Author: Mrs Giuliani

Clacks UNCRC update – Staff Awareness of UNCRC

Ensuring that all Council staff are aware of their responsibility to uphold Children’s Rights and the duties in the UNCRC Incorporation Act is a key issue being progressed by the Working Group. The working Group consists of staff reps from all Council directorates.

Summarised information ’10 things you need to know about UNCRC’ was issued to school and ELC based staff at the start of term and staff were also encouraged to attend the online session on UNCRC for education staff hosted by Education Scotland. Most schools and ELCs have already gained or are working towards Rights Respecting Schools accreditation supported by a PT for Inclusion.

Updates and information on UNCRC implementation has been posted on the Connect staff intranet and highlighted in the weekly staff update.

Staff and Elected Member learning sessions have also been posted on Clacks Academy –

  • Understanding Children’s Human Rights – an e-learning package from the Improvement Service
  • Introduction to Children’s Rights for Elected Members – also from the Improvement Service
  • Children’s Rights – Resources and Practical Tips – an e-learning package from the Children’s Parliament

Services are now considering what further awareness raising activities they need such as Toolbox Talks, Readiness Audit and posters and leaflets that can be developed for parents and pupils.

Clacks UNCRC update – Child Friendly Complaints

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) has published overarching principles and process guidance for public bodies to implement a Child Friendly (CF) Complaints process. The main feature of child friendly complaints is that the child’s views and voice should be heard in any complaint about anything that affects them. This is particularly important in services, such as education and social work, where the service is being provided directly to the child.

Work has begun on this – a summarised CF process ‘checklist’ has been produced for staff in  Clackmannanshire explaining the key features in the guidance, some training has been delivered to education staff, both online and in person to HT cluster meetings have taken place, and work has begun to produce case studies for education.

The SPSO will also provide complaints handling training in the new year, as well as leaflets for pupils and parents explaining the new features of the CF complaints process and show how children’s rights are upheld.

Clacks UNCRC Update – Pupil Voice

The views of children and young people is at the heart of our practice in Clackmannanshire Council. We have an established framework that regularly provides opportunities for children and young people to be involved and influence decision making within the Authority. Our framework mirrors the principles of the UNCRC and empowers youth voice through the use of the Youth Charter.

Supported by The Children’s Parliament children and young people from our primary and secondary establishments meet with Council representatives to share their views on priorities that matter to them and feed into discussion on Authority priorities. Participants co-create the agenda and a Google Classroom has been set up to share feedback to individual establishments youth voice structures.

This term we have extended participation to young people from St. Modan’s, Stirling who live in the catchment and targeted meetings to invite external partners to engage with discussions e.g., Planet Youth, Rotary Club and Women’s Aid.  There are also plans to widen participation to ELC and ASN children and young people. It is important the views of all are included in discussions and decisions.

Youth Voice is now embedded in the Authority with children and young people being consulted on policy and budgeting decisions, and scoping papers for new projects.

Learning & Teaching

We have launched our new Learning, Teaching and Assessment Guide which is a comprehensive, interactive toolkit with an abundance of learning, teaching and assessment resources from videos, podcasts, articles, CLPL presentations, examples and many more resources to support practitioners, teams and schools in their improvement journey striving for excellence in their learning and teaching. You can access the Guide here. Check out our Learning & Teaching blog page here.

UNCRC Bill

The UNCRC bill has just received Royal Assent coming into operation on 16th July 2024. Plan for implementation and get ready by using the resources hosted on on our Key Resources Page and check out the UNCRC link on the home page. Click here for links

Key Resources

UNCRC

Achievement Project

This report outlines the findings and recommendations from a pilot project carried out between late 2022 and early 2023, by Education Scotland and partners in the Forth Valley and West Lothian (FVWL) Regional Improvement Collaborative area (RIC).  The pilot investigated how young people’s personal achievements, out with the formal curriculum, are currently recognised and recorded across schools and community learning and development (CLD) providers. The aim of this investigation was to identify ways to support practice across schools and CLD providers, so that a wider range of children and young people’s learning and achievements can be recognised, recorded and tracked, throughout their education journey.  View our Achievement project Interim Report here

Youth Voice

FVWL CLD staff, teachers, third sector organisations, officers and wider partners, with support from Education Scotland, have worked collaboratively to develop information and guidance for practitioners on the approach for youth voice across the region. It has been endorsed by leaders and directors in each of the 4 local authorities alongside being supported by the Regional Improvement Collaborative. The approach has three key elements. These elements should be utilised and incorporated within Clackmannanshire, Falkirk, Stirling and West Lothian when youth voice work is being conducted. Read more