A Scotland for Children: A Consultation on the Children and
Young People Bill
The Scottish Government is set to introduce a new Children and Young People’s Bill later
this year. This Bill sets out a range of proposals for taking forward an approach to
children’s rights and services
Here at North Edinburgh Childcare children have been having their own say
through taking part in activities which explore children’s rights to be
Healthy, Happy and Safe and what factors contribute to this. I am running
these activities with Joe (11)* and Cally (7)* and here is their feedback.
*The names of the participants have been changed to protect their identity.*
The Scottish Government wants Scotland to be the best place for children and young people to grow up. They are
making a plan to help make this happen and now it is our turn as citizens to let them know what we think. We will
do some work together, we will investigate what children need and what adults can do to help. So the idea is to
think about children’s lives, from before they are even born to being your age. Because we are thinking and talking
about living and growing, we will be imagining Scotland is a huge garden and all the children and young people are
the plants that grow in it. Together let’s create the most beautiful garden we can imagine.
These are our Garden’s we created.
Joe: “ My Garden has lots of different plants growing in it and lots of nice soil to help them grow, I
have a sun in my picture so it is nice and warm and can also help plants grow but I also have a tree for
shade away from the sun because too much sun is bad. I have a nice house next to the garden where
my friends and family are and a litter bin so the garden is clean and organized.
Cally: “My Garden is sunny and has beautiful flowers in it. I have a big sunflower and a lovely red rose.
My garden is wild because there are lots of things in it and me, my mum and my friend Rebecca are in
it. My garden is in Corstorphine because this is a nice place.”
These are our gardens:
I need a sunshine
in my garden so my
plants can grow
and it is a sunny
place.
Joe’s Garden
The big tree
helps shade
things from
the sun and
trees are
always in nice
gardens.
I would have a house
next to the garden
for shelter and a
place where my
friends and family
would be.
The litter bin is in
my garden so it can
be kept clean and
can keep all the
rubbish away.
The orange dot would
be where I would sit
in the garden because
it is a nice spot being
shaded and protected
from the sun and I
could see all of my
garden.
This is the plant bed which has got lots of different plants and vegetables in it.
There is a sunflower, roses, carrots, cabbages and seeds waiting to grow into
something else. The soil around them is the seeds food and helps the seeds
grow into the flower.
This is my sunshine
that keeps my
garden warm and
helps things grow.
This is my
beautiful
sunflower that is
very tall and
colourful.
This is my pond, it
has lots of water in
it which is good for
the plants and helps
them grow.
Cally’s Garden
This is a love heart
I drew, there is
lots of love in my
garden and we need
love to grow.
That is a lovely big red
rose and me standing on
top in my lovely red
dress.
The people are my
mum and my friend
Rebecca, they would
help the garden grow
with me.
Our Seed Packets – What we need when we are growing up:
Joe
Because we’re
thinking about
Scotland as a
garden, and the
children and young
people as the plants,
we are each going to
make a special seed
packet about
ourselves.
Cally
This seed packet is
about you and how
you want to grow.
These are our seed
packets with our
answers:
Joe: “When growing up I need lots of water,
vegetables, food and exercise so I grow up
healthy. I need a house to sleep and grow up in
that keeps me warm and I need lots of care and
respect from helpful adults. The people who help
me are my mum, dad and all my family. My carers
(young carers and befrienders) who take me out
and my social worker. When I grow up I will be a
strong footballer who helps out other people.
Cally: When I am growing up I need lots of food like
fruit and carrots and nice hot dinners. I also need lots
of time at school to help me learn lots of things and play
with my friends. I need lots of love and care when I am
growing up. The people who help me grow are my mum
and dad, my brother, my nana all of my family. social
worker and my young carer helps me to grow. When I
grow up I will be a hairdresser and a mum so I can look
after people.
In real life, just like in our garden, we need lots of
things to be Healthy, Happy and Safe as we are
growing. Together we are going to think of what
these things might be. First, let’s talk about what
children need to be Healthy, and because we are
imagining life is like a garden, we’ll record our ideas
on the watering can. We will want to think about
from before we are born right through to when we
are fully grown.”
Joe and Cally worked together to feedback on what
they think they need to have to be healthy. These
were:
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Healthy food like Fruit and vegetables,
To take part in lots of sports such as running,
athletics and football as these keep you fit.
To be clean and have a clean place to stay,
The sun can be good for you and being outdoors.
We need people to care and look after us.
(Someone to make sure we are getting all these
things that make us healthy).
Next we thought about what children need to be
Happy and we’ll record our ideas on the sun:
Joe and Cally worked together to feedback on what
they think they need to have to be happy and what
makes them happy. These were:
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I am happy when I am in school and after
schools club.
People who are nice to me makes me happy.
People helping me when I am hurt.
Playing football makes me happy.
Funny people who make me laugh.
Playing with my friends.
Singing with my friends.
People who are kind to team.
And finally, we discussed what do children and young
people need to be Safe.
Joe and Cally worked together to feedback on who
keeps children and where they feel safe. These
were:
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My mum and dad keep me safe.
The police, ambulance crew, fire men and other
carers keep us safe.
Adults that work with us like teachers, head
teachers after school club staff, social workers
and befrienders keep us safe.
I feel safe when I am at home, in my classroom
at school and in my after schools club.
We need all these people and places around us to
keep us safe.
When discussing the well being indicators with children I
focussed on asking children what they think the need to be
happy, healthy and safe as I found the SHANARRI language
very formal for a discussion with primary school age children.
