UNCRC Implementation Embedding in Public Services Group minutes: 08 June 2026

Attendees and apologies

• Lyndsey Saki, Scottish Government (Chair) – LS
• Ezhilarasi Mahadevan, Scottish Government (Minutes) – EM 
• Luiza Leite, Scottish Government (Minutes) – LLe 
• Aqeel Ahmed, Scottish Government – AA 
• Liz Levy, Scottish Government – LL
• Clare McGuire, Public Services Delivery Scotland (PSD Scotland) – CM
• Darren Little, Dumfries and Galloway Council – DL  
• Denise Rooney, Qualifications Authority (QS)  – DR 
• Katrina Reid, Public Health Scotland (PHS) – KR
• Mary Campbell, Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights) – MC
• Rebecca Spillane, The Improvement Service – RS
• Sarah Weir, Children’s Hearings Scotland – SW
• Rhona Robb, Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) – RR

Apologies

• Juliet Henderson, Police Scotland
• Julie Williams, Scottish Children’s Rights Officers Network (SCRON) 

Items and actions

Welcome and Introductions

LS welcomed members and noted apologies. Rhona Robb joined for the first time as the recently appointed national chair of the UNCRC Peer Leads Network within health.

Minutes and actions from previous meeting

LS went through the actions from the March meeting. There were four ongoing actions:

• members to contact LS with suggestions of resources or case studies to be included in the Children’s Rights Skills and Knowledge Framework
• members interested in reviewing the draft non-statutory guidance to contact LS.
• LLe to share a copy of the draft guidance with reviewers once ready
• members to share examples of resources or good practice where evolving capacities and the best interests of the child are considered

There were no requested changes to the minutes, which will be made available on the group page soon.

Update on support to public authorities

Members received the UNCRC Strategic Implementation Board highlight report from April ahead of the meeting. LS highlighted some key points which were relevant to the group: 

• Clan Childlaw (Community Law Advice Network) and Just Right Scotland were successful in securing UNCRC programme grant funding to support the continued external and independent provision of legal information and legal representation for children and young people
• the terms of reference for the independent review of the Scottish legislative framework for children’s care have been published. The review will fully consider the requirements of the UNCRC Act and may recommend how children’s rights protections can be applied more widely across the devolved legislative landscape
• a menu of introductory training options has been added to the Children’s Rights Skills and Knowledge Framework in response to feedback that it was difficult for some staff to engage due to time constraints
• Together has reviewed 10 published Children's Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessments (CRWIA) and work is underway to consider recommendations to inform updates to guidance and templates

Together provided a report, including contributions from UNICEF UK, identifying seven priority children’s rights issues for Ministers. The issues are currently being discussed with relevant policy teams, however, Ministers’ views have not yet been sought on whether further prioritisation or additional action is required.

LS highlighted that a children’s rights grant clause will soon be introduced in Scottish Government Grant letters and will be mandatory where grant activity impacts on children and young people.

Child Rights Regulation and Improvement Action Group

Membership of the group can be found in the Child Rights Regulation and Improvement Action Group terms of reference. AA highlighted that the group is exploring opportunities to better align and bring together existing resources, guidance and data to support scrutiny bodies in their work to meet the needs of children whose rights are most at risk, rather than developing new materials. The group is also reviewing existing frameworks and guidance to assess whether updates are required, including ensuring that they reflect that 16 and 17 year olds are children under the UNCRC Act.

UNCRC Listed Authority Peer Support Network

The next meeting of the UNCRC Listed Authority Peer Support Network is scheduled for the end of June, and will focus on how listed authority partners, such as the third sector, will be supported to embed a children’s human rights approach. This includes consideration of funding arrangements, staff training, stakeholder engagement and awareness raising.

Support has been provided to help listed authorities develop their children’s rights reports, including the sharing of resources. A voluntary mutual mentoring scheme has been introduced, enabling organisations to share learning and experiences across sectors, as well as providing opportunities for more informal reflection on challenges and good practice. Ongoing reflection exercises are being undertaken with individual listed authority partners to review progress in implementation, identify areas for improvement, and support ongoing learning.

Discussion of further support to public authorities

RS welcomed the updates and asked for more information about the development and framing of the seven priority issues, noting that similar issues are emerging for local authorities, particularly around advocacy, youth justice, and participation, and suggested that greater visibility would help shape support.

