UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 - part 3: statutory guidance

4. Reporting duties of listed authorities

Under section 18 of Part 3 of the Act, listed authorities must report on actions they have taken and intend to take for the purpose of ensuring compliance with the duty under section 6(1) of the Act, as well as their actions to secure better or further effect of the rights of children. Guidance on Part 2 is provided separately. Reports completed to fulfil section 18 duties are referred to as children's rights reports.

By requiring listed authorities to produce periodic children's rights reports on the actions taken as well as their plans for improving children's rights, the Act emphasises the dual importance of the legal duties alongside the need to provide evidence and planning of child rights respecting practice. Listed authorities may find it useful to read the guidance on Part 3 alongside that of Part 2 in order to obtain information and ideas on both aspects on which they need to report, i.e., actions taken and intended to ensure compliance with the duty under section 6(1) and to secure better or further effect of the rights of children. Listed authorities may also wish to refer to non-statutory guidance on taking a children's human rights approach, to support them to embed child rights practice into their services.

In addition to the main report, listed authorities also need to prepare and publish a version of the report that children can understand. The Act is non-prescriptive on the format of the children's report, therefore listed authorities can explore with children and young people what would best meet their needs.

Once the reports have been published listed authorities must send a copy of the report to Scottish Ministers as soon as practicable. Further information on how to send your report to Scottish Ministers can be found in section 5.1.

4.1.Reporting cycles and due dates for children's right reports

Section 18(4) of the UNCRC Act defines the "reporting period" in relation to which reports under section 18 must be provided, as follows:

• the first reporting period is the period beginning with the day on which section 18 comes into force and ending on 31 March 2026,
• each subsequent period of 3 years.

Listed authorities must publish their children's rights report as soon as practicable after the end of each reporting period.

4.2.Developing baseline information

The duty under section 18 of the Act applies to reporting. However, it is unlikely that this duty can be fulfilled without consideration of wider listed authority responsibilities and actions taken in relation to planning and systematic collection of baseline and monitoring information and data.

The retrospective reporting duty applies to the reporting cycle that has just ended. For the first reporting period, this will be the period between commencement of section 18 and 31 March 2026. Listed authorities are required to reflect on the actions they have taken to secure better or further effect of children's rights during this period. Listed authorities may wish to consider reporting on the impact these actions have had on all children or a targeted group of children.

It may be helpful to use your children's rights reports developed under section 2 of Part 1 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 or data from the previous reporting cycles (2017 – 2020, 2020 – 2023) as a baseline to measure progress from.

In addition, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child recommends the "collection of sufficient and reliable data on children, disaggregated to enable identification of discrimination and/or disparities in the realisation of rights.'^[2] Convention on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 5 (2003)

Baseline information, evidence and data are likely to be readily available through existing sources within the listed authority or through other authorities. Examples of this may include The Promise Data Map or local authority joint strategic needs assessment that informs each area's Children's Services Plan. In some areas of children's rights, additional evidence might need to be gathered, for example, to understand which groups of children are most at risk of not having their rights met.

Listed authorities are encouraged to consider the following in collecting evidence:

• the number of children affected by specific areas of children's rights that fall within the responsibility of the listed authority, by their protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation; and socio economic status
• whether evidence exists for all groups of children
• the views and experiences of children in the areas being considered
• information collected by other relevant agencies or services
• whether specific questions can be added to broad public consultations
• whether commissioning and undertaking additional evidence collection is necessary where there may be significant gaps

In many public authorities, responsibility for leading children's rights work may sit with the services which work most closely with children. However, the scope of the UNCRC requirements is wider than just children's services. Therefore, listed authorities need to consider the actions taken by all the operational and support services they control and the impact their actions may have on children's rights. To ensure these actions are fully captured it may be useful to reflect on wider community planning processes such as Local Outcomes Improvement Plans (LOIPs), Children's Services Plans (CSPs), joint plans with health, and strategies for community safety or sports and leisure.