Their responses covered the SHANARRI indicators as to be
happy, healthy and safe children said they required fruit,
vegetables, food and water (healthy), do sports for fitness
(active), respect from adults (respected), have adults like
mum and dad to look after them (responsible), need care and
love (nurture), lots of time to learn at school (achieving),
have a house to live in to be warm and safe (safe) and need a
family and important adults around them(included).
When consulting with Joe and Cally on who has an
important role in their lives in keeping them healthy,
happy and safe, their responses were mum and dad as
well as other members of their family e.g uncle, siblings,
grandparents, public bodies were carers (young
carers/befrienders), social worker and school staff
(teachers/head teachers).
These were adults who have a role in their life and the
realisation of their rights.
These are people children feel are important figures
whom they trust and listen to.
We have thought about what we think we and other
children need to be Healthy, Happy and Safe and now we
are going to use the image of the snail to write down some
of the things that can get in the way, and stop children
having their rights.
These are the things Joe and Cally thought might get in
the way of them being happy, healthy and safe:
•Not eating the right foods that keep us healthy.
•Not having people around that look after us and keep us
safe.
•Not having someone to go to for help if we needed it.
•No-one to take care of us if we were ill/unwell.
•People that make us sad like bullies around us.
We have been imagining Scotland is a big garden, and you’ll know that when there are snails or other
troubles in a garden it is the job of the gardener to fix them. As growing children you need lots of
people around you to be your gardeners, and they can be adults in your family or people like teachers
or nurses or social workers. In this session we talked about these adults and how they help you.
We put all our artwork onto the wall so we could see what we had written about what keeps us happy,
healthy and safe. From this we thought of what adults in our lives helped us to be healthy, happy and
stay safe.
Both Joe and Cally chose two adults, one a family member and one a professional adult as
their gardeners. These were adults in their life who were important to them and who
helped to keep them happy, healthy and safe.
These are Joe’s gardeners, the male gardener represents both brother and dad and the female gardener
represents his social worker and these are the reasons why he has chosen them.
My dad and brother help to keep me happy, healthy and
safe because:
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They both look after me.
Care about me and sister.
My brother helps me if I am in trouble because if
there are bullies or people being nasty he tells them
to go away.
They give me respect
They are both helpful and kind to me.
My social worker helps to keep me safe, healthy and
happy because she:
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Looks out for us and makes sure we are safe.
She is funny and very nice to be with.
She knows what things we need and helps to get
them for me and my family.
She cares about me and my sister.
She comes to our house and takes us nice
places.
She is also helpful and kind.
These are Cally’s gardeners, the gardeners represent mum and her young carer and these
are the reasons why she has chosen them.
My mum keeps me happy, healthy and safe because she:
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Helps to keep me clean.
Takes me nice places.
Looks after me.
Puts me to bed at night.
Helps me to be healthy.
My young carer keeps me happy, healthy and safe because:
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She talks to me about things.
Has a laugh with me.
Takes me out to nice places.
Makes me happy.
Asks me how I feel.
It is important for adults to do their jobs properly so that children get the help they need to grow.
“What help will your gardeners need to do their jobs to help keep children healthy, happy and safe and have their
rights?”
Joe and Cally: “They would need to know us and our family and be told what we need to be happy, healthy and safe.”
“What should happen if children don’t get their rights?” - Joe and Cally were unsure as to what should happen if
children don’t get their rights. They think that someone in charge of children getting their rights should make sure
they always do.
We have talked about Scotland being a big garden and now we have thought about all the gardeners and their different
jobs. There are so many gardeners in a big garden there needs to be someone whose job it is to make sure that everyone is
working together to look after all the plants properly. In the garden this person is called the Head Gardener. The Scottish
Government thinks it would be a good idea to have someone called a Named Person to do the same sort of job for children as
a Head Gardener would do in a garden. Even though the most important person in your life might be your Mum, or Dad, or
Granny or your Carer, the idea is that the Head Gardener/Named Person will be a professional person and not someone in
your family”.
Joe and Cally worked together to come up with the type of
person they would like to be their head gardener. These are
the qualities they thought their head gardener should have:
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Their head garden should be someone that was trained
to be a head gardener.
Someone like our social worker because she knows us
and our family very well.
Someone who would talk to me to find out what I want.
Someone who can help to take care of me and my family.
Maybe someone who was a health person, someone who
would know how to keep us healthy.
Someone who knows all our different important adults.
Someone who already helps to look after me.
We think the most important duty of the head gardener
should be to make sue we are being safe, healthy and are
happy. The toughest thing about being the head gardener
would be having lots of children they need to keep happy,
healthy and safe.
Their would have to be different head gardeners when you
are a baby and a teenager because you will know different
people. You might change so they might have to do different
things to make sure you are happy, healthy and safe.
We have worked together to create a beautiful garden where everything can grow well because the gardeners are working
hard to do a good job. We have talked about how the Scottish Government wants Scotland to be the best place for children
to grow. We have thought, talked and written about the things we think the Government should know. Now the adults will
put all of this information into a report and send it to the Government. But there is one last thing we thought you might like
to do. We have some postcards for you to finish.
There is a place for you to write the message that you think is the most important thing for all of Scotland’s Gardeners (of
course that’s all the adults that help look after the rights of children) to know so that Scotland really is the best place for
YOU to grow up in.
Joe and Cally
Thank you for all your hard work and remember your rights to be healthy, happy
and safe and let other children know that to!”