Lobbying Ministers and other politicians is one of our main activities. We work on a range of Bills in Parliament, dealing with many different aspects of children's rights. Some of our recent successes include:

• Statutory guidance on pupil participation was introduced following lobbying by CRAE and others during the passage of the Education Act 2002.

• Following strong lobbying by CRAE and others, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 makes it clear that advice agencies cannot be prosecuted for giving advice to children on sexual and relationship matters.

• In 2004, the minimum wage was extended to 16 year-olds, following pressure from CRAE and others.

• As a direct result of our campaign, there were 11 major changes made to the Children's Commissioner's powers and independence, as the Children Act 2004 was going through Parliament.

• In that same Act of Parliament, we managed to persuade Government to introduce new duties on social workers to give due consideration to the wishes and feelings of children involved in child protection investigations and children in need assessments.

• Statutory guidance on pupil participation was extended to nursery education in 2006, following lobbying by CRAE.

• Ministers promised that the Equality and Human Rights Commission (established October 2007) would work with and for children, following strong lobbying by CRAE.

• A new law has been passed that introduces a minimum age for company directors (16 years) from October 2008. Fearful that this could affect young people involved in running charities, CRAE lobbied in 2006 for an exemption. Ministers agreed that regulations would be drafted to protect young people running charities.

• In July 2008, the Government agreed to issue statutory guidance on Children in Care Councils, following lobbying by CRAE.

• Following our lobbying during the passage of the Education and Skills Act 2008, the Minister Lord Adonis agreed to amend statutory guidance to make it clear that children can attend and participate in exclusion appeal hearings. A consultation on their right to appeal exclusions has also been conducted.

• A number of advances in how local services work for children were achieved as a result of CRAE's lobbying during the passage of the Apprenticeship, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009: draft regulations (2009/10) require Children's Trust Board partners to consult children in the preparation of Children and Young People's Plans and draft statutory guidance requires the publication of "accessible and comprehensive information" about the services available to young people and parents in the local area. The draft guidance also includes specific reference to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

• A new process has been established in law for children to refer complaints about school to the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO). In addition, Section 218 of the Apprenticeship, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 introduces a statutory duty on the LGO to publish information on the assistance it offers to vulnerable groups of children using its complaints procedure. Independent advocacy is expected to be part of this assistance. Furthermore, commitments were made by the Minister in Parliament that LGO staff will be trained in dealing with complaints from children and young people; and that information about making a complaint will be available to children and young people in an appropriate language and format. During debates in the House of Commons, the Minister promised that statutory guidance to schools will make it clear that measures must be introduced to ensure children, siblings and parents are protected from victimisation after they have made a complaint.

• CRAE lobbied during the passage of the Local Democracy, Economic Regeneration and Construction Act 2009 to ensure that under 18s would be included in the arrangements made by local authorities to receive and respond to petitions from members of the public. Unfortunately, provision was not specifically made for under 18s in the legislation, though the Minister confirmed in the House of Lords that children and young people will be included in the new democratic processes.

Some of our lobbying, unfortunately, has not yet resulted in improvements in legislation. For example, we are seeking major changes in how the criminal justice system deals with children in conflict with the law, and have worked on several Bills to try and achieve this. For more information about our Parliamentary lobbying, contact Catherine Hodder at chodder@crae.org.uk.