Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill: child rights and wellbeing impact assessment (CRWIA)

Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment Template

1. Brief Summary

Type of Proposal – Bill

The Programme for Government 2024-2025, confirmed the introduction of a Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill during this parliamentary year.

The Bill will seek to address economic and wealth inequality by supporting the retention of more wealth in local and regional economies. The provisions in the Bill will seek to ensure consistent implementation of the CWB model of economic development across Scotland and address economic and wealth inequality by supporting the generation, circulation and retention of more wealth in local and regional economies. This will be led by organisations across the public sector landscape, with large anchor organisations playing a leadership role in advancing community wealth building and delivering the benefits it can bring in the form of local jobs and business growth.

1.1 The summary below has been drafted to be a simplified description of the proposals. For more detail, you can read the Policy Memorandum for the Bill. The Bill includes the following duties:

The Scottish Ministers:

1.1.1 The Scottish Ministers will be required to lay in Parliament a CWB statement which sets out measures that the Scottish Ministers intend to take to reduce economic and wealth inequality between individuals and communities by facilitating and supporting the generation, circulation and retention of wealth in local and regional economies. The Scottish Ministers will be required to consult on a draft of this statement and publish their inaugural statement within 18 months of commencement of the relevant section of the Bill. Thereafter, the Scottish Ministers will be required to review the CWB statement before the end of the period of 5 years and a new statement must be laid in parliament every 5 years.

1.1.2 The Scottish Ministers will be required to issue guidance to assist the CWB partnerships (created by the Bill) to produce CWB action plans and to assist the specified bodies in developing their corporate plans and associated strategies. The Scottish Ministers will be required to publish this guidance within 18 months from commencement of the relevant section.

Duties on local authorities and Relevant Public Bodies:

1.1.3 Local authorities and relevant public bodies listed at Annex A will form CWB partnerships. They will then be required to jointly prepare and implement a CWB action plan to outline the measures they plan to take to facilitate and support the generation, circulation and retention of wealth in the local economy. This plan must be consulted upon by the local authority. It must be prepared by the CWB partnership not later than 3 years after commencement of the relevant section of the Bill and published by the local authority as soon as reasonably practicable afterward. Local authorities and relevant public bodies would be required to review their CWB action plan at their discretion and revise it at least every 5 years.

1.1.4 This duty will also allow the flexibility for CWB partnerships to work together to produce action plans on a regional basis.

1.1.5 CWB Partnerships will be required to have due regard to guidance produced by the Scottish Ministers while developing their CWB action plan.

Duties on Specified Bodies – full list is contained in the Annex to this advice:

1.1.6 The specified bodies listed at Annex B will be required to have due regard to CWB guidance produced by the Scottish Ministers when developing their corporate plan and associated delivery strategies:

Start date of proposal’s development: Proposals for CWB legislation have been drawn from the consultation on CWB which took place from January until May 2023. A full independent analysis of proposals was published in October 2023.

Start date of CRWIA process: The CRWIA process started in October 2024 following discussions on policy and legislative content to support the CWB Bill.

2. With reference given to the requirements of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 (Annex 1), which aspects of the proposal are relevant to/impact upon children’s rights?

There are no provisions of the proposed CWB Bill that are considered to be directly relevant to the UNCRC requirements. However, there is potential for the legislation to contribute to an overall positive impact on a child’s rights and wellbeing. Positive impacts will be brought about through the resultant development of the CWB statement and CWB action plans which we anticipate will establish actionable outputs.

CWB provides a strategic framework to build on some of the progressive policies and action already underway in Scotland to tackle inequalities and transform how our economy operates. Whilst the provisions contained in the Bill do not have a direct impact on a child’s rights or wellbeing, the implementation of the provisions could significantly improve the lives of people living in Scotland, as evidenced by the views of those who took part in the lived experience panel.^[1] A fairer and more resilient economy will create a stable environment for children and young people, which will improve their longer term prospects. The CWB Bill will help to ensure more wealth is retained locally, creating a stronger economy, leading to higher wages and increased household income, more job opportunities and business growth. As set out in the Public Health Scotland Health Impact Assessment for Community Wealth Building, for children, higher parental or household wealth is positively associated with their subsequent educational attainment and earnings.^[2]

3. Please provide a summary of the evidence gathered which will be used to inform your decision-making and the content of the proposal

Evidence from:

The Scottish Government worked with the Poverty Alliance to test with people with lived experience of poverty the practical potential of CWB to enable a fairer economy. As the CWB approach is implemented and embedded across Scotland, we will lead partners in focusing on the views and needs of citizens to achieve positive outcomes. A summary of the Report^[3] can be found at Annex C.

In addition to this, the Scottish Government worked with Public Health Scotland to assess and recognise what impact the CWB model had for overall health and wellbeing. The recently published PHS ‘Community Wealth Building in Scotland: A Health Impact Assessment’^[4] highlighted how taking a CWB approach to economic development could help to address health inequalities. Recognising the potential positive impact to support better health outcomes for children and young person. This builds on the report, ‘The mental health and wellbeing impact of a community wealth building programme in England: a difference-in-differences study’^[5], published in June 2023, which reported a reduction in the need for mental health services following the adoption of the CWB economic development approach.

The Scottish Government held a public consultation^[6] which ran from 31 January to 09 May 2023. External consultants conducted an analysis of the responses and their consultation analysis report was published in October 2023 alongside the consultation responses and ‘We asked, you said, we did’ on Citizen Space. A summary of the Report is included in Annex D.

4. Further to the evidence described at ‘3’ have you identified any 'gaps' in evidence which may prevent determination of impact? If yes, please provide an explanation of how they will be addressed

No gaps have been identified.

5. Analysis of Evidence

Whilst the proposals contained in the Bill are not expected to have a direct impact on the lives of children and young people, the Scottish Government believe the provisions contained in the CWB statement and CWB action plans will benefit the lives of children and young people in Scotland through improvements of the overall economy of Scotland. This is based on work carried out by the Poverty Alliance, Public Health Scotland and the Scottish Government public consultation which suggested that by creating a stronger economy the CWB Bill will ensure more wealth is retained locally, and potentially increase household income. The expected actions will help address children and young people’s immediate and long-term needs by creating a stronger more resilient economy, leading to higher wages, more job opportunities, and creating a more stable environment for children and young people with greater longer term prospects.

6. What changes (if any) have been made to the proposal as a result of this assessment?

No changes have been made.