Policy Team Minutes 2010 April September.pdf

Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
Policy Team Meeting Minutes – April 2010
Policy Team Minutes
Monday 26th April, 2010
Action Points from Last Meeting

All action points from last minutes have been completed.

2011-2015 Work Plan Day

Chris Ratcliffe (CR) is looking for suggestions of how best to involve Rachel Edgar in the long-term
planning day that she is facilitating for us on the 19th of May.

Action Point:  All Policy Team members to e-mail Chris with their ideas for Rachel’s involvement
as soon as possible

Action Point: GM (Gillian Munro) to speak to Sareta about sorting a venue for the 19th (CR
suggested Edinburgh Training Centre on St Mary’s St)

Children’s Rights Training

A sub-group has been set up to take this forward – comprising SS (Stefan Stoyanov), GM from Policy
Team and CB (Cathy Begley) from Participation – who will meet with Kay Tisdall and Susan Elsley to
decide how best to structure 3 days of children’s rights training for staff.  CR aware that staff have
very different levels of knowledge, so is keen to ensure training meets everyone’s needs.

Action Point: CR to circulate the Children’s Rights Training outline created by the working group

Policy Team Work Plan – General Discussion/Concerns

SH (Sheila Hamilton) – raised concerns that the work plan was expanding to such an extent that we
would struggle to have the capacity to complete all tasks. SS and NJ (Nico Juetten)  look particularly
likely to be overloaded, given the range of areas they are currently working in.  Wondered if we
should scale back what we currently have in the work plan?

NJ – suggested it made sense to put absolutely everything into the work plan and then sit back to
take stock of what is realistic and achievable.

CR – said that work plan was designed to be reviewed and re-visited on a quarterly basis – which
would allow us to take account of any changes in circumstances e.g.  being a member of staff
down/a staff member returning.

PM (Pauline McIntyre) said that she would draft up the work plan section on Best Practice and then
circulate it for comment.

SS raised some concerns about the format of the Work Plan – he was not sure this was the best
option for when we are drafting the 4 year plan.

Some discussion around whether or not we should have an exit strategy for Sweet 16 work (as we
have indicated in our work plan). SS felt it was important that this area of work did not disappear.
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Policy Team Meeting Minutes – April 2010
Decided that it was still appropriate to have an exit strategy for Sweet 16 – on the understanding
that Looked After Children would still feature prominently in our longer term work plan.

SH asked how we could best ensure that A Right Blether was integrated into our work plan – as it
doesn’t currently feature.

CR felt it was important that A Right Blether was definitely built in to our plans – given that it would
help set our policy priorities for 2011-2015.

GM mentioned that KB’s (Katie Brown) A Right Blether plan made mention of consultation with
external stakeholders. Felt it was important that we worked on clear messages about this – both
internally and externally – so that there wasn’t confusion, given the Policy Team’s own remit to
consult with external stakeholders.

Staff Updates

Pauline

  Nothing to add to last month’s update.

Sheila

  Families Outside report is now ready for distribution
  Discussions are underway about how best to launch this – whether to do it discreetly with
key stakeholders or to have a Press Release and larger launch. Current feeling is that it is
more appropriate to do a very low-key distribution to key stakeholders.
  Being Young In Scotland survey – not going to do much more work with this.
  Early Years work – ED (Emma Davidson) and SH met with Prof Aline-Wendy Dunlop about
the small scale research project she is carrying out for us. Found it a useful meeting and
were very impressed with team carrying out work to such a tight timescale.  Deadline for
completion 11th June.
  SH is also working with SS on the child trafficking specification
  SH also involved in setting up training on Filemaker re: data from A Right Blether

Emma

  Has offered to work with Prof Dunlop chasing up responses to Early Years survey
  Has had an e-mail from India at SCRA (Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration) re: the
Reference Group and possibly setting up something similar for SCRA – ED going to speak to
GM about this
  Is being interviewed by a Social Work student this week re: anti-social behaviour

Chris Ratcliffe

  Still working on job descriptions as part of the job evaluation exercise – will be sending out
drafts of the new job descriptions very soon.
  Met with PCS Union rep about job evaluation exercise. Rep seemed happy with the process
as it was being carried out so far and said they were happy to support individual members if
they required it.  Management team want to meet with PCS on a regular basis and explore
ways in which the Union could be more supportive to SCCYP staff.
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Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
Policy Team Meeting Minutes – April 2010
  Working on Child Protection – re-drafting policies/procedures with PM and Moira McKinnon
from Glasgow Social Work.  All staff will soon have to undergo basic NSPCC online training in
child protection.  This will be followed by more in-depth training from Moira.

ED asked if new Child Protection procedures would cover the research element of SCCYP’s work?
SH suggested the CRFR  (Centre for Research on families and Relationships) might be able to help
with this.   Policy Team agreed it was important this element of our work was included in Child
Protection policies/procedures.

