UNCRC Strategic Implementation board minutes September 2025

Attendees and apologies

Members of the board

• Brian Taylor (Chair), Deputy Director Children’s Rights, Protection and Justice

• Rachel Fox, UNICEF UK

• Juliet Harris, Together
• Gina Wilson, Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland (CYCPS)
• Eleanor Deeming , Scottish Human Rights Commission
• Laura Pasternak, Coalition of Care and Support Providers Scotland
• Kay Tisdall, The Observatory of Children’s Human Rights in Scotland
• Caitlin Fitzgerald, Scottish Human Rights Commission

Scottish Government officials

 

• Liz Levy, Unit Head, Children’s Rights Unit (CRU)
• Lyndsey Saki, Embedding Children’s Rights in Public Services Programme Lead
• Joe Smith, Right Reporting and Monitoring Programme Lead
• Paul Gorman, Empowering Children and Young People Programme Lead
• Agnes Rennick, Senior Policy Official
• Aqeel Ahmed, Improvement and Innovation Programme Manager
• Dean Snape, UNCRC Project Manager
• Andrew Preston, UNCRC Programme Assistant (minutes)

Apologies

• Laura Caven, COSLA
• Jennifer Davidson, Institute for Inspiring Children’s Futures
• Amy Woodhouse, Parenting Across Scotland
• Craig Morris, Care Inspectorate

Items and actions

Item 1: welcome and apologies

Brian Taylor (BT) welcomed members to the meeting. Apologies were noted for those unable to attend.

Item 2: minutes and actions from the previous meeting

Dean Snape (DS) advised members that the minutes of the previous meeting were circulated on 24 June 2025 and no amendment requests were received. One new action was raised at the April meeting for the children’s rights unit (CRU) to consider whether and how to engage with directors of education in local authorities not participating in the rights respecting schools award, to understand whether alternative approaches are in place to embed children’s rights in schools.

Liz Levy (LL) confirmed that arrangements are being made for colleagues from the Learning Directorate and Education Scotland to attend a future strategic implementation board meeting to outline their approach.

All actions have now been closed, as detailed in the action tracker circulated to members on 17 June 2025.

Item 3: programme highlight report

The programme highlight report was shared with members on 23 September 2025. Members had been asked to consider the report in advance of the meeting.

Juliet Harris (JH) shared comments from Together’s members in relation to the report. She asked whether there was any intention to consider continued funding for the improvement service (IS) and NHS Education for Scotland (NES) beyond March 2026, given their central role in UNCRC implementation.

Lyndsey Saki (LS) advised that future funding decisions cannot be agreed until the next budget is confirmed and that funding across all grants will be reviewed for the following year. JH noted the strong support for the work being undertaken by IS and NES.

JH also raised concerns that the Promise Bill had not been drafted to ensure all provisions are within scope of the compatibility duty. Similar concerns were raised regarding the Religious Observance Bill. JH further noted that children’s rights and wellbeing impact assessments (CRWIAs) are not consistently identifying whether new bills bring provisions into scope of the UNCRC. She asked whether steps could be taken to ensure scope issues are identified and embedded within CRWIA guidance.

LL responded that while CRWIA templates may be updated, early engagement with bill teams is critical. Guidance is being strengthened to ensure teams understand the implications for children’s rights when amending UK Acts. LL noted that it is not feasible for the children’s rights unit to monitor every stage of every bill, but consideration is being given to resourcing initial engagement with bill teams to ensure awareness of children’s rights implications. Members were encouraged to flag any drafting concerns they become aware of.

Gina Wilson (GW) welcomed LL’s comments and offered to comment on drafts of strengthened guidance. Kay Tisdall (KT) noted that while legal drafters may understand implications, strengthened guidance for policy teams would be welcome.

Action

• LL to consider whether drafts of strengthened guidance for bill teams can be shared with the strategic implementation board

KT also expressed interest in the Observatory for Children’s Rights supporting reviews of children’s rights reports submitted by listed public authorities. KT noted that work to embed UNCRC learning into further and higher education training has been paused due to resource constraints. She highlighted that the University of Edinburgh is focusing on professional training in this area with some success and is developing a framework that could be shared.

LS welcomed the offer of support to review children’s rights reports. Aqeel Ahem (AA) noted that Scottish Government officials meet regularly with listed authorities to understand concerns and reiterated the intention to share good practice and lessons learned. In relation to AI, the children’s rights unit is exploring examples from across Scottish Government where AI has been used to analyse reports.

Item 4: support for public authorities

LS and AA provided the following update.

