UNCRC Implementation Embedding in Public Services Group minutes: 22 September 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Lyndsey Saki, Scottish Government (Chair) – LS  
• Aqeel Ahmed, Scottish Government – AA 
• Caroline McMenemy, Scottish Government – CM (item 3)
• Ezhilarasi Mahadevan, Scottish Government (Minutes) – EM 
• Liz Levy, Scottish Government – LL
• Luiza Leite, Scottish Government – LL1 
• Saleem Umar, Scottish Government – SU
• Nick Targontsidis, NHS Education for Scotland – NT
• Joanna Smith, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) – JS 
• Maxine Jolly, Education Scotland – MJ 
• Denise Rooney, Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA)  – DR 
• Mary Campbell, Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights) – MC
• Felicia Szloboda, The Improvement Service – FS  
• Darren Little, Dumfries and Galloway Council – DL  
• Katrina Reid, Public Health Scotland (PHS) – KR
• Alyson Lambert, Police Scotland – AL
• Chelsea Stinson, Police Scotland – CS  

Apologies 

• Alison Sutherland, Social Work Scotland 
• Rebecca Spillane, The Improvement Service
• Katelin O’Neill, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)
• Laura Conachan, Children’s Hearings Scotland 
• Michelle Cuningham, SQA 

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions

LS welcomed members and introduced first time attendees, Katrina Reid from Public Health Scotland, and Caroline McMenemy (CM) from the Children's Rights Unit.

Minutes and actions from previous meeting

LS went through the actions from the previous meeting of 9 June 2025, which were shared with members ahead of the meeting.

Completed actions: 

• Further welcomed feedback on the minutes from 24 February.(Minutes now published)
• Elaine to consider whether off the shelf training packages and a train the trainer offer could be incorporated into the Framework implementation plan. (Update provided in meeting)
• Liz to share feedback from key stakeholders on the CRWIA for the budget statement with RS. (Complete)
• Members to provide any feedback on the updated Terms of Reference by end of June. (Update ToRs published on group page)
• Members asked if they would like to join a working group to consider a peer review process for children’s rights reports. (Update provided in meeting)

LS reminded attendees that an update from this meeting will be provided to the UNCRC Strategic Implementation Board (SIB), and welcomed any amendments to the June meeting minutes. Members did not request any changes.

Update on support to public authorities 

LS updated members that ongoing hosting of the Children’s Rights Skills and Knowledge Framework has been procured. Together were the successful bidder which has meant that the Framework, Training Plan and all the associated resources are still hosted at the same pages.

The Framework has recently been updated with a number of new UNCRC resources. The intention is to update this quarterly with any new relevant resources that support a children’s human rights approach. LS welcomed members suggestions of any resources or case studies that may be beneficial to include.

Action 1: Members to contact LS with suggestions of any resources or case studies to be included in the Children’s Rights Skills and Knowledge Framework.

LS acknowledged feedback from the last meeting that there were barriers for some workers to access the Framework, an example given was manual workers in local authorities. The Embedding team is developing a ‘menu’ of training to support workers in different types of roles to access the Framework. LS would be keen to work with some members who would be happy to inform this ‘menu’ and potentially test how it could work in their organisation.

Action 2: Members interested in the ‘menu’ of training to please contact LS.

AA noted that Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA) is using the framework to develop staff induction training and senior management briefings, with a summary and case studies to be shared soon. Skills Development Scotland (SDS) is also adapting the training plan to fit its needs.

AA informed the group about the Listed Authority Peer Support Network and its recent meetings. The group seeks to bring together public authorities listed in section 19 of the UNCRC Act (except local authorities and health boards) to discuss good practice and challenges. It has explored themes such as Children Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessments (CRWIAs), child friendly communication, and reporting.

AA updated the group that the Child Rights Regulation and Improvement Action Group set up to support scrutiny bodies to embed a children’s human rights approach is focussing on considering children and young people whose rights may be most at risk. Previous meetings have explored child friendly inspection and the role of scrutiny bodies in relation to children’s rights.

CM introduced the Pathways resource, developed with children and young people through Barnardo’s Scotland. This resource aims to help children and young people understand their right to be treated fairly by public services and what they can do if they feel their rights are not being respected.

Children and young people were actively involved in shaping the design, content, and format, ensuring the resource was engaging and relevant. Barnardo’s brought in expertise from a creative organisation, to explore design and communication elements.

The resource and further information can be found on the Scottish Government website and a more accessible version for young people can be accessed on the Young Scot Activate Your Rights webpage. There are also pdfs of the two posters that can be issued to organisations.

The Children’s Rights Unit (CRU) will work with different organisations to ensure this information reaches a wide audience, and will support organisations to tailor their approach. The CRU is also developing a suite of other resources to support the public service workforce and parents, carers and families to know about and understand the resource, support it and feel confident to engage with children and young people on this matter.

Members agreed that this work should link closely with workforce training and professional development.

CM invited those on the call to use and promote the resource across their networks.

JS appreciated the new resources and reported strong interest in the Pathways resource, particularly for child friendly communication and complaints procedures. NHS Education for Scotland (NES) plans to share them with the Health Visiting National Network and the School Nursing Implementation Group. CM thanked her and agreed to connect, also noting an invite from NT to attend future network meetings.

FS shared that local authorities are interested in the resources.

CM will attend a future meeting to provide an update on Pathways distribution and implementation, and the resource for adults.

Insights from attendees on early implementation

Members shared reflections on early implementation and updates from their own work. LS praised the collaboration and good practice sharing across networks.