Action Points:

  ED to send PM some examples where child protection issues might arise as part of SCCYP
research
  PM to contact Moira McKinnon to raise this with her (to ensure that research is covered in
addition to enquiries and events)

Gillian

  Has noticed an increase in information requests lately – particularly from students doing
dissertations looking for info on the role of the Commissioner etc. & on the back of A Right
Blether events
  GM produced a briefing for TB on the Child Poverty Act, possible implications & what the
Scottish Government could do to help children living in poverty in Scotland
  Has been completing the Policy Team work plan
  Has been doing some work on Filemaker
  Will be attending a workshop on the 7th of May looking at whether the secure estate could
be adapted to provide mental health support to young people.

Nico

  Has received notice of a working group on the future of the Secure Estate in Scotland.
  Has completed the Independent Budget Review response
  Has completed the Public Petition response on school aged children and working hours.
  Has been involved in ASL implementation working group
  Has also been working on Criminal Justice and Children’s Hearings Bill (more detailed update
later)
  Tasers – Strathclyde Policy are doing a 6 month pilot where they are giving 30 beat Police
Officers tasers.  We’ve been approached by Amnesty International as they are hoping to do
a substantial piece of work on this and would like our support. Concerns as the use of a
pilot suggests that there may be a national roll-out planned.
  Mid-May, SCCYP will be hosting the BINOCC (British and Irish Network of Ombudsmen and
Children’s Commissioners) Policy Officers meeting – this will look at UNCRC monitoring and
planning for the BINOCC Youth Justice themed conference in September.

Some further discussion around the planned BINOCC Youth Justice conference:

  CR said that at the Commissioners’ meeting in April, there was a feeling that the conference
should involve input from young people themselves, if at all possible.
  CR felt it was important that we are clear about devolved powers in Scotland, so that the
other nations could understand how justice issues fit into a Scottish context.
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  SS hoped that the conference would be organised in such a way as to allow as many people
across as many teams as possible to attend (so it didn’t just turn into a Policy event)
  NJ felt preparation for the conference should go in to the work plan. Also felt it was
important that we create a good solid paper on where we stand on youth justice.

Stefan

  Child Trafficking research specification – this will be going out to 3 researchers by the end of
this week (30th April). Plan is to interview all who submit a proposal and the research itself
should take place between June and September 2010.  There is promotional work around
the findings planned for December 2010.
  Age Assessment – the Scottish Refugee Council is preparing new guidance on how Age
Assessments should be carried out.  Stefan attended a meeting recently where he was
shocked to discover that Social Workers were routinely sharing full age assessments with the
UKBA in Scotland. Is going to meet with the Information Commissioners office to explore
the data protection implications of this – with a view to possibly doing some joint work.
  Handle with Care/Hoists & Slings – following up on working groups tasked with creating new
guidance around this.  Progress appears to have been limited to date.

Meg

  Ongoing enquiries work
  One to one with PM today

External Requests Meeting – NJ

NJ – some of the requests handled by the External Requests meeting on Monday have been referred
back to the Policy Team for a decision/action.

1.   We have been notified that the Scottish Government are setting up the Looked After
Children Implementation Group. Not clear as yet whether they are hoping  SCCYP will sit on
this group.

SS – for implementation groups – felt it might make sense for us to take a back seat.

NJ – also felt there could be issues around our independence in terms of sitting on Scottish
Government implementation groups, so thought we should make a decision on a case by
case basis.

Decision: We will wait and see if we are asked to sit on implementation group.  If so, we
will make a decision about whether or not it is appropriate for us to attend.

2.  The Adolescent and Child Trust – TACT – have been mainly operating from England, but are
now opening offices in Edinburgh. TB was asked to open the new premises, but can no
longer attend. Should we still have a presence at the event – given that TB is planning on
meeting with the TACT team in the near future?

SS – felt it would probably make more sense for one of us to attend a meeting with TB and
the TACT team, rather than go along to the launch.

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Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
Policy Team Meeting Minutes – April 2010
Decision: We won’t attend launch, but will ask for a Policy Team presence at any future
meeting TB organises with TACT team.

3.  Sheila Riddell is doing some research into the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in
Additional Support for Learning Cases in both Scotland and England. Is looking for a letter of
support from SCCYP in order to secure more funding. Is also in the process of creating think
tank groups for various strands of this work e.g. how to involve cyp (children and young
people) more effectively in ASL decisions and how Local Authorities can act as Corporate
Parents alongside having a responsibility to provide for child’s ASL needs (conflict of
interest).

Decision: We will contact Sheila to say that unfortunately, we can’t provide letter of
support (as this is not something we do).  However, we are very interested in the work she
is carrying out and would like to be kept informed as to her progress.

SH – we have been approached by the Scottish Education Research Association – SERA – who have
put out a call for papers. Not sure if at this stage we have enough experience in this area to provide
a paper – so probably won’t take this forward.  CR suggested speaking to CB about this – given her
education experience.

Consultations – GM

1.  NHS Scotland – Dr Jane Parkinson – producing a national set of Mental Health Indicators for
children and young people.  Response to this consultation is due by the end of May. GM
thinks we should respond as we have been involved in this area of work before and the
consultation is basically asking us to check what may have been missed, rather than working
from scratch. NJ could also scan it for Article 3.

