Child Protection Improvement Programme: child rights and wellbeing impact assessment

CRWIA Stage 4

Assessing the Impact and Presenting Options - key questions

1. What likely impact will the policy have on children's rights?
Negative/positive/neutral. For those assessed as having a negative impact, list options for modification or mitigation of the policy/measure, or suggested alternatives to the policy/measure

Positive.

2 How will the policy/measure contribute to the wellbeing of children and young people?
Provide any additional assessment using the wellbeing indicators framework.

The recommendations emerging from CPIP will be designed explicitly to augment the functionality of child protection systems in Scotland, including, but not limited to, the interfaces between targeted and universal services, governance, data collection and evidence informed-practice. The Programme will contribute to the effective realisation of children's rights, focussing specifically on the most marginalised children with the greatest degree of need.

A number of wellbeing indicators are relevant to the Programme, as set out previously, highlighting the potential for further realising the rights of Children and Young People, as detailed in the Convention and pursuant to Scottish Ministers' obligations under the 2014 Act.

3. Are some children and young people more likely to be affected than others?
Which groups of children and young people will be affected by the policy/measure? Are there competing interests between different groups of children and young people, or between children and other groups? List options for modification or mitigation of the proposal.

Potentially any child in Scotland could have need of formal child protection systems, broadly conceived, though the vast majority will not.

Research, has demonstrated that a number of sociological, health-related and familial factors can increase a young person's need to access the child protection architecture, as set out previously in this assessment. These include the experience of socio-economic inequality, intra-familial circumstances and culturally held expectations about childhood and child rearing.

Recommendations will be designed to increase the functionality and responsiveness of child protection systems. Though different groups of children and young people will present with different needs and circumstances, in the context of their experiences, there are, in principle, no competing interests as between the groups of children that Scotland's child protection systems serve; they are there for all in times of need.

4. Resource implications of policy modification or mitigation
If recommending any changes to the policy/measure, include estimates of cost implications

Relevant resourcing considerations and budgetary allocations are detailed in the accompanying programme governance literature.

5. How does the policy/measure promote or impede the implementation of the UNCRC and other relevant human rights standards?
This will inform Scottish Ministers' duty to report to Parliament on children's rights under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.

The Programme promotes the implementation of the UNCRC as it works towards better ensuring that the Scottish Government and local partners successfully realise Convention Rights. These are supported through the overarching GIRFEC policy umbrella, which forms the fundamental philosophical rationale of the Programme and is the inspiration for the Programme's vision.