NT outlined plans for a Children’s Rights in Health Conference, a free virtual event showcasing how health boards are embedding children’s rights approaches. LS highlighted similar good practice examples from local authorities and mentioned that details will be included in the next UNCRC programme update.

MJ shared that Education Scotland has developed a co-designed self-evaluation toolkit for schools to assess children’s rights implementation. It will be tested with staff and made available online soon.

FS reported that local authorities are using the Children’s Rights Skills and Knowledge Framework to strengthen participation with children and young people, improve child friendly complaints processes, and prepare for upcoming children’s rights reporting. She also highlighted resources developed by the Improvement Service, including new case studies, a forthcoming child rights budgeting paper, and a local authority conference which may take place in January.

JS promoted an upcoming child friendly communications webinar (9 October) featuring Young Scot, the Children’s Parliament, and health/local authority case studies.

DR noted the challenges facing public authorities, highlighting the importance of collaboration across sectors and noting resource constraints affecting children and young people’s rights. He emphasised the need for better evidence on where rights are upheld or at risk.

MJ noted the gap between children’s awareness of rights and their lived experiences.

LS concluded by reaffirming that the Act aims to address such issues.

During the discussion, MJ and FS shared useful resource links, including Education Scotland’s resources on children’s rights, an Inclusion, wellbeing and equalities framework, and the Improvement Service case studies from Scottish councils on embedding UNCRC into practice.
 

List of rights concerns raised by the children's rights sector in Scotland - SG collation

LL explained that the Scottish Government’s Children’s Rights Unit has compiled a comprehensive list of children’s rights concerns raised by the children’s rights sector in Scotland, drawn from published reports between November 2022 and February 2025. The list includes concluding observations from the relevant UN Committees, issues highlighted in Together’s State of Children’s Rights Report, and other international reviews, including those on disability, civil and political rights, and European Social Rights.

The Unit is working with the Children and Young people’s Commissioner Scotland (CYPCS), Together, and the Scottish Human Rights Commission to try to ensure accuracy and completeness. The list, covering 466 issues under 70 themes such as health, housing, poverty, play, and participation, will be updated every six months and shared with relevant policy teams to support them to consider how they might be able to give further and better effect to children’s rights.

LL added that the Scottish Government (SG) will soon publish its Children’s Rights Scheme, along with a child friendly version currently being reviewed by Together.

LL invited views on sharing the list more widely with public authorities, as many issues require action beyond SG (e.g., local authorities, health boards, police). A filterable Excel version has been created by Together.

NT suggested reviewing the list with UNCRC leads in health boards, to support them with leadership and coordinate joint efforts.

LL hoped that Together, CYPCS, UNICEF UK and the Scottish Human Rights Commission will use the list to identify areas that they think should be prioritised. She also suggested that the list might help to guide listed authorities’ 3-year child rights reports.

FS noted that local authorities need clear national prioritisation to align their work and improve data collection and monitoring, particularly around child poverty, homelessness, and social security. She highlighted the need for consistent indicators. KR also highlighted an interest in developing indicators of children’s rights.

LL welcomed collaboration with FS and KR on indicator development, noting the Scottish Government’s interest in national-level data, especially around Articles 37 and 40 (children in conflict with the law).

LS proposed a proportionate approach, noting that listed authorities may have different local priorities. She suggested sharing the list across UNCRC peer lead groups to support collective prioritisation.

Action: LL to have a separate discussion with FS and KR on work to develop indicators.

Update on considerations re the analysis of the first UNCRC children’s rights reports

The Embedding team were asked to consider whether a peer review process might be beneficial for the first children’s rights reports under the UNCRC Act, that become due as soon as practicable on 31 March 2026. The Embedding team have since engaged with stakeholders about the suggestion of a peer review process, taking learning from the child poverty reporting peer review process.

The stakeholder feedback on a potential peer review process was not positive. While stakeholders in local authorities and health boards would welcome individualised feedback, they shared that they would not be able to resource a peer review. A process would also be very difficult to develop given the diversity of listed authorities and the provision in the Act that they may jointly report in different configurations.

LS explained that the Embedding team are exploring whether an optional peer review process can be piloted with the 14 Non-Executive Public Bodies (NEPBs), to inform any potential for peer review process in future reporting cycles.

In terms of a general analysis of all children’s rights reports, the Embedding team have been experimenting with artificial intelligence (AI) analysis of the 2020 to 2023 reports. There are some limitations but progress is being made. The team will update at the December meeting. The intention is still to analyse samples of the 2023 – 2026 reports and, depending on the experiments with AI analysis, the team may decide to do a general analysis of all the reports, once received.

It will not be possible to provide individualised feedback on reports, and SG has ruled out a full peer review process for now. The team are considering whether brief guidance can be provided on how listed authorities can support the children and young people that their services reach to scrutinise their reports.

LS reminded members that there is some suggestion in Part 3 statutory guidance, in section 4.3 on consultation and engagement, of how listed authorities can involve children and young people in developing their reports. There’s also guidance, in section 4.5 on child friendly communication, on how to create a child friendly version in a rights-respecting way, whereby the version is created in partnership with children.

Any additional resource created on how listed authorities could support children and young people to scrutinise and feedback on reports, would mainly be signposting to existing resources.

FS cautioned against positive bias in reporting and acknowledged the challenges local authorities face in addressing complex systemic issues amid resource pressures.

Action: Embedding team to present AI analysis results of 2020–23 reports at the December meeting.

Any Other Business(AOB)

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday 8 December 2025.