Children and Young People's Voices Matter: progress report - March 2022

Involving Children in National Decision Making (actions 8-10)

Action 8 - Ensuring that children and young people's voices are included on all matters affecting them, by creating both youth-inclusive government working groups, and other opportunities to ensure children and young people can meaningfully engage, are actively listened to, and are given clear and child-friendly feedback.

• We have launched the "Our Hearings, Our Voice Interactive Zine" - an online platform where young people who have experience of the Children's Hearings System share their 40 Calls to Action for change and improvement.
• In partnership with Together (Scottish Alliance for Children's Rights) we have established an 'Interim Consortium' called Rights Right Now! of organisations to represent the views of children and young people on the UNCRC Strategic Implementation Board.
• As a result, children and young people have participated in the development of the Progressing the Human Rights of Children in Scotland: An Action Plan 2021 to 2024.
• Views gathered from children and young people themselves were key to informing our paper "Justice for young people – a rights respecting approach: vision and priorities" which builds on the youth justice strategy which concluded in 2020.

Action 9 - Prioritising our engagement with children and young people from seldom-heard groups to ensure that they have their voices heard.

• To explore the lived experiences of seldom heard children and young people during the Covid-19 pandemic, we have worked in collaboration with a range of stakeholders who have existing and trusting relationships with various groups of children and young people including those: who have experienced trauma; with additional support needs; with domestic abuse experiences; who are asylum seeking; from minority ethnic backgrounds; and in gypsy/traveller families.

Action 10 - Holding the Children and Young People's Cabinet Meeting, with involvement from the Scottish Youth Parliament and the Children's Parliament, beyond this Parliamentary term.

• The First Minister has committed to continue to hold the Annual Children and Young People's Cabinet meeting throughout this Parliamentary term.