United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC): Child Rights Regulation and Improvement Action Group minutes: August 2026

Attendees and apologies

Aqeel Ahmed (Chair), Scottish Government – AA
Lyndsey Saki, Scottish Government – LS
Saleem Umar (minutes), Scottish Government – SU
Chloe Manchester, Healthcare Improvement Scotland – CM
Jack Booker, Scottish Social Services Council – JB
Lisa Kirkbride, Care Inspectorate – LK
Nina Miller, Audit Scotland – NM
Rebecca Spillane, Improvement Service – RS
Steven McPherson, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education – SM

Apologies

Linda McKenna, Scottish Housing Regulator 
David Mackay, Children’s Hearings Scotland 
Josh Barnham, Scottish Public Service Ombudsman

Items and actions

1.    Welcome and introductions

AA welcomed members, noted apologiesand thanked members for accommodating the changes to the meeting date and time.
AA confirmed that meetings will continue to take place during the third week of every second month. The next meetings will take place in October and December 2026, avoiding the main holiday periods.
CM introduced herself as a Senior Inspector at Healthcare Improvement Scotland, attending on behalf of Maureen Scott.

2.    Review of previous minutes

AA invited comments on the minutes of the previous meeting. The minutes were agreed.

3.    Review of actions from the previous meeting

Child friendly complaints

AA provided an update on discussions with JB from SPSO regarding evaluation of the new child friendly complaints process.
SPSO is monitoring the implementation of the process and expects to publish an analysis by the end of September 2026. This may provide useful intelligence about emerging trends, areas of concern and emerging practice in responding to complaints.
JB will provide input at the October meeting.

Action 1: AA to arrange for JB to provide an update on child friendly complaints at the October meeting.

Intelligence-gathering exercise

AA confirmed that the intelligence-gathering exercise on supporting children whose rights are at risk had been recirculated.
The exercise asks members to consider how their organisations identify and respond to children whose rights are at risk, including the evidence, training and organisational approaches used.
Most members had completed the exercise. 

Action 2: Members who have not yet responded to complete the intelligence-gathering exercise.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education engagement exercise

AA provided an update on discussions with SM and Fraser McCallum about sharing learning from engagement with children and young people in developing the new inspection framework.
SM confirmed that the framework remains under development. Consultation activity has included specific work to ensure that children and young people whose voices can be more difficult to hear are included.
SM suggested providing a 15 to 20-minute presentation once the framework and consultation exercise are nearer completion, potentially at the December meeting.

Action 3: SM to provide an update on the new inspection framework and engagement with children and young people at a future meeting, potentially in December 2026.

AA welcomed the stronger focus on children’s rights in the development of organisational plans and inspection frameworks. AA highlighted the Care Inspectorate’s Corporate Plan and the new inspection framework as useful examples of how children’s rights can be embedded strategically within scrutiny bodies.

4. Update from the Scottish Government

Guidance on taking a children’s human rights approach
AA provided an update on revisions to the non-statutory guidance on taking a children’s human rights approach. The existing guidance was published in January 2024 and is being updated to make it shorter, clearer and more accessible.
The review is at an advanced stage and has been supported by volunteers from the Embedding Children’s Rights in Public Services Group, including RS.
The revised guidance is intended to provide a more accessible entry point for people who are less familiar with children’s rights. The existing, more detailed version will be archived and remain available.
It will be published shortly, subject to completion of the Scottish Government’s internal processes. Members with a particular interest in reviewing the draft were asked to contact AA or LS as soon as possible.

Action 4: AA and LS to circulate the revised guidance when it is published.
Guidance on paying participants

Scottish Government guidance on paying participants involved in lived experience panels, engagement and research is being updated.
The guidance includes a section relating to children and young people, which is expected to be strengthened. The Care Inspectorate expressed an interest in contributing to this work.

Action 5: Members interested in contributing to the review of the guidance on paying participants to contact AA.

Children’s Rights Skills and Knowledge Framework

Work is also continuing to implement the Children’s Rights Skills and Knowledge Framework. New resources include a blog on the menu of options, which provides shorter training activities and reflective questions that organisations can use when delivering training.

Support for listed authorities

The Embedding Children’s Rights in Public Services Team continues to hold reflection exercises with individual organisations on their children’s human rights approach. These exercises provide an opportunity to discuss progress, identify gaps in practice and share any existing support or guidance that could support staff.

Strategic Implementation Board Highlight Report

AA invited questions on the latest Strategic Implementation Board, which had been circulated before the meeting.
The Strategic Implementation Board meets quarterly and includes key partners involved in UNCRC implementation. The Highlight Report provides updates on progress against the commitments in the Children’s Rights Scheme and brings together information about the work of the Children’s Rights Unit.
No questions were raised.

5.    Updates from members

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMIE)

HMIE has operated as a standalone organisation for just over three months following its separation from Education Scotland.
Children’s rights are embedded within its corporate plan and will remain an important area of development over the next two to three years. Existing activity includes training and the inclusion of children’s rights across its work, policies and procedures. An action plan is being developed to formalise and strengthen these arrangements.
The extensive engagement undertaken with children and young people to inform the new inspection framework. SM described this as the organisation’s most comprehensive participation exercise to date and confirmed that further learning would be shared with the group when the work is complete.