LS explained that the priorities were developed by Together’s members, focusing on areas where short term progress and impact could be achieved. LS noted that discussions with policy teams are still at an early stage.

KR highlighted the importance of the mental health priority area, particularly early intervention and prevention, and asked whether any learning from Together’s CRWIA review work can be shared. LS confirmed the team are working on this and will consider any learning and share relevant insights where possible.

Update on non-statutory guidance

The Embedding team are currently in the process of updating the non-statutory guidance on taking a children’s human rights approach. It has been significantly reduced in response to stakeholder feedback that the existing version was overly lengthy and complex. The revised guidance reflects a changed implementation context, with the UNCRC Act now in force and public authorities developing their first children’s rights reports. The current version will be archived but will remain accessible.

The Children’s Rights Skills and Knowledge Framework will be the primary resource for training and practice guidance. Outdated case studies have been removed and replaced with links to current examples, with scope to include additional case studies informed by group members and sources such as the State of Children’s Rights Report.

Detailed sections on links to other policy areas and duties have been removed and replaced with a short section on a system wide children’s rights approach and a page linking to further resources. The revised approach aims to promote a system wide understanding of children’s rights and avoid any assumption that a children’s human rights approach applies to children’s services only.

LS confirmed a draft version will be shared with members who volunteered to review, with a follow up meeting to discuss feedback. Members will also be invited to provide feedback via email. Additional volunteers are still welcome.

KR welcomed the more concise guidance, and asked whether there are plans to review and refresh the guidance to reflect the learning from the upcoming children’s rights reports. LS confirmed that potential future updates, including learning from the reports, will be considered.

Insights from attendees on early implementation

CM provided an update on reporting, noting NHS Education for Scotland ceased to exist from 31 March and is now known as Public Services Delivery Scotland (PSD Scotland). Despite this, significant progress has been made, including gathering case studies to support the main report.

There are plans to publish case study posters alongside the report and produce child friendly versions. The posters are currently in digital format and options are being explored for sharing more widely. Internal governance processes are ongoing and cross organisational groups continue to support children’s rights work. CM shared the link to the PSDS-NES Children's Rights Survey Report.

RS updated that many local authorities are currently focused on report writing and colleagues are seeking informal feedback on draft and final UNCRC reports. A feedback framework has been developed to carefully consider how feedback is provided and support responses. The framework provides a consistent, transparent approach, clarifying what feedback can and cannot cover. It does not assess compliance but instead focuses on whether reports demonstrate a clear and ongoing commitment to children’s rights. It has been tested with a local authority and received positive feedback, with further requests for feedback received. RS offered to share the framework with the group.

RS also outlined a further resource in development aimed at supporting services less familiar with children’s rights. This will provide guidance on practical tools to apply a children’s human rights approach in service delivery.

RS is working with the Open University to develop a Councillor Academy, ahead of the 2027 local government elections. It will include a children’s rights module with updated case studies, videos and learning materials. A near final draft is complete with a launch planned for early autumn. RS invited contributions of relevant materials for inclusion. The resource will include CRWIAs, the FAIR approach, the AAAQ framework (Availability, Accessibility, Acceptability, Quality), and principles of a children’s rights approach. FAIR and AAAQ provide frameworks to help practitioners apply children’s rights in their day to day work, they are particularly useful in helping teams identify relevant UNCRC rights, especially in sectors that may initially feel the approach is not directly relevant.

An IS paper on children’s rights and antisocial behaviour will be published shortly, subject to inclusion of a case study. The paper has received positive feedback from the antisocial behaviour officers network.

New resources and an upcoming programme of events from IS will address priority issues over the autumn and winter period. Feedback from local authority colleagues identified key priority areas including advocacy, children and young people involved in criminal activity, service based support, particularly for services less familiar with children’s rights, and accountability. These themes will be taken forward through peer networks and webinars, and invited alignment with existing priorities across the group.

DR provided an update from Qualifications Scotland (QS), highlighting development of a new corporate plan, alongside a CRWIA. QS are establishing a new leadership team and training to strengthen children’s rights knowledge and understanding, including the creation of a Learner Interest Committee and ongoing work to ensure children and young people are involved in decision-making. There is a key emerging theme around the need for stronger collaboration across education authorities to address children’s rights issues collectively.

