Children’s Rights and Wellbeing:
Tensions in Scottish Policy
Kay Tisdall, Co-Director
Centre for Research on Families and
Relationships (CRFR) University of Edinburgh
www.crfr.ac.uk
@crfrtweets
CRFR’s aims
• Produce high quality, collaborative and
inclusive research relevant to key issues in families and
relationships.
• Act as a focal point, and promote and facilitate a network, for
all those with an interest in research on families and
relationships.
• Make research more accessible for use by policy makers,
practitioners, research participants, academics and the wider
public.
• Enhance the infrastructure to conduct research on families
and relationships.
www.crfr.ac.uk
@crfrtweets
• Population 5, 327,000 estimate
mid 2013. 17% of population
under the age of 16
• Devolved system of Government,
Scottish Parliament 1999
• 32 local authorities
• National Health Service
• Children’s hearing system – for
children who offend and children
in need of care and protection
• 1:5 children and young people
live in poverty
• 4 top children’s rights issues for
children and young people: Being
safe and secure; Being treated
fairly; Being respected; Being
included
www.crfr.ac.uk
@crfrtweets
It is the aspiration of the Scottish Government
for Scotland to be the best place to grow up in.
The objective of the Children & Young People
(Scotland) Bill is to make real this ambition by
putting children and young people at the heart
of planning and delivery of services and
ensuring their rights are respected across the
public sector. (Scottish Parliament, 2013, p. 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RryKz_7cZWs
www.crfr.ac.uk
@crfrtweets
www.crfr.ac.uk
@crfrtweets
Children & Young People (Scotland) Act 2014
In Part 1 …
Scottish Ministers must:
• keep under consideration whether there are any steps which
they could take which would or might secure better or further
effect in Scotland of the UNCRC requirements; and
• if they consider it appropriate to do so, take any of the steps
identified by that consideration. (S1(1))
A public authority will have a duty to report on what steps it has
taken in the [3 year] period to secure better or further effect
within its areas of responsibility of the UNCRC requirements.
(S2(1))
www.crfr.ac.uk
@crfrtweets
Children & Young People (Scotland) Act 2014
In Part 3 …
• A local authority and the relevant health board to prepare a children’s
services plan for every three year period (S8). The plan seeks to ensure
children’s services in the area: better safeguard, support and promote the
wellbeing of children in the area; that action is taken to prevent needs
arising and, if there are needs, to meet them at the earliest appropriate
time; are more integrated from the recipients’ point of view; and make the
best use of available resources. (paraphrased from S9(2)(a))
• The plan must be kept under review and must be implemented so far as
reasonably practicable. (S12(1))
• After each one year period, a report must be published on what has been
provided, how aims have been achieved and wellbeing outcomes. (S13(1))
www.crfr.ac.uk
@crfrtweets
Children’s wellbeing
• Preventive and assetbased?
• Aspirational? Maximising
wellbeing
• Can incorporate aspects of
children’s rights
• Statistical development
• Utilitarian?
• Professional agenda?
• Apolitical?
www.crfr.ac.uk
Children’s rights
• UNCRC up to date and
flexible?
• Address all issues important to
children?
• Can incorporate aspects of
children’s wellbeing
• Less investment in statistical
development
• Protects minimum standards;
State accountability
• Rights as political ‘trump
cards’
@crfrtweets
It is the aspiration of the Scottish Government
for Scotland to be the best place to grow up in.
The objective of the Children & Young People
(Scotland) Bill is to make real this ambition by
putting children and young people at the heart
of planning and delivery of services and
ensuring their rights are respected across the
public sector. (Scottish Parliament, 2013, p. 1)
www.crfr.ac.uk
@crfrtweets
Related references
Davis, J., Hill, L., Tisdall, K., Cairns, L. and McCausland, S. (2014) Social Justice,
the Common Weal and Children and Young People in Scotland, Glasgow: The
Jimmy Reid Foundation http://reidfoundation.org/portfolio/2295/
Tisdall, E.K.M. and Hill, M. (2011) ‘Policy change under devolution: the prism
of children’s policy’. Social Policy & Society 10(1), 29-40.
Tisdall, E.K.M. (2013) ‘The potential for children’s rights in Scotland: Learning
from the UNICEF UK report on legal implementation of the UNCRC in 12
countries’, Scottish Human Rights Journal Issue 60.
Tisdall, E.K.M. and Davis, J.M. (forthcoming) ‘Children’s Rights and Wellbeing:
tensions within the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014’, in Smith,
A.B. (Ed) Enhancing the Rights and Wellbeing of Children: Connecting
Research, Policy and Practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
For more information on children’s hearings:
http://www.scra.gov.uk/home/index.cfm
www.crfr.ac.uk
@crfrtweets