Thank you, convener, and good morning, everyone.
The issue is a human rights issue that cuts right to the heart of children’s rights: the right to dignity and respect; the right to be kept safe; the right to access an education that develops their personality, talents and abilities to their fullest potential without discrimination; the right to associate with other children; the right to be protected from cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment; and the right not to be unduly deprived of their liberty.
Restraint and seclusion interferes with all those rights, and it is happening across Scotland. There is strong evidence that children’s best interests are often not at the centre of decision making and that their voices are being lost in the processes around them. It is therefore important that we have national guidance on the use of restraint and seclusion of children in schools, and the Scottish Government must introduce that national guidance as a matter of urgency. Without robust national guidance, the Scottish Government is in breach of its human rights obligations to children.
In addressing the deficiencies of the current approach, it is important to set it in the context of the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and to note the Scottish Government’s commitment to incorporate those rights into domestic law by the end of the current parliamentary session. We can fully protect children’s rights only in that way.
I turn to the petition and the progress that has been made. Huge credit should go to Beth Morrison, who I have the honour of sitting beside, and Kate Sanger, who is in the public gallery. They have acted as fierce champions and human rights defenders on behalf of children across Scotland and in supporting their families. I also note the in safe hands? campaign that Enable Scotland launched this week to regulate the use of seclusion and restraint in Scotland’s schools. We fully endorse that.
As the committee is aware, this is the first time that the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, the Scottish Human Rights Commission or any body of that type has used its investigation powers in Scotland. We did not take the decision lightly and, through the use of those legal powers, we sought to draw attention to an issue that was being ignored.
Our investigations established that there is a gap in the support that is available to teachers and classroom assistants because of the lack of robust and human-rights-based national guidance and that that gap impacts negatively on children and increases the likelihood of restraint and seclusion. Our investigations also established that incidents were not being properly and consistently recorded across the country, which makes it difficult to introduce improvements in relation to policy.
A hand that is made up of words that are associated with emotions that children and young people expressed to us—for example, “Sad”, “Lonely”, “Unloved” and “Confused”—is on the front cover of our report on the investigation. The voices of children and young people sit at the heart of our investigation and the heart of the petition. Their voices are being lost and, unless we make radical changes quickly, they will continue to be lost, and children’s rights will continue to be breached.