Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland Bill: child rights and wellbeing impact assessment screening

3. What likely impact – direct or indirect – will the policy/measure have on children and young people?

'Direct' impact refers to policies/measures where children and young people are directly affected by the proposed changes, e.g. in early years, education, child protection or looked after children (children in care).

'Indirect' impact refers to policies/measures that are not directly aimed at children

but will have an impact on them. Examples include: welfare reforms, parental leave, housing supply, or local transport schemes.

The policy aims to make improvements to the safety of patients across health services in general, where these are NHS-delivered, NHS-contracted or independent services. To this end the policy should result in improvements to the health care of children as well as other members of the population of Scotland.

While some population groups, such as the elderly or young people, may have cause to use healthcare services more often, we do not wish to suggest that any particular medical speciality is at risk of safety issues more than any other, and therefore in this respect we consider our policy to apply with equal importance across the population.

Amplifying the voice of the patient also includes patients' families and carers; where a child is not capable of representing their own interests, a family member or carer can do that for them.

It will be for the PSC to ensure that patient safety and the role of the PSC is promoted across all population groups, and the whole population of Scotland has access to the PSC's services and information.

The work of the PSC will be guided by an advisory group, which the PSC will set up, and which will have a membership of 50% patients/public. This will help in amplifying the patient voice and will also ensure patient/public input into the PSC's work.