UNCRC Implementation Embedding in Public Services Group minutes: 20 November 2023

Attendees and apologies

• Lyndsey Saki, Scottish Government (Chair) (LS)
• Luiza Leite, Scottish Government (minutes) (LL)
• Aqeel Ahmed, Scottish Government (AA)
• Elaine Park, Scottish Government (EP)
• Gita Sharkey, Scottish Government (GS) 
• Lee Campbell, Scottish Government (LC2)
• Rebecca Henderson, Scottish Government (RH)
• Shona Spence, Scottish Government (SS)
• Colin Grant, ADES (CG)
• Darren Little, Dumfries and Galloway Council (DL) 
• Fatoumata Drammeh, Unicef UK (FD)
• Kirsty Nelson Children’s Hearings Scotland (KN)
• Laura Crossan, Police Scotland (LC)
• Lucinda Rivers, Unicef UK (LR)
• Maria Doyle, Together Scotland (MD)
• Rebecca Spillane, The Improvement Service (RS)
• Rebekah Cameron-Berry, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) (RCB)

Apologies

• Abbie Montgomery-Fox, Children’s Hearing Scotland
• Alison Sutherland, Social Work Scotland
• Alistair Stobie, SOLAR
• Cathy Asante, Scottish Human Rights Commission
• Deborah Davidson, ADES
• Eloise Di Gianni, Observatory for Children’s Human Rights Scotland 
• Felicia Szloboda, The Improvement Service
• Joanne Glennie, Right There
• Julie Williams, Quarriers
• Juliet Harris, Together Scotland
• Kenny Meechan, Glasgow City Council/SOLAR 
• Nicola Hogg, SOLAR
• Sarah Rodger, SOLAR
• Suzanne Brown, Quarriers

Items and actions

1. Welcome and introductions

LS welcomed attendees and introduced new members who had recently joined the Embedding Children’s Rights in Public Services team: Elaine Park, Rebecca Henderson, Aqeel Ahmed and Lee Campbell. LS also introduced Kirsty Nelson from Children’s Hearings Scotland who was attending on behalf of Abbie Montgomery-Fox, and listed apologies.

There was an update to membership as Nancy Fancott has now left CCPS and Megan Williams has been invited to attend future meetings.

2. Actions from previous meeting

Minutes from the previous meeting on 21 August 2023 have been shared with members and will be made available later on the group page.

Outstanding actions:

There were two actions captured at the August meeting, both of which were now complete:

• LL to share Caroline’s presentations and a link to the Participation Framework contract.
• MD to link LS with a contact from the Child Rights Alliance in Ireland in regards to integrated impact assessments.

3. Update on Reconsideration of the Bill

SS provided an update on the UNCRC Bill.

The Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee had now heard evidence on the amendments from duty bearers, rights holders and an independent academic and had issued a letter with a report on its evidence sessions and its recommendations. Letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice (parliament.scot)

A number of the recommendations were highlighted:-

The Committee is satisfied that the Scottish Government has explored all realistic alternatives and, in the circumstances, is content with the resolution reached. However, it is clear that rights holders and duty bearers now face a complex landscape to navigate and ask that the Scottish Government make available all resources necessary to ensure they are adequately supported.

The Committee considers it vital that public authorities have the necessary information to ensure they are able to comply with the Bill. That will require them to have clarity on what is and what is not within scope. The Committee welcomes:

• the Scottish Government’s commitment to continue to work with public authorities
• the range of support it intends to provide in the form of statutory guidance and non-statutory guidance
• the UNCRC innovation fund; and
• that the national child rights skills and knowledge framework will be available as a training resource in 2024.

The Committee notes positive comments from the Children’s Commissioner that the Bill will give children and young people additional protection and powers and introduce the Children’s Rights Scheme and child friendly complaints mechanisms.

The Committee considers it is vital that rights holders are clear in what they can and cannot do in the event of a breach and that the framework being introduced can be strengthened over time. It welcomes the Cabinet Secretary’s commitment both to continue to work with children and their representatives and to involve them to ensure their priorities are front and centre.

As part of that work the Committee encourages the Scottish Government to give consideration to each of the four asks from Together’s letter of 27 October 2023 to ensure the gaps in rights protection are addressed.