To help stakeholders understand why actions have been taken it is useful to provide some context. You may find the reflective questions set out in chapter 6 (Frameworks for children's rights reporting) of this guidance helpful in this process. For example, actions could be informed by feedback, complaints, risk assessments or consultation with children.

Where the action taken has resulted in a completed piece of work that secured better or further effect of the rights of children, it would be useful to see some reflection on what has gone well and how this might influence future rights initiatives.

4.3.Consultation and engagement

As part of the report development process it may be helpful to engage with infants, children and young people, and their parents/carers to verify findings and understand more fully the impact of actions. This engagement could assist in establishing what more could be done to secure better or further effect of the rights of children. It could also help to identify local priorities and particular areas or issues of concern. In addition, consultation can be helpful to get a sense of how audiences would like to see the report presented and published. For further guidance on participation with children, please refer to section 4.5 of the non-statutory guidance on taking a children's human rights approach.

National organisations which are listed authorities under the Act may wish to consider reporting on how their actions secure better or further the effect of the rights of children at a national level and at a targeted level i.e. with a specific group of children or within a geographic area. National organisations may find it helpful to reflect on the National Performance Framework or reports produced under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 on Children's Service Planning and Corporate Parenting to help identify priority areas for future initiatives and/or alignment with local initiatives where there are shared goals or formal partnership commitments to service delivery or improvement activity.

Involving children and young people in preparing children's rights reports

The participation of children and young people in all decisions that affect them and, in the processes, systems and services that they access is one of the UNCRC requirements through Article 12 (a child's right to be heard).

When developing children's rights reports you should consider engaging with infants, children and young people in line with a children's human rights approach. This means that listed authorities are expected to consider at an early stage how children will be meaningfully involved in developing reports, taking account of diverse experiences, views and circumstances. Approaches should be inclusive so that children can take part, regardless of age, disability, communication needs and circumstances (see also Appendix 4). Further guidance on supporting participation with children and young people can be found in the Scottish Government guidance on children and young people in decision-making.

Where a public authority has previously gathered the views of children through research or a consultation exercise and these are still relevant to the development and publication of children's rights reports then this information should be used.

4.4.Preparation for reporting

The Act is non-prescriptive about the format the children's rights report should take. However, it is important that the report should have a clear structure so stakeholders have assurance that statutory duties have been met. Before preparing a children's rights report, listed authorities may wish to consider the following:

• the UNCRC assessment framework and its applicability for developing children's rights reports (described in chapter 6 'Frameworks for children's rights reporting');
• the wellbeing indicators developed as part of the GIRFEC approach and their links with the UNCRC (see Annex B.2). Please note however that the Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Respected, Responsible, Included (SHANARRI) framework does not satisfy all incorporated articles. As such stakeholders will require to balance Scottish Government policy on GIRFEC with the broader intentions of the Act.
• the CRWIA, originally developed for the Scottish Government which may offer a useful approach for local policy improvement (see section 4.2.1 on decision-making in non-statutory guidance on taking a children's human rights approach);
• the potential links between the section 18 duty and other plans. For example, in relation to Children's Services Plan duties under Part 3 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, you may wish to refer to Children's Services Planning Guidance.

4.5.Requirement to produce a child friendly report

Section 18(4) of the Act states: "A report published under this section must be accompanied by a version of the report that children can understand". The Act does not specify the format the report designed for children should take. There is no requirement or expectation that this be a written report and listed authorities may wish to use another format, particularly paying attention to the views of those for which it is intended.

Easy read and inclusive communication

In order to guarantee their rights, particularly Articles 2, 12, 13, 17 and 42 of the UNCRC, children and young people must have access to information in a format that they understand. When this does not happen, the child may not be able to exercise their rights effectively. For public services which have a direct or indirect impact on the lives of children and young people, consideration should be given to how children and young people are supported to access and understand information.

These rights are further protected within Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: States should proactively disseminate information in the public interest and ensure that access is "easy, prompt, effective and practical". Children have this right too, but their inclusive communication needs are often overlooked, resulting in lengthy, text based, and complex documents.

