends them, and why a child or young person might enter the children’s hearing system.
Clan Childlaw Covid-19 Response Project

Protecting the rights of care experienced children and young people during the pandemic
Children’s Hearings: Relevant Persons and Rights of Siblings

9 June, 10.00 - 13.00. This training course will give an overview of developments in the law relating to relevant persons, siblings, and the right to participate in Children’s Hearings and explain what they mean in practice for children and young people in Scotland.

What we do

We are lawyers for children and young people in Scotland. We use our legal knowledge, and what we learn from the children we work with, to find ways to make the law work better for children and young people.
Law student essay competition

To mark our 10-year anniversary, we asked law students around Scotland: What is the biggest children’s rights issue in Scotland and how can the law be used to resolve it? Congratulations to winner Michael Malvenda!
Child law case summaries

Summaries of cases undertaken by Clan Childlaw.
About Our Training

We provide lawyer-led training about children's rights and the law in Scotland. We use our legal expertise and experience to train lawyers, advocates, and frontline workers who support children and young people.
Alison Reid

Principal Solicitor and Chief Executive
Sibling rights

We have long called for the law to be changed to prioritise care experienced children and young people's sibling relationships and are delighted that these changes are now law and will come into force in July 2021
Get legal help for a child or young person

Information for professionals, support, advocacy, and advice workers or foster carers seeking help with the law or a legal problem for a child or young person they are working with. You will find frequently asked questions, case studies and other information on this page.
Clan at 10

Events & Fundraising marking our 10th anniversary
A-Z resource library

Comprehensive library of material relating to children and young people's rights. This is reference point for all legal questions and problems children and young people might have.
Changes to the law on siblings

Brothers and sisters who are looked after by a local authority or are experiencing family separation often need support to stay in contact. Clan Childlaw is working in different ways to help promote sibling contact.