First Children's Rights Scheme: child friendly version

4. Actions to help make sure children and young people are listened to and that their views are taken seriously

We will involve children and young people in our work and the decisions that affect them.

Every year, children and young people meet with the Scottish Cabinet – this is the group of Government Ministers who make big decisions for Scotland. They also meet with the Scottish Government’s Executive Team – these are the people who help run the Government day to day. At these meetings, children and young people talk about the issues that matter most to them. They speak on behalf of all children in Scotland and share six ‘calls to action’ – these are changes that they want the Cabinet and Executive Team to make.

We also have a new agreement called the Children and Young People’s Participation Framework. This helps us to work with groups and charities who support children from lots of different backgrounds so that we can listen to more children’s voices and views when making our plans.

Actions:

• The Scottish Cabinet and Executive Team will keep meeting with children and young people every year to make sure that children’s voices are heard at the very top of Government.
• We will help people who work in the Scottish Government to learn more about how to support children and young people to give their views, and make sure they listen to children from all different backgrounds.

We will make sure that children and young people get information they can understand, and help them to share their views in ways that work best for them

The UNCRC Act says that children and young people should be given information in ways they can understand. They should also be supported to give their views in ways that work best for them. This is called ‘inclusive communication’.

Actions:

• We will keep creating child-friendly versions of our reports and guidance so that children and young people can understand what we are saying about their rights.
• We are giving money to Scotland’s youth charity, Young Scot, to help them share child-friendly information on their website about Scottish Government plans and other topics that children and young people might find useful.
• We will think about any extra support or training on inclusive communication that public authorities might need.