Our work

Since the Observatory’s launch in 2020, we have been hard at work furthering the implementation of children’s human rights in Scotland.

Research Network on Children's Human Rights

The Observatory is forming a research network that aims to bring together research expertise with the lived experiences of children and young people and Scottish policy-makers, practitioners and civil society.

The Research Network is supported by the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Research Network grant. It is initially funded for two years starting March 2023.

Learn more about the Research Network on Children's Human Rights

Children's Rights Impact Assessments

Since its inception, the Observatory has undertaken several projects delving into best practice for Children’s Rights Impact Assessments (CRIAs).

CRIA practice note

The Observatory recognises that conducting a Child Rights Impact Assessment will be new to many leaders and organisations. To aid Scotland’s learning and improvement over time, we have made a commitment to gather insights and ideas derived from the experience of doing CRIAs in different contexts. As we work with others involved in conducting CRIAs, we will encapsulate and present practice pointers that may be helpful to others through a Practice Note on Children's Rights Impact Assessments.

Download the Observatory CRIA practice note - updated 2022 (685.78 KB PDF)

Listen, Engage, Have Fun

The Observatory took part in 'Listen, Engage, Have Fun': Involving children in Child Rights Impact Assessments (CRIA) and Child Rights Impact Evaluation (CRIE), which was facilitated by Children’s Parliament and Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights). The work was funded by the Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland.

Resources for professionals

The project produced a guide and several worksheets for professionals.

Access all of the 'Listen, Engage, Have Fun' resources

Observatory report

The Observatory additionally conducted a learning exercise on the project and published a report on our findings.

Download the report: Involving children in child rights impact assessment (CRIA) and child rights impact evaluation (CRIE)

Independent Children’s Rights Impact Assessment on the response to COVID-19 in Scotland

The coronavirus pandemic has affected every aspect of the lives of children and young people in Scotland. The Observatory of Children's Human Rights Scotland was asked by the Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland to conduct a thorough analysis of how emergency laws and procedures around COVID-19 impacted the human rights of children and young people in Scotland.

Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland

This was done in the form of an Independent Children’s Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA).

Resources

Detailed thematic appendices are also available for download.

Academic publications

We subsequently published a special journal issue with the International Journal of Human Rights.

The Theory of Change for Making Children’s Rights Real in Scotland

The Theory of Change for Making Children’s Rights Real in Scotland provides a collaborative, evidence-based framework for action planning for UNCRC implementation at all levels.

Since the Scottish Parliament unanimously passed the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill in a landmark vote in March 2021, many people and organisations in Scotland have been considering how best to implement the Bill and ensure children’s human rights are respected, protected and fulfilled.

To support this transformative change, the Observatory of Children’s Human Rights Scotland, Matter of Focus and Public Health Scotland were awarded a grant by the Scottish Government, to lead a collaborative effort to develop a Theory of Change for the process of UNCRC implementation in Scotland between November 2021 and March 2022.

The Theory of Change reports

The Theory of Change is a distillation of wide-ranging engagement – over 60 organisations had an input in its development – as well as commissioned research and analysis of what effects change. In particular, the project team worked closely with the 'UNCRC Strategic Implementation Board', which has national strategic oversight for the UNCRC Implementation Programme, to ensure work on UNCRC implementation continued in harmony alongside the development of the Theory of Change.

UNCRC Strategic Implementation Board

The project report introduces the outcome maps which make up the Theory of Change and provides principles to consider in applying the Theory of Change to your own work.

The report is aimed at those who have strategic roles to prepare for the new duties in the UNCRC Incorporation Bill and more broadly will prove useful to organisations drawing upon this framework to develop action plans tailored to their work and circumstances.

Taking the Theory of Change forward

The Theory of Change provides a collaborative, evidence-based framework for action planning for UNCRC implementation at all levels. We are now looking to public bodies and other interested organisations to take the Theory of Change forward and create their own action plans.

As part of a new project supporting local authorities for the incorporation of the UNCRC, the Improvement Service has created an online community open to all aimed at sharing information, learning and ideas for the implementation of the UNCRC in Scotland, which will provide further resources for taking this work forward.

Children's Human Rights in Scotland Hub

We would like to keep track of how the Theory of Change is being used. Please do get in touch if you are developing an action plan based on the Theory of Change.

Contact the Observatory

The Theory of Change evidence papers

As part of the work, the project commissioned rapid reviews to examine the evidence on what best effects change and how to apply this to the Scottish context, through the Theory of Change. The following evidence papers provide a summary of the evidence relevant to each of the four change processes that make up the Theory of Change.

These papers will prove useful to policy-makers and practitioners wanting to make evidence-based decisions towards their next steps on UNCRC implementation and looking for a deeper understanding of the mechanisms which underlie change.

While each of the four papers is themed around one of the change processes, the interconnectedness of the change processes means that the papers are interrelated, with the evidence sometimes crossing over.

Reflective learning

The Observatory has supported several initiatives in their reflective learning, including work on Children’s Rights Impact Assessments and children and young people’s participation.

Children’s Rights Impact Assessments (CRIA)

The Observatory has taken part in several projects reflecting on CRIAs. This work has informed a CRIA practice note, available for download below.

Observatory CRIA practice note - updated 2022 (685.78 KB PDF)

Rights Right Now

The Observatory supported the Rights Right Now! pilot project which was led by Together. The Observatory provided expertise in participation methods and led a reflective exercise at the end of the project to pull out the learning and recommendations from the pilot.

Children's Rights reporting

The Observatory worked with the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland to ask public authorities about their duty under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 to report on children’s rights.

Under Part 1 (section 2) of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, listed public authorities (including local authorities, health boards and other listed public authorities with responsibilities relating to children’s rights) have a duty to publish a report every three years on the steps they have taken to further align with the UNCRC within their area of responsibility.

Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014

The first three-year period ran between 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2020. In 2020, to recognise the impact of the pandemic on public services, the public authorities to which the duty applies were granted extensions on this reporting duty. The extension expired on 30 September 2022 and reports for the 2017-2020 period were then due as soon as practicable.

In January 2023, the Observatory worked with the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland to send Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to all listed public authorities to ask about their progress on the matter. The reports shared with us in response can be found on this page.

If you are aware of further reports which are not represented on this page, please get in touch with us at childrens.rights@ed.ac.uk and we will upload them here where we can.

The Improvement Service's UNCRC Implementation Project supports local authorities across Scotland to prepare for the incorporation of the UNCRC. Visit their page for more information and join their Knowledge Hub to become part of a community sharing information, learning and ideas.