Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment (CRWIA) for the National Care Service Charter of Rights

9. As a result of the evidence gathered and analysed against all wellbeing indicators, will the proposal contribute to the wellbeing of children and young people in Scotland?

Safe: Yes

Healthy: Yes

Achieving: Yes

Nurtured: Yes

Active: Yes

Respected: Yes

Responsible: Yes

Included: Yes

If yes, please provide an explanation below:

Safe: Setting out the rights of children and young people in a clear and accessible way helps them to recognise and understand what their rights are. This increased awareness contributes to keeping children and young people safe by enabling them, and the people supporting them, to hold services to account when rights are not met. Sections within the Charter relating to protection from harm help to reinforce the expectation that children and young people should feel safe and how they can access support if they feel this is not happening.

Healthy: The inclusion of child-friendly resources and clear signposting supports children and young people to access services that promote physical and mental health. By improving understanding of rights, children and young people are better supported to make healthy and safe choices about their well-being.

Achieving: Supporting children and young people to learn about, and understand their rights helps them develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to understand what they should expect from services and to communicate when they feel their rights are not being upheld. Raising awareness of rights and how to access support should help children to access the support they need, which may then increase their ability to achieve their full potential and reduce the risk of disadvantage, for example as a result of caring responsibilities.

Nurtured: Helping children and young people to understand their care-specific rights supports them to recognise what they should expect from the care, support and relationships around them. A better understanding of rights helps them to feel respected, listened to and supported within their home, care and learning environments.

Active: Setting out the rights of people and what they should expect from care, supports children to recognise the importance of being listened to and involved in decisions that affect them. Raising awareness of rights and how to access support should help children access the support they need, which may then increase their ability to participate in activities such as play, recreation and sport, and decrease the risk of disadvantage - for example as a result of caring responsibilities.

Respected: Providing clear information on how children and young people should be respected and listened to reinforces the importance of their involvement in decisions that affect them. Explicitly stating this expectation supports children and young people to recognise when they are not being treated with respect and how they can raise concerns or provide feedback to resolve this.

Responsible: Raising awareness of children’s rights through the Charter and signposting to child-friendly resources, helps children and young people understand what they should expect when accessing care services and the role they can play in decisions about their care and support. This in turn supports children and young people to express their views, make informed choices and take an active role in their own care, increasing their personal autonomy.

Included: Describing how people should expect to be included in decisions about their care and support promotes inclusion. Including children and young people in the main Charter ensures they are included alongside other population groups.