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

Attendees and apologies

• Aqeel Ahmed (Chair), Scottish Government – AA
• Lyndsey Saki, Scottish Government – LS
• Saleem Umar (minutes), Scottish Government – SU
• Helen Dawson, Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland – HD
• Jack Booker, Scottish Social Services Council – JB
• Maureen Scott, Healthcare Improvement Scotland – MS
• David Mackay, Children’s Hearings Scotland – DM
• Rebecca Spillane, Improvement Service – RS
• Steven McPherson, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education – SM
• Josh Barnham, Scottish Public Services Ombudsman – JBM
• Kevin Gavigan, Scottish Housing Regulator – KG

Apologies

• Suzanne McGuinness, Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland
• Linda McKenna, Scottish Housing Regulator
• Lisa Kirkbride, Care Inspectorate
• Aileen Nicol, Care Inspectorate

Items and actions

1.    Welcome and review of previous minutes

AA welcomed members to the meeting. The minutes of the meeting held on 18 August 2026 had been re-circulated in advance. Members were invited to raise any comments or amendments. No changes were requested.
Review of actions from the previous meeting

• AA provided the following updates:
• JBM had agreed to provide an update on child friendly complaints, including emerging trends and findings at this meeting.
• SM had agreed to present on His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education's new inspection frameworks and engagement with children and young people at the next meeting of the group in December.
• Members had been invited to contribute to the review of Scottish Government guidance on remunerating people with lived experience for their participation.

 

2.    Scottish Government update

AA provided an overview of recent Scottish Government activity relating to UNCRC implementation.
Strategic Implementation Board highlight report
AA advised that the September 2026 Strategic Implementation Board (SIB) highlight report had been circulated in advance of the meeting. The report provides a quarterly overview of Scottish Government activity to support UNCRC implementation in line with the Children's Rights Scheme, which sets out the arrangements Scottish Ministers have made, or propose to make, to comply with the compatibility duty under section 6 of the UNCRC (Scotland) Act and to secure better or further effect of children's rights. The first annual report on the Children's Rights Scheme is expected to be published in November 2026.
Publications 
AA highlighted upcoming publications:

• An updated version of the Non-Statutory Guidance on taking a Children's Human Rights Approach will be published shortly. 
• The Scottish Government's response to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child's concluding observations is expected to be published in November 2026.

MS highlighted positive practice identified through the national review of child sexual exploitation and criminal exploitation, including approaches that recognise children involved in exploitation as requiring protection rather than criminalisation. AA agreed to raise this with those involved in scoping the development of indicators. 

Action 1: AA to share further information in relation to the development of indicators.
Action 2: AA to highlight the relevant learning from the national review of child sexual exploitation and criminal exploitation with those involved in the development of indicators. 

Children's rights priorities and participation

AA advised that a briefing identifying six priority children's rights issues had been prepared for Scottish Ministers, following engagement with key stakeholders. Further information would be shared once Ministers had considered the recommendations.
AA also highlighted the annual engagement between the Scottish Cabinet, Scottish Youth Parliament and Children's Parliament. Forthcoming discussions with partners are expected to identify priorities raised directly by children and young people.
Children's rights reporting
AA thanked members who had attended the Advisory Group Meeting in September with Dr Morrison from the University of Edinburgh.
Dr Morrison from the Observatory of Children’s Rights at the University of Edinburgh is undertaking an academic fellowship to support the analysis of listed authorities' children's rights reports for the 2023–2026 reporting period. Sixteen reports had been received at the time of the meeting. The work will consider emerging learning, good practice and the experiences of listed authorities in preparing their reports, with findings expected in 2027.
The next meeting will take place at the University of Edinburgh on 8 December 2026. It will focus on developing a framework for analysing the reports and identifying useful questions and measures. Members interested in attending were encouraged to contact AA.

Action 3: Members to inform AA if they wish to attend the Children’s Rights Reporting Advisory Group meeting on 8 December. 

3.    Organisational updates

Children's Hearings Scotland (CHS)

DM updated members on:
Implementation of relevant provisions for CHS of the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act had moved from March to June, allowing additional time for preparation and support for panel members.

• CHS published its Children's Rights Report at the end of September, including a version for children and young people developed with input from its experts by experience and youth advisory group.
• Engagement was underway with care experienced young people to identify the skills and attributes required of future remunerated chairs of children's hearings. This will inform recruitment arrangements.
• DM highlighted the updated children and young people section of the CHS website, which includes new visual resources and an animation explaining how children and young people can provide feedback or make complaints.
• Reflective practice sessions were being delivered with infant mental health and social work colleagues to strengthen panel members' understanding of the rights and voices of babies and very young children.

AA asked whether CHS had developed guidance on child friendly data privacy policies. DM explained that its infant guidance focuses primarily on children's voices, experiences and participation, rather than data privacy.

His Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIE)

SM explained that HMIE was approaching its sixth month as a new organisation and was continuing to develop its approaches.
Work was underway to explore establishing a children and young people's equivalent of HMIE's Advisory Council, enabling children and young people to contribute to its work.
SM also highlighted ongoing consultation on inspection frameworks and approaches, including how children's views can be gathered effectively, particularly from those who may be harder to reach.
Further details will be shared at the December meeting.