Decision: GM to do

2.  Patient Rights Bill – call for evidence by Parliamentary Committee. Deadline of 15th May.
Some discussion around how Bill doesn’t currently refer to children and young people
specifically – which is concerning given that it covers complaints procedures and how to seek
advice and support.  There is good scope for us to provide a children’s rights perspective.

Decision: GM and NJ to do jointly

3.  End of Life Assistance Bill – this is unlikely to go past Stage 1. Originally we were not going to
contribute to this.  However, there is a very interesting section on capacity – which seems to
run counter to existing Gillick competency rules – and so it is important for us to respond on
this basis alone.

Decision: NJ to respond

4.  Public Petition – contracts in Youth Football.  Deadline 17th May.   SS suggested it would be
useful to speak to children and young people and possibly a Trade Union about this. NJ said
it would also be worth checking with other Commissioner’s offices to see if this issue has
come up with them.  SH suggested looking at Henry McLeish’s recent report into youth
football.

Decision: PM to respond
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Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
Policy Team Meeting Minutes – April 2010
Link Between Policy Team Work Plan/Overall SCCYP Strategic Aims & Objectives – CR

CR is working to amend the SCCYP overall strategic aims and objectives to fit more closely with the
Policy Team work plan.

CR will send out a revised set of strategic aims and objectives in next couple of days. He needs
comments from the Policy Team by Friday 30th April.

Action Points:

  CR to distribute revised strategic aims and objectives
  Policy Team to provide comments by 30th April, 2010.

Criminal Justice Bill Update – NJ

  Discussion of sections around the Age of Criminal Responsibility and DNA were delayed
again, but should be discussed on Tues 27th April.
  NJ expects the Age of Criminal Responsibility amendment – introduced by Robert Brown – to
be dismissed
  There is a possibility of us doing some work on this, though, at Stage 3 (once General
Election has passed)
  DNA – there is a proposed amendment to the section about retaining children’s DNA from
Hearings on a life-long basis
  Stage 2 of the Bill is likely to conclude around early/mid-May
  Stage 3 – will be in June

Children’s Hearings Bill – NJ

  Committee are looking at breaking the link between accepting an offence ground in a
hearing and a conviction (apart from some very specific convictions).  This should hopefully
avoid the routine criminalisation of children and young people.
  TB has given oral evidence to the Committee on the Bill
  Committee are now nearing the end of their evidence taking.
  Stage 1 report and debate should take place before Summer recess – possibly around the 1st
of July.

Children of Prisoners Report – SH

SH - Some further discussion around how the new report should be distributed.  TB keen to publicise
this widely – but SH feels it would be better for it to just go out to key justice/MSP contacts.

NJ – Felt that some of the recommendations made in NSNHNG (Not Seen, Not Heard, Not Guilty)
report have moved on quite significantly.  The Scottish Prison Service in particular has been
responsive to our recommendations, although some other key stakeholders have been much less
proactive.

NJ has mapped out the various recommendations made in the report and who we need to speak to
in order to follow this up.

NJ says that we did try to push for an Amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill to ensure that those
sentencing offenders would have to take into account the potential impact a sentence would have
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Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
Policy Team Meeting Minutes – April 2010
on the offender’s family. However, the section that this Amendment referred to has now been
completely removed from the Bill – and so it’s not possible for us to re-visit this.
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Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
Policy Team Meeting Minutes – June 2010
Minute of the Policy Team Meeting 15th June 2010
Present: Sheila Hamilton (SH), Gillian Munro (GM), Nico Juetten (NJ), Pauline McIntyre (PM), Stefan
Stoyanov (SS):
Apologies: Emma Davidson(ED), Chris Ratcliffe (CR); Maire McCormack (MM)
There  was  no  formal  agenda  for  this  meeting.  The  main  purpose  of  the  meeting  was  to  provide  an
update of team activities and to review some external requests. There was no formal reference to the
minuted policy team meeting of 26th April or the policy meeting on 18th May to discuss consultations.
Agenda item
Action point
There was discussion about the outcome of a preliminary meeting with TB (Tam
SH to arrange a
Baillie) and CR about the policy team concerns about capacity and support. We
meeting for work
agreed to hold a further policy team meeting to review our work plan for 2010-2011.
plan discussion
The policy team concerns were being raised at the management team meeting
taking place and there would be feedback to policy team on this after that meeting.

Team updates

SS:
Had attended the UKBA (UK Borders Agency) meeting with the Minister for
Immigration on 14th June which had been very useful and he had been given the
opportunity to raise all the main points which he had hoped to raise.
The child trafficking project was also about to start.
He was attending a meeting about Moving and Handling guidance at Scottish
Government this week. He had also been asked to write a chapter in a book about
guardianship which the Commissioner had approved.

SH:
Provided some background to the child trafficking project which SS and SH were
working on, with SH in a supportive role and SS as project leader. The early years
project had stalled in terms of delivery dates of report but it was hoped the report
would be coming in within the week. The other activity was the work on merging all
the Right Blether spreadsheets into one consistent worksheet as a temporary
measure until data was migrated into the new Filemaker database.

