Concerned about a child?
If you are concerned that a child may be at immediate risk of harm, please contact your local Social Work Department or Police Scotland (dialling 999 in an emergency) as a matter of urgency. The office is not able to investigate child protection concerns.
Concerned about your employer?
If you are raising a concern about your employer or your workplace please click here for more information about what to do.
The Commissioner’s role
The Commissioner’s role is to promote and safeguard the rights of children and young people in Scotland. This includes all children (up to the age of 18) and young people aged up to 21 who are, or have been, in care.
In doing this, we have to balance and prioritise a wide range of competing issues, each of them important. We have to make sure we use our resources to best effect. This means we target our work towards children whose rights are most at risk. You can read more about our current priorities in our Strategic Plan 2024-28.
In particular, when using our legal powers, we must ensure that we take up issues that have the most impact; for instance offer the opportunity to change the law, or drive significant policy or practice changes.
Responding to concerns
We cannot duplicate services or functions provided by other bodies.
You can find a list of other organisations offering advice, advocacy and representation on our getting advice and links page. Please check it before contacting us; it is important that children and young people get help from the most appropriate source.
If you need legal advice, please check the Scottish Legal Aid Board or Law Society of Scotland websites for information about how to contact a solicitor.
If you want to make a complaint about a public body, please visit the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman’s website to find out how to raise and escalate a complaint, including the role of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.
Contact us
What will we do with the information you provide us?
- Understanding the range of issues faced by children and young people helps to inform our strategic decisions
- We can signpost to an organisation that may be able to offer more help and support
- We may seek more information from you if we think the issue engages the Commissioner’s legal powers