Improvement Service 

RS provided an update on support being provided to local authorities preparing their children's rights reports.
A number of reports were progressing through internal governance arrangements, with further publications expected in the coming weeks. The Improvement Service is continuing to gather examples of good practice and provide light-touch feedback where requested.
RS highlighted a recent peer network meeting attended by Dr Morrison, where two local authorities shared their approaches to children's rights reporting.
RS also updated members on:

• A children's rights course for elected members, developed with the Open University, was expected to launch on World Children's Day in November. It will also be available to people considering standing for elected office.
• The forthcoming webinar, A Rights Based Response to Children and Young People in Conflict with the Law, being delivered with the Children and Young People's Centre for Justice on 21 October 2026. A related briefing paper on this for elected members was expected to be published in the following weeks.

AA suggested that the elected members' training could also be useful for board members of scrutiny bodies represented on this group. 

Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland

HD advised that the Commission was continuing to prepare its children's rights report.
HD confirmed that the Commission intended to combine its children's rights report with its corporate parenting report to make effective use of resources and identify relevant connections between the two reporting duties.
The Commission was also continuing work to strengthen meaningful consultation with children and young people, particularly children and young people whose experiences and circumstances may make participation more challenging.
RS shared the updated UNCRC Implementation Framework to support this work.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS)

MS advised HIS has published its Children's Rights Report earlier in the year.
Following identification of areas for improvement, HIS had established a more formal children and young people's portfolio, supported by an executive lead and strengthened governance and reporting arrangements.
Organisational learning was a priority, particularly ensuring that teams working primarily with adult services understood the relevance of children's rights.
MS also updated members on:

• Planned engagement with children and young people, linked to corporate parenting work.
• The joint refresh of the quality improvement framework for children's services, with a stronger emphasis on children's rights.
• The expected resumption of children's services inspections in January 2027, following completion of the national review of child sexual exploitation and criminal exploitation.
• AA also referred to ongoing Scottish Government work to ensure children's rights remain central to public service reform.
• He noted that the refreshed national outcomes would take a broader wellbeing-based approach, with children and young people reflected across all outcomes rather than through a separate children specific outcome.

Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR)

KG attended on behalf of LM and advised that there were no significant new developments to report.
SHR had published its Children's Rights Report earlier in the year and was continuing to progress its commitments.

 

Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC)

JB confirmed SSSC had published its Children's Rights Report, including an easy read version.
SSSC is continuing to collaborate with an inclusive comics developer to produce accessible resources to explain the role of SSSC targeted to children who come into contact with social services.
JB also highlighted the organisation's ongoing work relating to care experienced people's rights and The Promise, including preparations for a staff conference where The Promise would be a key focus.

Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO): child friendly complaints 

JBM provided an overview of emerging trends, challenges and planned improvements relating to child friendly complaints.

Complaints trends and pressures

JBM explained that AI tools were enabling complainants to produce and submit complaints more easily and in greater volume, increasing demand on complaint handling services.
SPSO was receiving approximately twice the volume of complaints it had overseen before the recent AI related increase, without a corresponding increase in resources. JBM noted that other public authorities were reporting similar pressures.
The proportion of SPSO cases involving children had more than doubled since April 2025, when approximately 8% of cases involved children and young people. JBM considered that this may indicate growing awareness and use of child friendly complaints processes.

Implementation and quality assurance findings

JBM outlined findings from a quality assurance exercise examining how SPSO and public authorities were applying child friendly complaints requirements.
The exercise identified examples of strong practice, particularly among organisations that had embedded a children’s human rights approach within their existing processes. 
JBM considered that limited capacity, growing complaints backlogs and resource pressures were preventing some organisations from progressing implementation.

 

Planned improvements to guidance

SPSO intends to refresh its child friendly complaints guidance, drawing on findings from the quality assurance work and feedback from public authorities.

Key areas for improvement include:

• Best interests: Strengthening guidance on how decisions about children's participation should be justified, particularly where a child is not directly involved in a complaint.
• Parental disagreement: Clarifying approaches where parents do not wish their child to participate in a complaint concerning them.
• Complaint responses: Setting clearer expectations for public authorities to explain how children's views, rights and best interests have informed complaint decisions.
• Decision-making templates: Developing practical examples and templates to support consistent and proportionate approaches.
• JBM hoped to complete the guidance updates by the end of 2026, followed by renewed engagement with public authorities, including senior leadership, to support implementation.

4.    Members' reflections

HD asked whether there were identifiable patterns among organisations that had successfully implemented child friendly complaints processes.
JBM explained that local authorities were generally further ahead than some other sectors, but that implementation varied considerably between organisations, regardless of size or type.
RS confirmed that child friendly complaints remained an important issue in discussions with local authorities. She welcomed the proposed guidance improvements, particularly practical support for organisations reviewing or developing their procedures.
KG noted that the increased use of AI assisted correspondence could make it more difficult to identify the underlying issues being raised in complaints.
JBM explained that AI generated complaints could increase both the volume and complexity of correspondence, including where legal arguments appeared plausible but required detailed examination.

5.    AOB

No further business was raised. 
The next meeting will take place on Tuesday 15 December 2026.