Next steps were for the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice to respond to the letter and for the Parliamentary Bureau to agree a time for the debate in Parliament – we expected this to be before the end of the year.

(Updated post meeting on 23 November): The Reconsideration Stage Proceedings for the UNCRC Bill will take place on Thursday 7 December 2023 as listed on the Scottish Parliament website.

4. Update on support to public authorities

LS shared an update on some key work to support implementation, first providing a recap of current UNCRC resources that have been made available for public authorities:

• The Children’s Rights Unit funded the Improvement Service to develop the Understanding children’s human rights guide for senior leaders in public services in Scotland. This introduces the UNCRC and shares what the UNCRC Bill will mean for public services. It is targeted at senior leaders in public services but is a rich resource that could provide a useful introduction to most professionals. Members were encouraged to share with their networks.
• To support children to understand their rights a short animation had been created with Carers Trust Scotland, Parent Network Scotland, Renfrewshire Youth and Partners in Advocacy. Their animation is a helpful introduction to the UNCRC and shows a journey through a community and the types of interactions young people might have with public authorities about their rights. It’s the kind of resource that may be used to introduce child rights at a short all-staff meeting, to help people to understand how children’s rights apply in their role.
• The Children’s Rights Unit has developed participation guidance to support those who have to or want to engage with children and young people as part of their decision-making.
• The Improvement Service has created a Getting Ready for UNCRC framework for all public authorities. This was adapted from the self-evaluation framework that they developed for local authorities. We’ve heard Rebecca speak previously about the one-on-one support that IS are providing to local authorities to work through that. This resource will support organisations to consider where they are in terms of their readiness for incorporation, help them to identify gaps or areas for improvements, and inform discussions on next steps. We hope to support other public authorities to make use of the framework.
• Anyone can sign up to the Children’s rights knowledge hub, which is an online community of people working to ensure that children's rights are realised in Scotland, with a particular focus on how public bodies are implementing the UNCRC. (please note you need to sign up to access the link above)

There is another completed resource which is not publicly available yet. An “Introduction to Children’s Rights e-learning module” has been developed for Scottish Government and Executive Agency staff.

As shared previously, options are being explored to allow this e-learning to be hosted on external facing platforms such as NHS Education Scotland’s TURAS platform. LS noted that a number of members had previously expressed interest in hosting this resource on their platforms. The team will be in touch once this has been piloted.

Skills & Knowledge Framework 

EP provided an update on the Children’s Rights Skills and Knowledge Framework which is being developed to support public authorities to embed children’s rights in public services by taking a children’s human rights approach. This work is being led by JRS Knowhow, working in partnership with Just Right Scotland, Children’s Parliament and Together. 

The Skills and Knowledge Framework will provide a single point to easily access new and existing resources and training on children’s rights. It will be a flexible and adaptable resource that can be used across a wide range of sectors. 

The project team is working closely with stakeholders to support its development. These include public authorities, a Children and Families Panel, and a Professionals Panel.  

The structure of the Framework will allow members of the workforce to assess the level of skills and knowledge they need for their role and access relevant content, making learning of a broad subject area more manageable.  

EP confirmed that we are expecting an early digital/online version of the Framework in December, and asked that members get in touch if they would be able to user test this with the suppliers. 

Publication of Non-Statutory Guidance

As stated in committee sessions, the Scottish Government intends to publish non-statutory guidance to support public services and other organisations to take a child rights-based approach before the end of the year. Many members in attendance are also members of the UNCRC guidance subgroup, and will know that we have had to cancel previous meetings. LS noted that it is our intention to send out a copy of the draft non-statutory guidance for any final comments after this meeting. Unfortunately, given the deadline, we will only be able to give a week for comments to come back to us.

Action: LS to share a copy of the draft non-statutory guidance with members for any final comments, with a short turnaround of one week for feedback.

Publication of Statutory Guidance

LS confirmed that Scottish Government will publish statutory guidance to support those with duties under the Bill in due course. The statutory guidance will be universal to ensure all public authorities are aware of their duties and how to fulfil them. Sector experts will be best placed to adapt guidance for their own contexts.

The Embedding Team were preparing for the consultation on the draft statutory guidance. The team will also work with partners to consult with children and young people. The consultation could not take place until shortly after Royal Assent.

