New legislation has been introduced to incorporate the UNCRC into Scots law within the powers of the Scottish Parliament. The new duties under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 will come into force in July 2024.

The Act aims to ensure that:

• Children's rights are respected and protected in the law in Scotland; and
• Public authorities are legally required to respect and protect children's rights in the work they do.

The ambition of the UNCRC Act is to deliver a proactive culture of everyday accountability for children’s rights across public services in Scotland. It will require all Scotland’s public authorities to take proactive steps to ensure the protection of children’s rights in their decision-making and service delivery and make it unlawful for public authorities, including the Scottish Government, to act incompatibly with the UNCRC requirements as set out in the Act.

The Act means that:

Public authorities (including councils and health boards) will be required to comply with the UNCRC requirements when delivering devolved functions conferred by or under Acts of the Scottish Parliament or under common law powers.

The Act also gives children and young people access to the Courts if they feel their rights have been breached in devolved areas and also brings a range of responsibilities to Scottish Ministers.

Key features of the act are as follows:

• Making sure the voice and lived experience of children and young people informs our planning and delivery of public services and how those services help realise children’s rights.
• Carrying out Children’s Rights Wellbeing Impact assessments (CRWIA) when a new strategy, policy is being developed, or when there is a change in public services planned.
• Public bodies publishing Children’s Rights Reports to communicate how they are complying with the new act.
• Ensuring all children and young people know about their rights.
• Public bodies having child friendly complaints procedures in place.

Resources

Lots of resources are available to support organisations and groups get ready and comply with the duties in the new act. Some of these are available here:

Here's a list of guidance and resources that are currently available: 

• Statutory guidance on Part 2 of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024
• The children’s rights guide - for senior leaders in public services in Scotland provides an introduction to the UNCRC and shares what the UNCRC Bill will mean for public services. 
• The Getting Ready for UNCRC framework - support to organisations to consider where they are in terms of their readiness for incorporation, help them to identify gaps or areas for improvements, and inform discussions on next steps.  
• To support children to understand their rights, this short animation is a helpful introduction to UNCRC and shows the types of interactions young people might have with public authorities about their rights. It could be used to help staff understand how children’s rights applies in their role. 
• The Child rights and wellbeing impact assessment guidance and templates provides support to public authorities to undertake a CRWIA as part of their decision making.  Public authorities do not have a duty to carry out CRWIAs under the UNCRC Act; however, the Scottish Government supports their use to improve decision making and practice. 
• Participation guidance provides support to those who have to or want to engage with children and young people as part of their decision making.
• The Children’s rights knowledge hub is an online community of people working to ensure that children's rights are realised in Scotland, with a particular focus on how public bodies are implementing the UNCRC. Please note you need to sign up to access the hub.
• The Scottish Public Sector Ombudsman(SPSO) is being funded by the Scottish Government to develop a child-friendly way for public bodies to handle complaints. They have created Child Friendly Complaints Handling Principles and Child Friendly Complaints Handling Process Guidance to support organisations implement the Model Complaints Handling Procedure in a way that upholds children’s rights under the UNCRC.

Training

Training for staff on the specifics of the act and on children’s rights in general is currently being planned and will be available later in the Spring so watch this space.