PM:
Was finishing off various pieces of work. Restraint response is ongoing. She
described issues of working through the inadequacies of the consultation document
and that it looked as though the next meeting would be delayed until the autumn.
Football Petition – a submission had been sent to the public petitions committee
and TB had coverage in the Herald, and the SPL had been in touch. A meeting had
been set up with SPL.
PM was tying up enquiries and completing child protection revised procedures and
suggested it needed a designated Child protection person in the office who could
respond on occasions when the Commissioner was not available. It was suggested
that the new enquiries temp might take on that role.
School class sizes consultation response had not gone ahead due to capacity
issues and priorities.

NJ:
Had attended interesting Youth Justice Conference in Dublin which had an
interesting mix of participants and covered the nations. Particular interest in piece
of work by Lesly McAra and Susan McVie (Edinburgh University) on youth
transitions in crime. Key theme was about how far early intervention dealt with
problems and what were long term impacts and what assumptions were being
made about ‘pre-delinquency’. Links to issues around Children’s hearing system
and also what happens in areas where children’s’ rights have higher profile versus
those areas where actions have to be taken to circumvent the gap in awareness of
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Policy Team Meeting Minutes – June 2010
rights.
Children’s Hearing Bill  - at Stage 1;
Criminal Justice Bill - at stage 3 and no appetite to re-table amendments;
Manifestos - SS and NJ looking at project plan to undertake communicating general
messages to party manifestos.
Children of Prisoners – SH and NJ have project plan to undertake follow-up work
over the summer
Safeguarders meeting – NJ attending next week

GM:
There had been a number of FOIs, an increased rate recently and primarily on
spending and budgets for example on corporate merchandise. This had
substantially added to workload. Would be looking at ways in future to re-establish
providing information on the website which would save a lot of time. NJ noted this
would meet requirements under public services reform bill.
GM also noted work on the information management audit outcomes with 90
recommendations for which policies had now to be drafted.
Other work was Filemaker development work and attending a first aid course.
Other discussion around the Unicef child rights impact assessment toolkit work, in
draft stage and this would be an opportunity to look at how we can take this forward
in Scotland.
External requests:

A number of external requests were discussed and decided:

Lithuanian enforcement of non-monetary court decisions – NO

Move On – charter for change - pass to participation
NJ pass to KB

Looked after Children Scotland regulations (wanted feedback from practitioners –

NO

Scottish Liberal Conference Attendance –end September. Should have a presence
NJ ask SS
– YES for SS

Save the Children project - Governance fit for children?

How far have the UNCRC general measures of implementation been realised in
NJ to ask SS
Europe?UK Child Rights Policy Officer wanting to do an interview but it is on
NJ to contact
13th/14th July when SS on holiday. Arrange a later time and possible telephone
Save the
interview.
Children

NHS Health Improving care establishments – Minimum response. GM suggested
NJ?
response as keep us in loop if you need Children’s rights angle.

Centre for Excellence for looked after children was a scoping study which Sue
NJ
Elsley was undertaking. It was to see if there should be a ‘centre for excellence’
with support of SIRCC. Refer back to Sue for clarification of what was wanted.

Consultations:

European Commission begins public consultation on children’s rights – response by  GM/policy team
20th August. Expected to be involved

GM provided further details by email. Suggested might involve participation team.
The consultation will cover issues like child-friendly justice, violence against children, child
poverty and child participation. It is open until 20 August 2010
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Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
Policy Team Meeting Minutes – July 2010
Minute of the Policy Team Meeting 28th July 2010
Present: Sheila Hamilton (SH), Gillian Munro (GM), Nico Juetten (NJ), Linda MacDonald (LM), Stefan
Stoyanov (SS)
Apologies: Maire McCormack (MM), Pauline McIntyre (PM)
Agenda item
Action point
1. General greetings

Minutes of last meeting were not formally agreed. Agenda was noted.
NJ greeted the team and welcomed Linda as the new policy team member.

2. Immediate priorities

The immediate priorities were to look at the work plan 2010-11 and strategic
planning for 2011-2015 and national consultation with organisations.

Recommendations from the auditors would have a direct impact on the team in
terms of planning in a different way with outcomes and KPIs (Key Performance
Indicators). There was also the likely approach of a best value review which was
not clear yet in terms of extent and scale but would be a future focus.

There was some general discussion about the impact of such reviews on the work
of the policy team.
A general question was raised about what had happened to the job evaluations and
NJ indicated his understanding that this was still to be completed.
SH asked where the equalities strategy sat and GM whether any equality impact
assessment would be conducted on the national consultation as we need to meet
duties.

3 Discussion on the policy team work plan
Team:
3a updated/edited work plan
Action: check
NJ reported on the steps which had taken place to remove red categories from the
work plan against
work plan. Amber categories and green categories remained. A new category of
blether plan
‘blether support’ had been added and there was discussion around what this would
involve and what role team members would have.