 

Care Inspectorate

Children’s rights are central to the Care Inspectorate’s Corporate Plan 2026–31 and are embedded across registration, inspection, complaints, regulatory and strategic inspection functions.
There is also a strong connection with The Promise, including a focus on hearing directly from children and young people. The Care Inspectorate has recently been recruiting additional young inspectors and children, and young people volunteers to support its work.
LK highlighted the importance of ensuring that children and young people who contribute to the Care Inspectorate’s work are paid fairly. This had informed the organisation’s interest in the Scottish Government’s updated guidance on paying participants.

 

Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC)

JB advised that the SSSC progressing work on a wider human rights approach, which will incorporate children’s human rights practice. A timescale is being developed for the work to be considered and approved by the organisation’s executive team.

 

Improvement Service

The Improvement Service’s human rights and children’s rights work provide opportunities to demonstrate that these are connected rather than separate agendas, while maintaining a distinct focus on children and young people.
A new blog on children’s rights and human rights will be shared with members once available.
IS has also published Putting children’s rights at the heart of your service. The resource provides three approaches that local authorities can use to understand and embed children’s rights within service areas:

• The availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality framework
• The FAIR approach
• Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessments

The resource includes practical examples and was developed in response to feedback from local authorities.
A number of children’s rights reports have been published by local authorities, with further reports expected in September following the summer recess. Published reports are being added to the Knowledge Hub, which is free to join.
The reports published so far use a variety of approaches and styles, with many placing a strong emphasis on examples of practice.

 

Audit Scotland

Several audits remain at the scoping stage. NM expects to provide an update at the next meeting on one or two audits that may be relevant to the group, either because of their subject matter or the methods used.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland

Healthcare Improvement Scotland would welcome greater involvement in the group’s wider activity. CM expressed an interest in contributing to the review of Scottish Government guidance on paying people who participate in engagement activity.

6.    Reflections from the UNCRC reporting period 2023–2026

At the time of the meeting, the Scottish Government had received 12 children’s rights reports. These included reports from local authorities, health boards and non-departmental public bodies. Published reports are available online and are currently being reviewed by the Children’s Rights Unit.
The review of reports is intended to identify good practice, gaps and common implementation challenges. It is not intended to assess or rank the performance of individual organisations.
Dr Fiona Morrison from the University of Edinburgh will work with the Children’s Rights Unit to support the analysis of the reports. Her work is expected to continue until approximately July 2027.
An in-person meeting with Dr Morrison will take place at the University of Edinburgh on the morning of 8 September 2026. The meeting will consider the methodology and intended outcomes of the analysis, including how the findings could support service improvement.
The UNCRC Act makes children’s rights reporting and publication mandatory for relevant authorities. Authorities must also publish a child friendly version of their report. This provides a broader evidence base than was available during the previous reporting cycle. AA invited members to consider how children’s rights reports could be used by scrutiny bodies when inspecting, reviewing or supporting organisations.

 

Care Inspectorate reflections

LK suggested that the reports could help organisations identify effective practice, learn from creative approaches and consider how similar methods might be applied within their own work.
Scrutiny bodies can use the reports to support their leadership role within their sectors, demonstrate good practice and identify opportunities to improve outcomes and uphold children’s rights.
The findings could also help organisations determine priorities for their next three-year reporting cycle and incorporate these into future action plans and work programmes.

 

Scottish Social Services Council reflections

JB highlighted the value of creating a wider evidence base that could be used by workforce regulators. The analysis could provide examples of good practice, demonstrate the importance of children’s rights and establish a clearer baseline of expectations across the public sector.
This could support the SSSC in communicating with the workforce it regulates and demonstrate that individual organisations form part of a wider national effort to implement children’s rights. JB also suggested that the analysis could help secure greater organisational understanding and support for children’s rights.
AA identified leadership and strategic positioning as an important emerging theme. He noted the challenge of ensuring that children’s rights remain central within organisations that have several reporting duties and competing commitments.

Improvement Service reflections

Reports could provide valuable insight into where children’s rights sit within different organisations, including which partners organisations work with and how they understand their respective roles.
The reports may also help identify what evidence organisations use to demonstrate whether children’s rights and outcomes are improving. The language and practice examples selected by organisations may also provide insight into how they understand and prioritise children’s rights. Reports could develop from catalogues of activity into more strategic tools that support decisions about where resources should be directed, particularly towards children whose rights are at risk.

 

Wider strategic frameworks

AA highlighted the importance of considering how children’s rights reporting connects with wider frameworks and approaches, including the National Performance Framework, Getting it right for every child, The Promise and corporate parenting.
The Improvement Service’s resource on connecting relevant duties and frameworks was identified as potentially useful in supporting this work.

Action 6: AA to circulate the invitation for the meeting with Dr Fiona Morrison on 8 September 2026 to relevant members who had not received it.

National Performance Framework

AA provided an update on the renewal of the National Performance Framework (NPF).
The revised NPF is expected to be published alongside the Programme for Government in September 2026. It will be more streamlined than the previous framework and will include seven national outcomes, with a stronger focus on wellbeing.
Equality and human rights will be reflected across the seven outcomes. The Scottish Government is also considering appropriate accountability arrangements and how children and young people can be placed at the centre of these arrangements.
AA highlighted the annual Cabinet meeting involving representatives from the Scottish Youth Parliament and Children’s Parliament as a possible mechanism for children and young people to hold Ministers to account.

Action 8: Members to share any relevant views on the renewed National Performance Framework with AA.

 

7.    AOB

The next meetings will take place in October and December 2026, with proposed updates on child friendly complaints and the new inspection framework.
LK reflected positively on the value of the group’s discussions. No further items were raised, and AA thanked members for their contributions.