Chamber and committees

Question reference: S6W-23692

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: 7 December 2023
Current status: Answered by Natalie Don on 20 December 2023

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) financial and (b) other resources it allocated to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) implementation programme, which began in 2021 and is set to finish in March 2024; what proportion of any resources allocated have been used to date, and what any such resources have been used for.

Answer

The 2021-22 Programme for Government included a commitment to invest £4 million until March 2024 to support public services to consistently uphold children's rights. The financial memorandum that accompanied the original UNCRC Bill set out how that would be spent and included commitments to invest in: accessible guidance and training; awareness-raising to support children and young people to be human rights defenders; a sustainable approach to the strategic participation of children and young people in decision-making; a social marketing campaign to raise the profile and support for children’s rights across Scottish society; and support for public services and senior leaders to progressively realise the rights of children.

While the social media campaign could not be progressed due to the delay to the UNCRC Bill, all of the other support is either in place or in development.

Our investment in supporting the implementation of a children’s human rights approach has been £4,117,974 in 2021-22, £5,022,545 in 2022-23 and is currently forecast to be £5,121,064 in 2023-24. This includes the cost of:

work to progress the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill and develop supporting guidance;
grant funding of organisations that are supporting public authorities to take a children’s human rights approach (Scottish Youth Parliament, Children’s Parliament, Together, Young Scot and the Improvement Service)
grant funding of organisation that help children and young people to seek redress for rights issues (Clan Childlaw and Scottish Child Law Centre);
grant funding of organisations delivering on children’s rights through the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention Fund
national funding of Unicef’s Rights Respecting School Award;
the development of a child-friendly complaints process in partnership with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman;
the UNCRC innovation fund that is funding 8 local authorities and their partners to embed children’s rights; and
the development of a national children’s rights skills and knowledge framework.

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