3b Blether integration
NJ thought we should revisit blether plan to link to policy team work.
There were some questions raised about capturing data from tour visits, the level of
information coming back from the vote, and how to take this forward into policy
priorities  and discussion around validity of processes.

There was also discussion around Glow information requests and GM noted 44
questions so far, with some interesting questions. GM will respond on behalf of
Tam and possibly develop a FAQ section for website.
Other discussion included GM asking about evaluation of DVD, SH about CYP
evaluations and SS if we could influence the ballot design and analysis.

4 Strategic Planning 2011-15 and the national consultation with CYP (and

other?)
It was agreed that this would be postponed for a separate meeting.

5. Team updates

GM: on leave for two weeks but noted need to watch FOI requests, log them and
flag them up to TB (Tam Baillie). LM would do this.

SH: was beginning NSNHNG (Not Seen, Not Heard, Not Guilty), awaiting early
years, and looking to do a research programme and strategy. SH reminded team of
Steve’s budget requests and that as a team we should look at future research
plans. Child trafficking in support of SS lead.
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Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
Policy Team Meeting Minutes – July 2010

LM: noted there were 28 active /open enquiries and two new ones. Others were
now closed or up to date. She had a meeting planned with TB to talk in particular
about enquiries over school transport. NJ might attend part meeting. Going to set
some time aside to look at report writing.

NJ:
  Children’s hearings bil  items, and government implementation group which
was more like an advisory group.
  Work on criminalisation of children, (looking at evidence base, including
youth transitions study) and reported on some interesting findings.
  And BINOCC (British and Irish Network of Ombudsmen and Children’s
Commissioners) youth justice was coming up. Compiling youth justice 5
nations report (7 topics) for mid August with Dublin meeting on 17th August.

SS:
  The child trafficking second advisory meeting was taking place. A monthly
update had been received. The UKBA (UK Borders Agency) had agreed to
be interviewed. Series of mini structured interviews in August.
  Working on response to early child sexual activity – due by following day
  Also working on consultation of child protection guidelines - NGOs meeting
to discuss response.
  Early August, meeting with Juliet from ‘Together’ on state of children’s
rights in Scotland. And also involved in CRIM (Children’s Rights
Implementation and Monitoring) group (terms of reference changing).
Some general discussion about what was happening to the children’s rights
team – contact Val Cox to ask what’s happening and what future structure
will be.
  SS also noted new group, Scottish Refugee Council child friendly-age
assessment process.
  Also SNP manifesto meeting and writing chapter on guardianship, will be
drafting in August.

6. Consultations and External requests:

The following is a list with decisions:

a. new members bills – calls for evidence (NJ will take forward)

domestic abuse, Commissioner for Victims Scotland Bill, BSL Bill Autism bill

b. European commission on children’s rights Public Consultation  2011-14, a
stocktaking exercise by 20th August (SS will look)

c. Play Scotland reference Group – said no

d. Who Cares Scotland – consultation on commissioning secure change and

a national contract deadline was 31 July 2010 – NJ would call the Who Cares

Scotland contact person and offer possible letter of support.

e. Violence against children – have we had enough? Conference

Date due 29th Sept with children First. Waiting for more information

f. Growing up in Scotland new birth cohort. SH would look to see if any glaring

omissions. Deadline 30th July.

g. ENOC budgets – NJ to scan and ditch deadline 30/7/10.

h. Also discussion on the Dr Dunford letter and call for evidence.

i. Holyrood Conference on child poverty 29 September 2010. Send conference

notification to Fay

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Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
Policy Team Meeting Minutes – July 2010
j CYP mental health indicators discussion group event on September 10th  to

improve data and add data. GM will go.

k Antwerp – Europe de L’Enfance  8-10 Sept. Possible SS attendance and will

look at.

l. Training sessions 11 August and 24th August. On working with refugees,

mental health awareness and best practice strategy. To be considered.

m. Juliet Harris – AGM Together informal open invitation 2nd September

n. ENOC health ?

o. Centre for Rural Childhood  - launch of centre  8th September .SH was

intending to go. SS invited too, child trafficking talk as a feature. Same day as child

rights training but SH hoping to leave sharp to travel to Perth.

7. Party Conferences -  discussion postponed

8. BINOCC Conference in September update

BINOCC 13th and 14th September is topic based not a staff conference as such
Action - team to
although those to attend still to be sorted. The report for the conference will be
let NJ know if they
tabled.
wish to go

9. AOCB

10. Date of next meeting

To be decided

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Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
Policy Team Meeting Minutes – August 2010
Minute of the Policy Team Meeting 24th August 2010
Present: Sheila Hamilton (SH), Gillian Munro (GM), Nico Juetten (NJ), Linda MacDonald (LM), Stefan
Stoyanov (SS), Paul Gierthy (PG) – present up to item 2 of the agenda.
Apologies: Maire McCormack (MM), Pauline McIntyre (PM)
Agenda item
Action point
1. Last meeting’s minutes & matters arising

Under item 5 of minutes can we change CRIM to SCRIM (Scottish Children’s
Rights Implementation and Monitoring Group)?