The public consultation will run for 12 weeks. The responses will then be analysed and a report sent to the Embedding Team, before the guidance can be updated and finalised for publication. Therefore, statutory guidance may not be available for commencement of the duties in the Bill.

In addition to resources, the Scottish Government is providing direct support to local authorities to prepare for commencement, through our project with the Improvement Service. In recognition of the reach and impact of the heath sector on children’s lives, the Embedding Team are currently finalising the detail of a project with a health board to provide some dedicated resource to the health sector.

The intention is to mirror the support provided by the Improvement Service to Local authorities, including supporting health boards to undertake self-evaluations on their readiness for commencement of the UNCRC Bill.

Colleagues have suggested that in the health sector particular consideration might need to be given to the rights of 16 and 17-year-olds in adult health settings. With this in mind, it has been suggested to Health Board Chief executives that they may wish to assign a senior manager to take the lead on UNCRC implementation.

Child Rights Regulation and Improvement action group

AA provided an update on the new Regulation and Improvement action group, which was set up to support regulators to embed child rights considerations into their practice and the practice of the organisations they reach. The group will assist the Scottish Government to identify and implement practical steps to further embed children’s rights within regulatory frameworks and inspection regimes. The next meeting will focus on the outcomes and outputs of the group and what we want to achieve. We are basing our discussion on the five key principles to taking a child’s rights approach developed by the Children’s Commissioner for Wales. It is felt these principles will help us collectively identify areas where we can improve consistency, such as by introducing an overarching set of principles for engaging with children and young people.

LS invited any questions or comments from the group.

RCB asked a question regarding the SPSO pilot, LS explained this doesn’t sit with the Embedding Team but she would connect RCB with Caroline McMenemy in the Unit who should be able to progress this.

Action: LS to connect RCB with Caroline McMenemy on SPSO pilot.

RS shared the following link in the chat: Blogs | Improvement Service

Resources | Improvement Service.

LC introduced herself having taken over from Jane Donaldson in Police Scotland, and noted it might be useful to be included in the Guidance and Regulation & Improvement Groups. AA noted that Craig Naylor from HMICS currently sits on the Regulation & Improvement Group but the Team could look at expanding membership. LS agreed to send LC the Terms of reference for the Regulation & Improvement Group to see whether it would be helpful for Police Scotland to sit on it also.

Action: LL to share Regulation & Improvement Group Terms of Reference document with LC.

DL asked about raising awareness and further support for third sector / children’s services understanding what their duties are under the Bill. LS agreed to check in with Paul Gorman who leads on the Empowered Children and Young People programme strand. LS also noted the programme update would be a good place to address this.

RS noted that the Improvement Service is meeting with the CPP managers network in December. Barnardo’s also has a UNCRC project that could potentially be of interest to others. The project is about building their own capacity – particularly thinking about procurement agenda and commissioning services. RS agreed to try to share a link with the group.

GS confirmed that the Team was having discussions with colleagues leading on business on engaging with private sector organisations. The Unit will also be exploring the development of flowcharts with CYP on sources of help and actions open to children and young people if they consider their rights are not being met.

RS shared in meeting chat: New resources published today by Children 1st for Children and Young People and Parents to understand Children's Rights https://www.children1st.org.uk/childrenshumanrights

5. Update on Innovation Fund projects

LS gave an update on the UNCRC Innovation Fund and the projects being funded. It was agreed that the presentation would be shared alongside the minutes of the meeting.

The Innovation Fund has a budget of £500,000, to support innovation and improvement projects led by local authorities and public bodies listed in s.16 of the UNCRC Bill (now covered under section 19 of the UNCRC Act)

Applications were received from 23 local authorities, seven NHS Boards and three other bodies. Several applications involved listed bodies working collaboratively with other partners, e.g. third sector. 

