This case study outlines the approach taken jointly by Dumfries and Galloway Council and NHS Dumfries and Galloway to the development of their 2020-23 Children’s Rights Report and Future Action Plan.
The Dumfries and Galloway Children’s Rights Report 2020-2023 covers action taken by Dumfries and Galloway Council and NHS Dumfries and Galloway to promote and progress Children’s Rights between April 2020 and March 2023. The joint report outlines what is going well, what needs to improve and what the Council and NHS should do next.
Approach
Dumfries and Galloway Council and NHS Dumfries and Galloway established a new Elected Member, Youth Council and Officer Working Group to consider how they would approach the development of their children’s rights report for 2020-2023. The group members included Elected Members, Officers from Dumfries and Galloway Council and NHS Dumfries and Galloway and members of Dumfries and Galloway Youth Council. The Group agreed that it was vital to include the voices of children and young people across the local authority area to ensure that the report and action plan reflected their experiences of life across the region.
Engagement with children and young people
Members of the Group from the Youth Council developed an engagement toolkit that allowed professionals to run workshops with children and young people across the region through primary schools, secondary schools and youth groups. Over a 4-week period, 771 children and young people took part in the consultation.
The Group also looked at what children and young people have told us over the last three years through different engagement activities including for example:
- 10,000 Voices Findings
- Youth Matters Conference and Report
- Health and Wellbeing Census Results
- The Bright Spot Pilot results
In developing the report, the Children’s Rights Group also:
- Asked all services to complete a Rights Audit to gather information about the work and activities that each service has undertaken to respect, promote and progress Children’s Rights.
- Scrutinised and made recommendations to ensure that this report is an accurate reflection of service delivery, and children and young people’s experiences of delivery.
Challenges
Both the Council and the NHS are large organisations and as a result there is a wide range of service being delivered across the local area. This makes it difficult to ensure that the report can reflect the range and depth of work underway to respect and protect children’s rights. It is also a challenge to ensure that the report is accessible to children and young people.
What we learned as a result of this approach
The final report presents a wide range of information about children’s rights work across the local authority area. This makes the document a significant resource that can provide an insight into this work and act as a benchmark for future work and approaches to children’s rights.
One of the key reflections across the analysis of the information gathered is that there is not a consistent approach to children’s rights across different organisations and even between services. There are excellent examples of Children’s Rights education, activities, initiatives and process that have been included in the report. However, there are also instances where service efforts are not known or recognised as children’s rights work by children and young people.
The experience of engaging with children and young people has emphasised the need for more consistent, transparent approaches to children’s rights across our organisations.
Next Steps
The report presents separate action plans for the NHS and Council which outlines the actions that are needed over the next few years to improve their approach to children’s rights across the area. The action plan uses the Getting Ready for the UNCRC Framework to structure the future actions and ensure accountability. Both organisations are committed to continuing to work with children and young people to take forward the actions outlined in the action plan.
Find out more
Dumfries and Galloway Children's Rights Report 2020-23
The most relevant UNCRC Articles targeted in the example:
Article 3 (Best interests of the child): The creation of a Children’s Rights Group indicates a commitment to ensuring that decisions and service delivery align with children’s best interests.
Article 4 (Implementation of rights): This article places responsibility on governments to take all necessary measures to implement the rights recognised in the UNCRC. The Dumfries and Galloway report shows efforts to meet this requirement by establishing a Children’s Rights Group, performing rights audits across services, and creating action plans based on the "Getting Ready for the UNCRC" framework. These steps indicate a structured approach toward realising children’s rights within the local authority.
Article 6 (Right to life, survival, and development): Through its engagement and workshops with young people on health and well-being, the report touches on supporting their overall development.
Article 12 (Right to be heard): The report focuses on including children’s voices in decision-making processes, demonstrated through the engagement tool developed by the Youth Council as well as consultations such as the Youth Matters Conference and the "10,000 Voices" initiative.
Article 42 (Making the UNCRC known): This article mandates that children, as well as adults, are made aware of children’s rights. The Council and NHS Dumfries and Galloway promote this by incorporating children’s rights into their services, using educational tools like the engagement toolkit, and involving young people directly in rights-related discussions and audits, increasing awareness across various groups.
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