The ‘Developing Practice’ section of The Inspiration Hub is where we are sharing examples of developing practice from across Forth Valley and West Lothian Regional Improvement Collaborative. You are invited to click on this link: Add practice to The Inspiration Hub to upload UNCRC examples.
What is the UNCRC?
UNCRC stands for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. There are 54 articles in total that outline the rights children are entitled to. Rights are unconditional: All children everywhere in the world are entitled to rights, they do not have to be earned and they are not dependant on responsibilities – children have them regardless.
A summary of the UNCRC articles can be found here
In 2019 the Deputy First Minister announced that the UNCRC would be incorporated into law in Scotland following a consultation period. In September 2021 the bill was presented to parliament and the bill passed its third stage on the 16th of March 2021 with unanimous cross-party support.
Whilst there is currently a delay due to the Supreme Court ruling, incorporation is still planned and the legislation requires all public bodies to embed the UNCRC in their policies and practice.
Together Scotland provide updates on the ruling you can access here
What help is available?
To understand how we can best support educational settings with the incorporation, please complete this training and support needs form
There is a working group with representatives from each local authority developing tools and resources to support with the incorporation. Some resources have already been developed. You can access these resources by clicking the UNCRC Resources Toolkit button below:
How do we embed children’s rights?
It is important that education settings are prepared for this incorporation by understanding what it means and how it will affect practice. We have an important role to play as duty bearers of children’s rights and need to consider how we make links between the UNCRC and:
• our culture
• values and ethos
• skills and activities
• curricular programmes
• targeted support
Since GIRFEC came from UNCRC, many of the approaches we already use in educational settings will be rights based. However we still need to be aware of possible infringements and the implications of this.
What can you do?
Undertake relevant training on UNCRC
• Youtube video Overview UNCRC (4 mins)
• Youtube video Children’s rights – What? Why? How? (16 mins)
• Thinglink Children’s rights Professional Learning resource for individuals to work through
• Contact your local authority rights officer for 1 hour live session
Know what it looks like in practice (a few examples but by no means exhaustive)
• Person centred planning
• Interdisciplinary learning
• Nurture approaches (compassionate and connected classroom)
• Restorative approaches
• Child friendly complaints procedures
• Child friendly improvement plans/articles references in improvement plans
• Examples of practice
If you have any examples of rights based practice, please get in touch using the contact form above or share them directly on the FVWL RIC Inspiration Hub (links and contact information above)