It was decided to review how the external requests/consultations had progressed
from the last meeting.

a)  New members bills – NJ looking at calls for evidence for domestic abuse,
commissioner for victims Scotland Bill, BSL Bill, and Autism Bill, and will
make recommendations on whether to respond to TB (Tam Baillie).
b)  European Commission on Children’s Rights Public Consultation – SS
drafted a response, to be approved by TB and submitted.
d)  Who cares Scotland, consultation on commissioning changes to secure
settings. NJ had comments on impact on advocacy, restraint and child
rights – would submit these to Who Cares Scotland.
e)  Violence against children: had we had enough (Children 1st
Conference)  – nobody had any more info on this Children 1st Conference,
probably go to external requests.
f)  Growing up in Scotland new birth cohort – SH had responded, it is
already very comprehensive, suggested they could pick up on the impact of
parental imprisonment.
h)  Review of English Children’s Commissioner’s Office – deadline is early
October, so respond in late September.
j)
Children and Young People mental health indicators discussion
group event – GM to attend
k)  Europe de L’Enfance – nobody to attend.
l)
Training sessions on working with refugees, mental health awareness
– details had been circulated.
m)  Together AGM – SH to attend
n)  ENOC Health? – unsure what this was about, SH to speak to TF (Time
Fell) to clarify.
o)  Launch of Centre for Rural Childhood – SH and SS to attend.

Please note the action point under item 3 on the policy team work plan had been
actioned.

2. Strategic Planning 2011-15

NJ outlined the purpose of his paper ‘Policy Team Strategic Planning 2011-15’. The  NJ to redraft the
idea is to look for a set of policy priorities that can be integrated with the overall
plan based on
strategic plan. This paper describes the process of how we plan to do this over the
discussions and
next few months. NJ has discussed the paper with TB who had a number of
circulate for
comments.
comments

Survey

TB is keen to have a tight survey. This has implications as it means the ‘taking
SH with help of
stock’ exercise would have to happen before the survey. NJ wondered if as a
NJ to mock up
compromise we could be more prescriptive in what we can actually do in terms of
draft survey.
policy work. SH suggested a compromise between open and closed questions in

the survey. NJ felt that if we give choices in the survey we need to be able to

explain where they came from but if open need to be clear about our limitations in

what we can take on board. PG suggested we could consult on a draft plan.

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Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
Policy Team Meeting Minutes – August 2010
Timescales

PG is responsible for taking charge of the strategic planning process. We need to

pull a number of areas together and be clear about the timescales. NJ agreed that

perhaps our current timescales are quite ambitious. SH suggested ‘taking stock’

element could run throughout the exercise until the consultations meetings in

October 2010.

Who

If we make it too open we might receive a chunk of qualitative data that we would
need to analyse. Could we identify issues as possible priority areas and allow
respondents to enrich these with further details such as: what is going on already;
how we can fill in the gaps. NJ made clear that whilst there are perceptions of what
we are working on it is important to say that we are open to new areas of work and
burning issues. So agreed that as a starting point we need to be clear that there is
work that we can do that others can’t do with a preamble of what we have done and
currently are doing, linked to the Commissioner’s remit. So we have:

What we are set up to do
What we are currently doing
Emphasise that the approach that we can take can add value to ongoing
work
What are you not doing – that we could do
Where can we add value to ongoing work
What do you think is the most important thing that we should work on?

Consultations Meetings
Change the approach from big broad meetings to more focussed and a bit sharper.
Arrange informal meetings with key players to identify the gaps. We want to avoid a
glut of meetings. Utilise networks such as policy officers network. But keep
consultation events open as an option.

3. Budget Update

3a. Current Year

NJ raised the point that in the 2010-2011 budget there is no dedicated policy team
Team action: we
budget.
are to look at the

2010-11 work

plan and identify

anything with

major cost

implications, if

something over

£500 let NJ know.

3b Budget Submission 2011-12
GM to check out
We are making an 8% cut to our budget bid for 2010-11. This will be submitted by
CAS/CHAS
Tam to the SPCB this week. There is to be a notional policy budget.
lifespan and any
implications for
2011-12 budget.

NJ to check
Filemaker 5 users
and network
licence built into
2011-12 budget.
4. Research

SH drew our attention to the funds remaining in the 2010-11 budget for research.
Team action:
SH is keen to find out our opinion on what research work is feasible, would add
Could we submit
value to our work etc. It’s important in putting our ideas together that we have a
any research
feasibility plan/summary to explain what we are doing and why.
ideas to SH.
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Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
Policy Team Meeting Minutes – August 2010

SS suggested that as part of the mid-term report by the Commissioners’ in
preparation for the State party report we could undertake a consultation with
children and young people on the state of children’s rights.

GM suggested a children and young people’s version of CRIA (Children’s Rights
Impact Assessment), the purpose of which would be a toolkit for children and young
people to carry out their own impact assessments on decisions, policy proposals.

SS suggested another possible research area is incorporation of the UNCRC into
Scots or UK Law. The research would look into the viability of this option. It would
also tie-in to work Unicef are doing at a UK level. There would be merit in asking
someone to look into the different models.

