UNCRC Implementation: Guidance Reference Group minutes - 26 July 2021

Attendees and apologies

In attendance:

• Helen Fogarty (Chair), Scottish Government – HF 
• Luiza Leite (Minutes), Scottish Government – LL
• Deborah Davison, ADES – DD 
• Jill Laspa, COSLA – JL 
• Darren Little, Dumfries and Galloway Council – DL 
• Colin Convery, Police Scotland – CC 
• Maria Doyle, Together – MD 
• Suzanne Brown, SCRON – SB 
• Joanne Glennie, CCPS – JG 
• Julie Williams, CCPS – JW 
• Alison Sutherland, Social Work Scotland – AS 
• Morag Driscoll, Law Society of Scotland – MD 

Apologies:

• Lawrence Mearns, Scottish Government
• Jeremy Slynn, Scottish Government
• Deborah Wason, Public Health Scotland 
• Lucinda Rivers, Unicef 
• Dragan Nastic, Unicef 
• Juliet Harris, Together 
• Kenny Meechan / Nicola Hogg / Alistair Stobie / Sarah Rodger, SOLAR  
• Kavita Chetty, Scottish Human Rights Commission

Items and actions

Welcome and updates from Chair

Chair welcomed attendees and noted the shorter meeting format. A draft of the introductory guidance that has been thoroughly reviewed and works in the context of the Supreme Court reference will be shared with the Working Group on 28 July 

Implementation work underway to establish children and young people’s consortium to ensure views of those most at risk of not having their rights heard are captured. Consortium will be tested before carrying out competitive procurement exercise. 

Third sector proposals roundtable taking place on Wednesday 28 July – Chair will keep group updated on developments. 

The Strategic Implementation Board has its second meeting on Thursday 29th. The agenda will include deep dives on two of the strands, Embedding Children’s Rights in Public Services and Empowered Children and Young People. Webpage for the SIB will go live shortly after meeting where all minutes will be shared. 

Chair had no further update on Supreme Court ruling, as a judgment is awaited. 

Action:

• LL to get in touch with colleagues regarding minutes of upcoming SIB to share with CC (and members) as soon as they’re available after Thursday

Minutes and actions from previous meeting

Members agreed on last meetings minutes which will later be available on the group page.

Action:

• LL to circulate link to participation resource: Decision-making: children and young people's participation

Update on guidance approach: introduction to children’s rights training tool

Helen provided an update the group on our approach. The introductory Guidance is being based on the existing Introduction to Children’s Rights training. 

Helen welcomed feedback on what could be added, amended or omitted in an expanded version. The following main points were captured:

• accessibility- The new PowerPoint format is easier to digest than a word document, information is broken down into sections which is easier to take in
• still looking to add in sources of interpretation, general comments, concluding observations, etc
• examples of real life contexts would be useful (e.g. stop and search CRWIA, and other CRWIA examples). Chair welcomed group to submit examples. Universal examples that cover adult services would be very helpful
• at local level, members suggested this can be made into an e-learning module, and that way local authorities can track who has completed it
• it was suggested that a note linking children’s right to the Promise is included
• the slide on the background of Human Rights in Europe be deleted in favour of more content of practical applications of a child rights based approach

Members queried if a child friendly version of this guidance document will be prepared. Education Scotland could provide links to further resources. Chair confirmed that empowered CYP strand is working on that area more widely. We have a guide for CYP explaining their rights which is distributed widely and contains links to other resources. Members are also encouraged to suggest additional resources that could be including in the introductory guidance.

Thinking ahead: 
What does children’s rights look like in different contexts? A skills and knowledge framework being scoped which will look at this in more depth. 

Rights Respecting Schools and workforce training – looking at existing programmes, and how they can be used to support rights. Helen noted that SG was in discussions with UNICEF.  

Helen confirmed that the aim is to share a draft with the Working Group on Wednesday 28 July. We’ll liaise with GIRFEC to ensure our work is connected as part of the wider programme.

AOB

Communications around guidance will be covered at the next meeting, we will look to revisit the draft cover letter and questions. 

The next meeting will be on Monday 9 August 2021.