LS shared how decisions were made in choosing which applications were funded:

• Corra assessed eligible applications, rating the project plan and intended outcomes, fit with fund aims, evidence of need and involvement of children and young people. 
• Corra and SG worked together to agree a longlist of the 19 top rated applications informed by advice from relevant policy teams. This was given to a Young People’s panel for them to review and agree a shortlist at a two-day residential. 
• Youth Scotland established and facilitated the Young People’s panel with seven members who brought relevant perspectives from groups prioritised in the Fund: one member is from an ethnic minority; two have learning difficulties; three identify as LGBTQ+; one is a young parent; and one is care experienced. All are from areas of socio-economic deprivation. 
• The Young People’s panel recommended a shortlist of eleven applications, totalling around £650K. Their shortlist included ten projects led by local authorities and one led by another body.  
• Representatives from the Children’s Rights Unit and Promise team reviewed the young people’s report and relevant applications and chose eight projects for funding, totalling a little under £500k (£497,657). 
• Consideration was given to the spread across children at risk of not having their rights met, across UNCRC articles, across sectors and across regions.

The final projects are all led by local authorities. However, the projects include partnerships with youth clubs, a charity, an arts organisation, Education Scotland, NHS Boards, and a university.

LS provided a summary of the approved projects as below:

Argyll and Bute Council will work with children to design a system of awards that will motivate departments with implementing the UNCRC. There will be initial roadshows where staff will hear from young people about what they want from public services in relation to child rights. There will be a particular focus on staff who don’t traditionally work with children, to support them to learn new practice and communicate directly with children.  

The project will be designed to address inequitable access and ensure that the challenges children and young people face due to remote, rural and island living are recognised. 

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council) in partnership with Education Scotland, will work with children and young people and bring about change within the education system.  

The project will work with 20 pre-school, 200 primary school, and 400 secondary school age children and young people. Gaelic Medium Education work will reach all 32 local authorities. 

Learners across a range of educational settings who face an increased risk of not having their rights fulfilled will explore and co-create a local curriculum that fulfils their rights. The children involved will include interrupted learners, (pupils who are unable to attend school due to a medical condition) Gaelic Medium learners, children and young people in secure residential centres and refugees. The work will inform education reform. 

Dundee City Council will work with local partner organisations to pilot a “Bonding with your Bump” initiative. This will involve taking a participatory approach with families to design resources that will have a positive impact on the early stages of bonding and attachment. An online resource and short booklet will be created to provide a personalised record of pre-birth bonding.   

Work will continue with the families and babies, supporting participation with infants. This will build on the Voice of the Infant guidelines, launching the infant pledge in Dundee with families and all staff across health, education and social work and putting this policy in to practice. 

This work will include parents-to-be and children most at risk of not having their rights met e.g. young parents, ethnic minority children, children affected by poverty, and children affected by alcohol and drug use.  

East Renfrewshire Council will develop a Youth Assembly to ensure that all young people’s voices are represented in discussions that affect policy and decision-making. There will be a particular focus on children with additional support needs and affected by poverty.  

The assembly will become an official and consistent forum for consultation between young people, senior council officers and elected members. The project will see 60 primary and secondary school-aged young people engaged in residential activities and development of the Youth Assembly. 

Fife Council and NHS Fife Community Children’s Services will develop several new approaches and initiatives to advance children’s rights through: 

• A peer-led ambassador programme for children and young people to promote inclusivity and speak up for their own needs and rights. 
• Co-designing a Children and Young Person’s Charter.  
• Designing a participation and engagement strategy for Children’s Services. 
• Creating a Youth Empowerment Panel for children to have a say in matters that affect them.  

NHS Fife Community Children’s Services will ensure that the work extends beyond the local authority, helping embed this across the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership. 

Scottish Borders Council will develop and deliver a youth-led quality assurance programme for public services, delivered in partnership with a local membership body for youth centres.  

Young people will receive training and undertake the development of a Children’s Rights Quality Assurance Framework. They will also act as ‘testers’ or evaluators for Council services as ‘Mystery Shoppers’. 

A group of 10-12 young people aged 14+  who often face social exclusion will be recruited. 

South Lanarkshire Council established a Pathfinders programme where Council staff work alongside education services to provide early support to young people identified as having barriers to participation in education and development, or on the edges of care. 

They will build on this by delivering a personal development programme for young people on the edges of care, to become a Leadership group. This will be an authority wide constituted group.  

The group will design and lead consultation events throughout their seven high schools and lead a conference with key partners, sharing their life experiences, barriers faced, and support needed to fulfil their rights and shape future policy and provision.  