5. Consultations & External Requests

The following is a list with decisions:

a.  Scottish Child Safety Alliance. Would we like to be involved in a new
project called TACTICS (Tools to Address Childhood Trauma, Injury
and Children’s Safety) – said no, we don’t currently have the time.
b.  Unintentional Injury Advisory Group – would we like to be involved? –
No, it was felt that as part of the Scottish Child Safety alliance we had
succeeded in getting it on the NHS agenda, it was probably best to leave it
to them to take work forward.
c.  Home safety publications – too late.
d.  Meeting with the Scottish Government Patients’ Rights Team – NJ and
GM to attend meeting.
e.  GMC Child Protection Guidance, call for written evidence – GM to do
CRIA screening.
f.
SHRC (Scottish Human Rights Commission) are hosting the biennial
conference of NHRI’s (National Human Rights Institutions) on
business and human rights – currently we have no involvement.
g.  Finance Committee Inquiry into Preventative Spending, written
evidence due late September – Nico to pull together some points on
Youth Justice.

6. Manifestos & autumn party conferences

There are a couple of party conferences that NJ is not going to be able to cover
Team action: put
during October and November. NJ would really appreciate if people could put their
names forward to
names forward. It entails networking and talking to people about issues we are
NJ
keen for them to put into party manifestos, for example: children’s rights to be at the
centre of government decision-making; budgets; early year’s framework – broad

areas of work.

7. Updates

Due to be time spent on earlier agenda items updates were kept very short, and to
most pertinent business.
On 7th September LM and TB will be meeting with children and young people,
parents, and the chair of the parent council regarding school transport changes in
Renfrewshire. This issue has been raised via the enquiry service.
SH met with Margaret McLeod at Youthlink to discuss the forthcoming BYIS (Being
Young in Scotland) Survey 2011.
SS needs to schedule time in to work on a chapter on guardianship which will be
part of a book entitled ‘Safeguarding children from abroad: refugee, trafficked and
migrant children in the UK’ to be published by Jessica Kingsley.
Please note 17th September will be NJ’s last day before going on holiday.

8. AOCB

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Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
Policy Team Meeting Minutes – August 2010
Job Evaluation Review. We are waiting for this to be finished for the Participation
NJ to ask PG if he
Team before it progresses to the next stage.
knows what is

happening with
the review.

NJ to find out
more about ‘Best
value’ review of
policy team
functions.

9. Date of next meeting

To be decided

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Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
Policy Team Meeting Minutes – September 2010
Minute of the Policy Team Meeting 16 September 2010
Present: Sheila Hamilton (SH), Gillian Munro (GM), Nico Juetten (NJ), Linda MacDonald (LM), Stefan
Stoyanov (SS)
Apologies: Maire McCormack (MM), Pauline McIntyre (PM)
Agenda item
Action point
1.  Last meeting’s minutes & matters arising

a)  New members’ bills – NJ summarised and made recommendations to TB
(Tam Baillie). It was decided that there will be no response to the Victims

Scotland Bill. No decisions were taken about the BSL Bill or the Autism Bill.
b)   European Commission on Children’s Rights Public Consultation –

completed.
d)  Violence against children: have we had enough (Children 1st) – going

through the external requests process
e)   Growing up in Scotland new birth cohort – completed

h)   Review of English Children’s Commissioner’s Office – TB will be
meeting with John Dunford at the end of September; a decision about any

response will be taken after the meeting.  NJ will leave contacts and
information so that this can be taken forward in his absence.
j)
Children and Young People mental health indicators discussion

group event – GM attended and reported that it was mainly an information
and knowledge sharing exercise.  It will be next year before a set of

indicators is developed but suggested that it would be useful to stay
involved in a low-key way.

k)  Europe de L’Enfance – no one attending.
l)
Together AGM – SH, NJ and EM attended. There were two

recommendations from the report that are relevant to SCCYP – identifying
training in children’s rights and use of CRIA (Children’s Rights Impact

Assessment). It was suggested that SCCYP should respond formally. MM
is doing some work on this at the moment. Possible co-ordination with the

SHRC (Scottish Human Rights Commission) was discussed, as well as the
advantages of strengthening the relationship with Together.

3b Budget Submission 2011-12

NJ noted that there has been no specific allocation of budget to the policy team
and that in future there will be a requirement to submit written applications for all

expenditure.  It was suggested that the budget should be led by specific pieces of
work.

NJ asked the team to send him information on what they will spend out of this
All
year’s budget.

4.  Research
All
Team members to submit any research ideas to SH

5.  Consultations and External Requests

d)  Meeting with Scottish Government Patients’ Rights Team - NJ and GM
attended. They will make more extensive comments at a later stage.

e) GMC Child Protection Guidance  - New guidance is coming from the Scottish
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Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
Policy Team Meeting Minutes – September 2010
Government, which should be taken into consideration in the finalised GMC
GM
guidance. GM to write.

g) Finance Committee Inquiry into Preventative Spending, written evidence –
There is to be a stakeholder event at the end of September. NJ to ask if PG (Paul
NJ
Gierthy) will be attending.