This work is being done in collaboration with the Children and Young People’s Commissioner (CYPCS), Young Advisors and Professor Laura Lundy. It is supporting the development of a national feedback model for children and young people within education reform, which will inform engagement strategies and impact assessments, including consideration of the feedback cycle.

Engagement through peer networks and formal groups has been positive. Training (including with Together Scotland) has increased organisational engagement, teams are increasingly seeking support to understand and apply children’s rights in their own areas which has led to constructive discussions.

DR also noted interest in the additional support needs priority area and potential links with existing action planning and highlighted the importance of sharing learning across organisations. DR would welcome children’s rights resources from the group, including action plans, feedback frameworks, and budgeting work.

DR noted that children’s rights are not consistently reflected in the National Performance Framework, with limited involvement of children and young people, and emphasised the need for stronger national visibility, particularly within public sector reform. Children’s rights and budgeting should be central to efficiency and reform discussions, and embedded from the outset across organisations.

LS welcomed the reflections and asked whether the emerging national feedback model could be shared more widely and adapted across sectors.

DR explained that the feedback model, being developed through Shoogle Lab work with young people and Professor Laura Lundy, aims to improve how feedback is provided to children and young people. This includes explaining how decisions were made, providing reasons for accepting or rejecting suggestions, setting out the evidence used, and ensuring feedback is timely and appropriate. The model could be applied beyond education. The importance of collective partnership working is also a key learning from the work.

LS noted the potential value of the feedback model and encouraged wider use of existing tools and approaches, highlighting the benefits of tailoring resources to organisational contexts.

KR provided an update from PHS, noting that work continues on embedding children’s rights within the public health approach to learning and the child poverty prevention dashboard. There is ongoing developmental work aimed at strengthening how children’s rights are framed across programmes, with further updates to be shared in due course.

KR also noted ongoing work on a briefing paper exploring the alignment between children’s rights and the determinants of health. While progress has been affected by staff absence, this remains a live piece of work, with further updates expected in the coming months.

MC informed the group of upcoming training opportunities from Together, including short sessions on children’s rights, a full day session on the children’s rights approach, and topic sessions on UNCRC interpretation and CRWIA, noting that details will be shared with public authorities. Together will run a webinar marking the two year UNCRC commencement anniversary, reflecting on progress, next steps, and international perspectives on incorporation.

Reflections on developing children’s rights reports

Fiona Morrison from the Observatory of Children’s Human Rights Scotland has been appointed as a fellow to support the development of policy recommendations from the first UNCRC Act children’s rights reports. An initial meeting will take place shortly to begin the work, with Fiona expected to be in post from July. Further details will be shared at a future meeting once available.

AA provided an update on children’s rights reporting, highlighting that two reports have been received so far, with more expected before summer and the remaining later in the year. Upcoming work will focus on reviewing reports to identify learning from both the process and content, considering whether guidance updates or additional resources are required, and sharing insights and data across the system to support wider learning. The aim is to share good practice across the system, identify improvements for future reporting cycles and ultimately improve services and outcomes for children and young people.

Some organisations have shared the challenge of presenting the volume of their activity within reports. Some have found The Improvement Service implementation framework, and the UNCRC cluster model helpful to structure reports.

The requirement to produce child friendly reports has also been noted as a challenge for some organisations. However, there have also been examples of direct engagement with children and young people on the format of reports and significant innovation, with creative approaches including animations, comics, and use of AI tools.

SW asked whether advance notice is required before submitting reports, AA clarified that reports can be submitted once ready, either together or separately (main report and child friendly version) with no requirement for advance notice.

RS noted that draft reports show varying approaches, making direct comparison difficult. Many organisations are using case studies to reflect priority issues. In some cases, groups of children furthest from their rights are not explicitly identified, but are demonstrated through case studies. Reports are expected to provide rich insight, including smaller but valuable examples of practice. A new Knowledge Hub folder has been created, where final reports will be stored for easy access.

LS asked whether any reports RS has seen are combined or joint reports. RS confirmed that reports seen so far are standalone, some include statements advising they should be read alongside children’s services plans, though links are not always available as these are still being developed.

Action: LLe to arrange up a meeting with volunteers to discuss review of non‑statutory guidance, with a target timeline of July.

AOB

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday 7 September from 10:00 – 12:00