UNCRC Implementation Guidance Reference Group minutes: 6 September 2021

Attendees and apologies

In attendance:

• Helen Fogarty (Chair), Scottish Government – HF
• Luiza Leite, (Minutes) Scottish Government – LL 
• Lawrence Mearns, Scottish Government – LM
• Jill Laspa, COSLA – JL 
• Dragan Nastic, Unicef – DN 
• Darren Little, Dumfries and Galloway Council – DL 
• Maria Doyle, Together – MD 
• Suzanne Brown, SCRON – SB 
• Daniel Cosgrove (on behalf of Lucinda Rivers), Unicef – DC
• Deborah Wason, Public Health Scotland – DW 
• Nicola Hogg, SOLAR – NH 
• Colin Convery, Police Scotland – CC
• Brian Anderson, Police Scotland – BA
• Morag Driscoll, Law Society of Scotland – MD
• Afson Barekat/Anna Munro, Scottish Government 

Apologies:

• Lucinda Rivers, Unicef 
• Deborah Davison, ADES 
• Julie Williams, CCPS 
• Kavita Chetty/Cathy Assante, Scottish Human Rights Commission 
• Sarah Rodger, SOLAR 
• Juliet Harris, Together 
• Kenny Meechan/Alistair Stobie, SOLAR 
• Alison Sutherland, Social Work Scotland 

Items and actions

Introduction and updates on key issues

The Chair welcomed attendees followed by introductions. 

The third strategic implementation group was held on Thursday 26th August. Topics discussed included redress, and the rights resolution strand was introduced. 
  
Minutes will be available soon on the group page.

No further update on the Supreme Court hearing. 

Minutes and actions from previous meeting

Minutes from the previous meeting on 23 August 2021 have been agreed and published on the group page ahead of this meeting. No points of accuracy received. 

Progress on the introductory guidance

LM provided introduced the revised draft of the guidance:

• a revised version of the guidance based on members feedback was shared with members on Friday 3 September. The structure of the document has been reordered following feedback from group
• the language of the slides has been revised to be more accessible where possible
• an additional slide has been added setting out the impact of UNCRC implementation for children and young people in their own voices
• the length of the slides has been cut back from 55 to 35 slides

Review suggested changes and feedback from group:

Members agreed that making the language as accessible as possible would help in introducing children rights to those who are not as familiar.

Action:

• all to provide any further feedback/suggestions on revising language 

NH queried whether all guidance would be statutory, Chair confirmed that whilst there will be statutory guidance, not all of supporting resources them will be. 

Action:

• SG to revisit the line in guidance in relation to future statutory guidance

Overall members agreed on the importance to put children’s rights into context and how it interact with other rights. There is an important message that children’s rights does not compete with wider human rights, but rather complement them.

Action:

• LM to ensure this point is clearly addressed in guidance

Testing the guidance with a broader audience 

Members discussed sharing the updated guidance with a broader audience to test its usefulness and accessibility. It was agreed that the SG will update the guidance by the end of this week, and issue a set of questions for members to consider. These will then form part of a survey which will be circulated for further testing.

The following groups/networks were suggested:

• Directors of Public Health
• SOLAR colleagues
• UNICEF programme team
• Strategic Leads Network
• members of SCRON
• members of Together who are public authorities/agencies 

Action:

• members to email LM suggesting any groups and networks they wish to nominate (including a full breakdown of members)

Communications and awareness raising 

At the last meeting of the WG members noted that a shared communications strategy and toolkit would be useful in ensuring consistency of messaging regarding the UNCRC.

It was suggested that the toolkit should be inclusive of logos, branding and materials that public bodies can use to promote the UNCRC. Some sector specific information for health, police, etc could also be useful to include, as well as materials for parents and key professionals.

Chair agreed sector specific information may be useful, but may need to be phased and adapted by those bodies. Common messaging and shared lines that all public bodies could use would be useful. 

GIRFEC comms already covers a lot of UNCRC and children’s rights issues, however members feel that although these are closely aligned, there are concerns some public bodies think that children rights refers to children’s services only, where it is broader. Separate branding and materials may be useful, and it’s important to have a clear list of key messages. 

Action:

• chair agreed to flag comms and as a topic for consideration by the SIB

While key messages may differ for audiences, members discussed the usefulness of creating a frequently asked questions document to address some of the common questions such as  perceptions of competing rights. Members agreed a Q and A/shared messages document would be useful as a starting point, and to consider what else would be useful. 

Action:

• start a shared Q and A messages document with feedback from members. Gather this feedback as part of the testing process

AOB

Chair to invite Nicola Hughes to deliver an update on the scoping of skills and framework and any e-learning.