National Care Service: child rights and wellbeing impact assessment - easy read

The Child's Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment

The Scottish Government have a Child's Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment when a new policy or law that affects children is being introduced.

The assessment helps us to check how the changes will affect children's human rights.

The Scottish Government has asked children and young people and organisations that represent them, what they think of the National Care Service.

The assessment found that children of families who get health, social work and social care support will be affected in a good way by the National Care Service.

Children could be more affected if children's services are included in the National Care Service.

It will:

• find ways to make it easier to give support to children and young people affected by drug and/or alcohol issues

• make sure that people who get and give social care services are included on local care boards
• make sure services are delivered in the same way across the country
• make sure services work together

• link better with community health services and work in the same way

The National Care Service will work to protect people's human rights.

This will be good for children.

If it is decided that the National Care Service should include children's services we think this would be a good thing because it would:

• make sure everyone can get excellent services wherever they live in Scotland

• make sure services are delivered in the same way across the country

• set standards of care and ways to decide what services want to do
• have better ways for services to report to Scottish Ministers so they can check if services are working well

• have more services that try to stop problems from happening or stop things from getting worse
• make it easier to move from children's services to adult services

We will do more research and talk to more people and organisations to get information to check how the National Care Service will affect children and young people.

The consultation told us there could be some things in the National Care Service that could affect children in a bad way.

Some people thought it would mean that children's services became part of a large, complicated organisation that is mostly about adult services.

This could mean that children's voices would be less likely to be heard.

We will keep working with organisations and people who get and give care and support, to develop the way forward.

Everyone's view is important and everyone will have an equal opportunity to help make decisions.