Education, Culture and Sport Committee, 03 Apr 2001

Meeting date: Tuesday, April 3, 2001

Official Report 98KB pdf

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Children's Commissioner

Agenda item 3 is an update on the children's commissioner inquiry. This morning, along with my colleague Frank McAveety, I heard the views of young people in Glasgow on the idea of a children's commissioner. Their views will feed into the information-gathering process. The Evening Times has been running a campaign and a children's jury, and some children came along to give us information on that. We will feed that information into the written evidence on the commissioner.

I have asked permission of the conveners group to go to Wales next Tuesday, to meet the chair of the Health and Social Services Committee and the Health and Social Services Secretary, to discuss the progress that the National Assembly for Wales has made on a children's commissioner. We are still trying to fix a date to visit the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Written evidence has been coming in steadily over the past few weeks, and we will now begin to work on that. Members also have a paper on a proposed day event and a film that we are considering making. We suggested making a film because we would be able to take it to a wider geographical area and reach some of the young people whom we have not managed to contact. We would approach organisations such as Who Cares? Scotland, whose remit covers such things, to help us do that. Do members have any comments on the proposals?

I like the idea of making a film, but I wonder whether we have enough time to do it. It would be up to the guys who produced the film and the organisations that they contacted to ensure that it would be ready in time. I am worried about the time scale, with the Easter holidays approaching, but if the film could be produced in time, it would be a good idea.

I endorse that comment. It is an imaginative proposal that would allow more young people to express an opinion and get involved in the event than we could comfortably accommodate if we brought them here. The paper is correct in saying that young people are comfortable with videos and would not find it difficult to express themselves in that format and get involved in the event. The idea is to be commended.

Can we proceed with the proposal and commission that work?

Committee members will be aware that we have also commissioned research into consultation with young people and that we are now at the stage of bringing that to a conclusion and writing a final report. Some of us think that the children's commissioner inquiry and the outcome of the report are compatible in some ways, or could be linked. If we go ahead with this event on 4 June, perhaps it would be appropriate to publicly launch the completed report on consultation with young people at the same time. To achieve that, the timetabling would have to allow us to get the final report to committee members by 23 April.

The researchers are available to attend the committee on 15 May to speak to the report, present their research and participate in a general discussion around it. The report could then be signed off and authorised by the committee in time for 4 June, and a small part of our children's commissioner day event could be given over to its launch. Representatives of the many agencies, individuals and children who have an interest in the event will also have an interest in the paper, and the two might feed off each other's publicity.

That would certainly be possible. However, representatives of the Scottish Qualifications Authority will provide a progress report to the committee on 15 May and we may run out of time. If we wanted to invite the Scottish Parliament information centre researchers, we would have to bring the meeting forward by half an hour to give them time to take us through what has been happening. If members do not have a problem with that, that would seem to be the obvious solution. Is that agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

Cathy Peattie has now arrived. The committee has agreed that you will be its reporter on the budget process, Cathy.

Fine.