New assessment to consider Children's Rights
New Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessments have been introduced to make sure the council is meeting its responsibilities towards children’s rights. This applies to all services.
To support, embed and extend children’s rights in Scotland, the Scottish Government introduced the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act, which received Royal assent in January 2024.
The Act sets out an expectation of a Scotland where children’s human rights are embedded in all aspects of society, empowered to give their views and be included in conversations on matters that affect them.
Policy, law and decision-making must take account of these rights. In doing so, it makes it unlawful for a public authority “to act, or fail to act, in connection with a relevant function in a way which is incompatible with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) requirements.”
In bringing in the Act, listed public bodies are required to recognise, respect and promote children’s rights in what they do. To work towards facilitating these rights within East Lothian, and to ‘not act incompatibly’ with the Act, East Lothian Council has committed to completing Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessments (CRWIA).
A CRWIA is a tool which enables us to understand how what we do, be it a proposed policy, decision or action, might affect a child’s human rights. It helps to test that what we do, or propose to do, is not incompatible with those rights.
It should be applied to all new policy and practice and includes a screening tool to check for relevance which is applicable to all services.
Visit the dedicated pages on our intranet for more on UNCRC and Children’s Rights. Search U in the A-Z of services.
For more information on Children’s Rights Wellbeing Assessments please contact Policy Officer Linda Alexander.