First Children's Rights Scheme: child friendly version

2. Actions to help the Scottish Government and public authorities think about children’s rights in everything that we do.

We will use Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessments to help us think about children’s rights in our work

The UNCRC Act says that the Scottish Government must use a Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment – or CRWIA for short.

A CRWIA helps us to think carefully about children’s rights and views when we are making new laws or big decisions that might affect children.

We already use CRWIAs for many decisions that affect children and young people. When we finish one, we put it on our website so that anyone can read it.

Public authorities can also use a CRWIA to think about children’s rights.

Actions:

• We will make sure that people who work in the Scottish Government know how to use the CRWIA properly so they can use it when making new laws and decisions that might affect children and young people.
• We will encourage public authorities to use the CRWIA and to put them on their website so that everyone can see what they’re doing to support children’s rights.

We will think about children’s rights when making decisions about Scotland’s money

The Scottish Government already shares information about how money is being spent on things that will help children and young people. Using a CRWIA helps us think about children’s rights when we are planning how to spend Scotland’s money.

Action:

• Every year, we will use a CRWIA to help us make sure that we spend Scotland’s money in a way that supports children’s rights.

We will make sure that people who work in the Scottish Government and public authorities know about and understand children’s rights

The Scottish Government and public authorities help run lots of important services that children and young people use every day – like schools, health services, libraries and youth clubs. They also provide other services that help children’s families and their communities. We want everyone working in these places to think about children’s rights in everything they do.

Actions:

• We will make sure that everyone who works in the Scottish Government and public authorities can learn about children’s rights and have training if they need it.
• Our new Skills and Knowledge Framework is already helping public authorities to understand how they can respect children’s rights in their work. We will keep this up to date so people always have the correct information about children’s rights.
• We will share real stories about public authorities who are doing a good job of respecting children’s rights to help others learn from them.