Perth and Kinross Council will use a new toolkit for professionals working with children whose parent or caregiver is going through the criminal justice system, to ensure the child’s voice is heard and their support needs are identified. The toolkit is a version of a child rights impact assessment, created by the Prison Reform Trust. 

They will work with Families Outside, a national charity supporting families in Scotland affected by imprisonment. The project aims to influence decisions made by those involved in supporting children. It will deliver training and support for the Community Justice Team to complete the toolkit alongside 194 children and young people. 

Next steps:

Corra will support a peer group of the funded organisations, to ensure lessons are learned and shared. 

The Young People’s panel will continue their involvement by reviewing the End of Project reports and films.   

(Updated post-meeting) The Children’s Rights Unit also published a blog on how the young people were involved in the Innovation Fund process: Participation Involving young people in assessing funding applications - Participation (blogs.gov.scot)

Action: LL to share the Innovation Fund presentation slides after the meeting.

LS welcomed any questions or comments from members.

RS noted that there is an upcoming meeting between Corra and the Improvement Service, who is keen to find out about lessons learned from applications that didn’t receive funding, and whether there are any common themes. The Improvement Service is also keen to learn from beyond the projects’ completion dates, i.e., any lessons learned, through peer learning. There has been some feedback around the requirement for lead and partner organisations, and some national organisations may have missed out locally because they were asked to submit one application. LS suggested it might be useful for LL to join that meeting with Corra to understand this feedback and share any learning with the team.

6. Discussion on plans to engage with listed authorities

AA provided an update on current plans to engage with listed authorities.

The Embedding team is developing plans to engage with the listed authorities in the Bill as soon as practicable. The intention is to work with the relevant sponsor teams in Scottish Government first, to ensure that they will be prepared to answer any questions and support organisations.

The team has developed a Microsoft form for sponsor teams to fill in, to capture some baseline information about organisations and will meet with them to ensure they understand the requirements in the Bill. After internal engagement, members of the team intend to meet with appropriate representatives from the listed authorities to ask the same questions, share the available UNCRC resources and discuss their capacity building needs.

From this internal and external engagement, key themes will be pulled out and a capacity building plan developed that addresses listed authorities’ needs. This will inform how the team prioritises engagement with the listed authorities and the type of support the team will offer. For example, the team may be able to make connections between organisations to provide peer support, or evidence that there’s a particular area where many organisations need help and run learning sessions.

Once individual baseline meetings are completed, and a capacity building plan is developed, the aim is to meet organisations individually to offer tailored advice (a bit like an advice surgery) with the longer-term aim of bringing together a network of representatives from each of the listed authorities to share common concerns, challenges and good practice to embedding UNCRC.

The hope is that a clear picture can be gained across all listed authorities to understand their reach, the services they provide, and if they feel they have the resource, skills and knowledge to embed children’s rights and what it is they need to help them prepare.

The team would be happy to keep you informed of these discussions and is  currently devising a suitable mechanism to track the responses received and input any intelligence gathered to allow for high level insights to be shared. This might also give group members an opportunity to identify where they can also offer assistance as the team develops their capacity building plan based on the information gathered.

The hope is to collaborate better to find out what works, and highlight existing resources to avoid duplication. There are a variety of resources nationally but these might well exist locally too. Where locally held resources exist colleagues will be encouraged to upload them onto the knowledge hub so that everyone can access them.

AA invited any questions and comments from members.

Members highlighted that engagement with the Improvement Service, Solar, and others with service specific insight would be helpful. Services could benefit from a consistent approach in this.

RS is happy to share contacts with any organisations which want to have a further chat around UNCRC.

LS explained that non-executive agencies will be our focus priority to start.

AA shared the draft survey for sponsor teams on the screen and asked members for comments.

Members noted it would be helpful to review the link over a couple of days to consider the questions and share any feedback. LS agreed the team could send a link to the form or a word document listing all questions.

Action: LL to share a link to the survey with members for further comments.

Could be useful to add something additional to get a sense of how ready the organisation feels currently - what preparation have they done/ are they planning to embed UNCRC. 

AA asked members to share any intelligence on organisations getting ready for the Bill. RS noted SQA and the Care Inspectorate are using the Getting Ready framework.

7. Any other business

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday 19 February 2024 from 10:00 – 12:00.