The children’s rights skills and knowledge framework continues to be hosted by Together, ensuring the framework, training plan and related resources remain accessible. New resources have been added, including the UNCRC implementation framework and improvement service case studies, with quarterly updates planned. Work continues to improve accessibility for staff with limited time or digital access, including development of a menu of training options. A potential train-the-trainer model is also being explored with learning and development leads. The Scottish Qualifications Authority has used the framework to support briefings and budget decisions and to map staff roles to UNCRC articles.

The empowered children and young people team has launched the pathways resource, comprising two posters and web content to help children and young people understand their rights, fair treatment and how to raise concerns. The resource was co-developed with children and Barnardo’s Scotland. Work is ongoing to maximise reach and support workforce confidence in responding to children who use the resource. Web content is available on the Scottish Government website, with a youth-accessible version hosted on Young Scot’s Activate Your Rights page.

The embedding children’s rights in public services reference group recently met to discuss early implementation. Education Scotland shared that a children’s rights self-evaluation framework and accompanying training to complement the UNICEF rights respecting schools programme is in development. Upcoming events include:

• child-friendly communications event hosted by NES and IS (9 October)

• online UNCRC implementation conference (26 November)

• potential local authority good practice conference (January 2026)

Members of the children’s rights regulation and improvement group, including the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, Care Inspectorate, HMICS, Education Scotland and Audit Scotland, continue to embed a children’s human rights approach within scrutiny functions. Discussion has focused on groups of children whose rights may be at risk, engagement with children and the role of scrutiny bodies in supporting sectors to uphold children’s rights.

The UNCRC peer support network for non-departmental public bodies, including Police Scotland, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, SQA, sportscotland and Creative Scotland, continues to share good practice and challenges. Recent discussions have focused on CRWIAs, child-friendly communication and reporting duties.

Laura Pasternak (LP) asked whether there are plans to extend the framework to the third sector, particularly through a train-the-trainer model. LS advised that the children’s rights unit is not currently engaging directly with the third sector due to resource prioritisation. However, all UNCRC resources are designed for universal use and have been promoted through networks that include third sector organisations. Engagement with listed public authorities continues to assess whether a train-the-trainer model would be beneficial, and any resources developed would be made widely available.

Item 5: list of children’s rights issues raised by stakeholders

LL provided an update on the list of children’s rights issues maintained by the children’s rights unit.

The list collates concerns raised by the children’s rights sector in published reports to help inform Scottish Government policy teams. In July, the list was shared with Together, the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) and the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland (CYPCS) to refine entries, identify missing or emerging issues and clarify priorities.

GW explained that CYPCS had considered how to engage with the list but remains unclear how it can be used meaningfully in its current format. She expressed concern that the list may continue to grow without a clear commitment to respond to the issues identified. SHRC expressed disappointment that there was no commitment to act on all issues and shared additional reports published since the list was last circulated. SHRC also highlighted that legislation in devolved areas remaining out of scope of the 2024 Act is itself a children’s rights issue.

The children’s rights unit reiterated that the list is intended to ensure policy teams are aware of stakeholder concerns and confirmed that an update on progress in addressing concluding observations and other rights issues will be published in 2026.

SHRC asked whether the strategic implementation board could consider how issues on the list can be actively considered by policy teams. LL noted that the list currently contains 466 issues. The CRU plans to share the list with relevant policy teams every six months and highlight specific issues when teams seek advice. Given the volume of issues, prioritisation is required. The children’s rights scheme includes commitments to:

• invite CYPCS, Together, SHRC and UNICEF UK to identify the issues of greatest concern to inform ministerial priorities; and

• use the annual update on the children’s rights scheme to set out priority issues and report on progress.

LL explained why some suggested new issues from Together were not added as separate entries, as many were already fully or partially captured elsewhere. Where issues were partially captured, she suggested using the ‘further information from stakeholders’ column to clarify desired action.

LL also outlined why some additional suggested issues were not added for other reasons. For example, in relation to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, the relevant policy team has confirmed that they are considered looked after children and entitled to the same support as others in Scotland.

Members were given until 17 October to consider the proposed approach to additional issues. GW reiterated that CYPCS had previously advised that it would not be appropriate to work jointly with Scottish Government in this way. It is hoped that Together, SHRC and UNICEF UK will work together to identify six priority issues to create parity with issues raised by children and young people.

Action

• follow-up paper on additional issues to be sent to members

Any other business

BT noted that the next meeting is scheduled for 30 December. Given the time of year, members were asked whether they preferred to meet earlier in December or postpone until January. The general consensus was that January would be preferable.