What is an easy read or inclusive version?

An easy read or inclusive version is created and designed to be understood by the children you wish to communicate with. The approach is about communicating with children to meet their needs and preferences. This applies to all types of communication including verbal and written exchanges, face-to-face, digital, and online interactions. Inclusive communication should also support other audiences to access information, for example, parents with additional support needs may require an easy read report.

Easy read or inclusive versions are usually much shorter than the original text and only aim to capture the main points rather than provide extensive detail. By providing key pieces of information, easy read or inclusive versions can support children's understanding of what is in the original document and signpost readers to other sources if they wish to explore further.

Preparing and publishing an easy read or inclusive version of a children's rights report can be done in a rights-respecting way, whereby the version is created in partnership with children, for example: co-designing materials via workshops; consulting on draft documents then editing based on children's feedback; and regular check-ins to evaluate quality and identify areas for improvement that can be applied to future communications. For further guidance on participation and inclusive communication, including easy read documents, please refer to sections 4.5 and 4.3.1 of the non statutory guidance on taking a children's human rights approach.

4.6.Potential links to other reports or plans

Children's rights reports can be produced and published jointly or combined with other reports.

Joint reporting

Under section 18(2) of the Act listed authorities have an option to report in partnership with one or more other listed authorities. This provision enables two or more listed authorities to prepare and publish a report prepared by them jointly.

This might be appropriate where listed authorities work together collaboratively in furthering the rights of children, for instance, as part of Community Planning Partnership, or as an Integration Joint Board or similar structure. It is for listed authorities to determine where this is appropriate. Where listed authorities choose to jointly fulfil their reporting requirements, we recommend the actions taken are clearly attributable to each partner.

Combined reporting

In preparing the report for publication, one or more listed authorities may also wish to identify opportunities for aligning their children's rights report with other statutory plans or reports. For example, Part 3 (Children's Services Planning) of the 2014 Act confers duties on local authorities and the relevant health board together with specified service providers and other local stakeholders to prepare and publish a Children's Services Plan setting out how outcomes will be improved for children, young people and families living in that area. Part 9 (section 61) of the 2014 Act, requires every corporate parent (which includes all local authorities and health boards) to publish a report for how it has exercised its corporate parenting responsibilities. Similar possibilities exist in relation to the statutory Early Learning and Childcare Plan, prepared under Part 6 of the 2014 Act and in relation to Part 2 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. The 2015 Act places a range of duties on specified community planning partners in order to strengthen community planning (replacing provisions in the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003). The Community Planning Partnership (CPP) is required to prepare and publish a Local Outcomes Improvement Plan (LOIP) which, amongst other things, sets out the local outcomes the CPP has prioritised for improvement. Actions identified under the CPP may contribute directly or indirectly to achieving children's rights.

While there are a number of important differences in the requirements of the reports and plans above, and the reporting requirements of section 18 of the UNCRC Act, they share similar approaches and ambitions for collaborative working with the local community to improve outcomes for children, and to reduce inequalities. Aligning these planning systems, where possible, could bring benefits to both ensuring continuity and highlighting connections between plans, and enhancing the opportunity for giving better and further effect to the rights of children.

If listed authorities wish to align statutory reports/ plans, they must ensure that the reporting requirements set out in section 18(1)(a) and (b) are clearly identifiable within the body of the report/ plan. We recommend listed authorities consider a separate children's rights chapter or annex to make this information as clear as possible to share with Scottish Ministers. General commentary on children's rights not directly related to the section 18(1)(a) and (b) requirements would not satisfy the reporting requirements.

4.7.Governance

As well as determining timescales for the collection and analysis of data ahead of publication of the report, listed authorities will need to have in place robust governance and accountability processes in terms of both demonstrating their role as duty bearers in relation to children's rights and contributing to children's rights reporting as individual organisations, and in partnership where applicable. Listed authorities should ensure that their governing board members, chief officers and workforce are informed about, understand and can demonstrate their organisation's role as duty bearer in relation to children's rights.