8. AOCB

Job evaluation review – NJ to ask PG about progress.
NJ
‘Best value’ review of policy team functions – NJ discussed with PG, who is
considering whether this would be effective.  NJ and PG to have further discussion,
NJ
which NJ will feed back to the policy team.

2. Strategic Planning update and feedback

Following the discussion at the last meeting, NJ reported that there will be a 4 year

strategic plan (general in nature) supported by measures of progress which will be
made up of 4 aims, 9 objectives and 33 actions. There will be an annual

operational plan which ties in with the budget submission; individual workplans will

flow from this.

Under the duty to consult with external stakeholders about the 4 year plan a final
draft will be sent asking:

-
Have we got it right?

-
Are there any gaps?
-
What specific issues should we focus on?

The definition of consultation is open to interpretation, but activities will need to be
specified.

There will be no requirement to list policy priorities in the 4 year plan—this will

come in the annual operational plans. The question of where and how strategic
direction fits into operational plans was raised. Does the result of the consultation
vote fit into the strategic plan, or the operational plan?
3. Team Updates

SH – Briefing papers have gone out for the ‘Not Seen, Not Heard, Not Guilty

Review of Recommendations. SH is working with SS on child trafficking and
finalising the Early Years report – editing the summary report.

SS – Finalising terms of reference for SCRIM (Scottish Children’s Rights
.
Implementation and Monitoring ) group with Joanna Mackenzie.  The consultation
on child protection is ready for sign-off, but an extension will need to be requested
for TB to look at and approve.  SS is also working on the CEOP consultation. The
final draft chapter on trafficking for ‘Safeguarding children from abroad:  refugee,
trafficked and migrant children in the UK’ is due next week. SS has drafted a letter
for TB to the Scottish Government about dismantling the children’s rights team. SS
to look at developments at European level for Children are Unbeatable.
GM – Has been assisting Fay with work getting the annual report out. The SCCYP
website has been infected with a virus and has had to be taken down.  There is no
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Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
Policy Team Meeting Minutes – September 2010
timescale yet for when the main website will be in operation again, but GM is
sending regular updates. As an interim measure a limited adults section has been
added to the young persons’ website, where people are now directed. The timeline
for the planned draft tender for the new website may need to be moved up as the
current main website may not be salvageable. An internal and an external survey
will be carried out.   GM is also currently working on three FOI Requests and will be
meeting with MM to look at work on updating and disseminating CRIA (Children’s
Rights Impact Assessment).
LM – Meeting with cyp (children and young people), parents and head of school
council about school transport has taken place with a letter to the local authority
suggesting the use of CRIA and guidance from ‘Participants not Pawns’ to inform
their consultation process in future decision-making. There are also open enquiries
on consultation with children in court proceedings, children’s personal details in
judgements on court websites (the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) would
like to be involved in any follow-up), cyp at special schools disadvantaged by not
receiving the same hours of teaching time as cyp in mainstream schools, and an
enquiry about children’s right to social and cultural contact where access to the web
is limited in residential schools—SIRCC is keen that we should follow this up.   LM
is developing the first quarterly enquiries report and discussed the possibility of
reinstating the policy area section in enquiries categorisation on CHAS
(Commissioner’s Electronic Enquiries System) . LM wil  be attending the Scottish
Government Advocacy Standards working group meetings.
NJ – Working on the Children’s Hearings Bill – Stage 2.  Attended the BINOCC
(British and Irish Network of Ombudsmen and Children’s Commissioners)
conference on youth justice policy areas across the jurisdictions. The
Commissioners have decided to work on an overarching message calling for a shift
from the criminal justice to a social justice approach to youth offending.  It is unclear
what this will mean in Scotland and any joint statements will now be made early in
the New Year rather than for the November UNCRC anniversary.  Note: This has
since been changed back to the 21st anniversary on 20th November. NJ also
working on the restraint working group annex to National Care Standards providing
a section on children’s rights, but also making suggestions for ways children’s rights
can permeate the entire document.
4.  Consultations & external requests

GMC Child Protection – GM
GM
Eurochild End Child Poverty Campaign  - GM to speak to Ezmie
GM
Mentoring and Befriending – information available for interest
All
CLD workshop – early years – GM provided information on early years to Sarah-

Louise who is delivering a presentation.

Party Conferences –
SS
Lib Dems – 9 October – SS to attend
All
Speak to NJ if interested in attending any of the other conferences
5.  AOCB

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Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
Policy Team Meeting Minutes – September 2010
SH – request from TB to look at possible research project around the breakdown in

services for disabled young people moving into adulthood. LM identified 8 relevant
cases from enquiries. Uncertainty as to where we could add value to work already

being done. GM suggested looking at possible research on the views and opinions

of younger children (3 – 10 years old) on physical punishment.

It was decided this should be part of a broader discussion about research
proposals. NJ and SH to meet to discuss.
NJ/SH

6. Date of next meeting – 27 October 10am

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