UNCRC Strategic Implementation board minutes: January 2024 - Summary

Attendees and apologies

Members of the board

• Andrew Watson (Chair), Director for Children and Families
• Dragan Nastic, UNICEF UK
• Juliet Harris, Together Scotland
• Amy Woodhouse, Parenting Across Scotland
• Eleanor Kerr, NHS
• CS Hussain Farogue, Police Scotland (Deputising for ACC David Duncan)
• Ben Farrugia, Social Work Scotland
• Gina Wilson, Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland (CYCPS)
• Jennifer Davidson, Institute for Inspiring Children’s Future’s
• Rebekah Cameron-Berry, COSLA
• Norma Ruettiman, Care and Learning Alliance
• Nicola Anderson(LIT), Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service
• Anna Munro, SGLD
• Emma Young, The Promise (Deputising for Chloe Riddell)
• Lynn McCoy-Lavery (Deputising for Helen Foggarty)

Scottish Government officials

• Andrew Preston, UNCRC Programme Assistant
• Carola Eyber, Children’s Rights Reporting and Monitoring Lead
• Gita Sharkey, Joint Unit Head, Children’s Rights Unit
• Liz Levy, Joint Unit Head, Children’s Rights Unit
• Lyndsey Saki, Embedding Children’s Rights in Public Services Programme Lead
• Aqeel Ahmed, Embedding Children’s Rights in Public Services Team
• Paul Gorman, Empowered Children and Young People Lead
• Shona Spence, UNCRC Bill Lead
• Kavita Chetty

 

Apologies

• Helen Foggarty, Social Security Scotland
• Chloe Riddell, The Promise

Items and actions

What is the Strategic Implementation Board?

The Strategic Implementation Board (or SIB, for short) is a group of people that meet every two months. They support the Government to make the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) part of Scots law. They put in place support for organisations, children and young people, and their families to help ensure that children’s rights are made real. They discuss if the work is on track and help to fix any problems in trying to make this happen. There are people on the SIB from Police, Education, Health, Social Work, children’s rights organisations, and the Scottish Government.

What was discussed at this meeting?

UNCRC act
The SIB were told that the UNCRC Bill received Royal Assent on 16 January and is now the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024.

Consultation on statutory guidance
Members were informed that non-statutory guidance on taking a children’s human rights approach was published on 8 January 2024. The non-statutory guidance provides practical support for public authorities to prepare for commencement of duties in the Act. Consultation is taking place on the draft statutory guidance. Children will be involved in this process. While the aim is to publish statutory guidance in time for commencement, it may not be possible, given the short six-month commencement period.

Children’s rights scheme
The SIB spoke about the Children’s Rights Scheme as laid out in the Act. Someone from the Scottish Government asked SIB whether it would support changing the current reporting cycle from one to three-yearly. The justification for doing so was outlined as follows:
• It will have more meaningful impact on child rights’ outcomes as it will track them over a longer time period
• The Children’s Rights Scheme would become aligned with the Human Rights Scheme
• Doing the Scheme every year would be difficult to manage as it would take several months every year

The next meeting of the SIB will be held on Tuesday 26 March 2024 from 15:30 to 17:00