Ladies and Gentlemen, fellow campaigners for childrens rights, Its a - PDF document

Ladies and Gentlemen, fellow campaigners for children’s rights, It’s a great pleasure to be here today to take part in this stock -take on progress towards full incorporation of the UNCRC into UK law. This is an objective towards which many of us have been working for many years but, although we have made baby steps forward, we are still a long way from reaching our goal. The fact is that, unless we can convince a Government – any Government – that incorporation is not only the right thing to do but will also make governing easier for them, we will not get incorporation. The progress we HAVE made since I entered the House of Lords in 2000 has been piecemeal – rather like the implementation of the Convention. Each little step has required two things: a Minister who wants to make it happen and a battle against those who don’t. I hope we can recognise the advances that have been made. The English/UK Children’s Commissioner now has much better rights -based powers than she had when the post was first legislated for. I remember well the wording of

the original Bill where it said he/she MAY take account of the UNCRC. Our first little victory was getting that changed to MUST. However, the powers were still such that our Commissioner could not be seen as independent of Government and could therefore not be accepted into the international community of children’s ombudsmen. I’m delighted that the new Commissioner soon about to take her post will have much better powers than that. Why was the Labour Government at that time so reluctant to provide English children with a champion with the same force as was available to children elsewhere in the UK and elsewhere? Well, I think the reason was the same as the reason why every step forward has entailed a similar battle. It is because Governments feel they want to be in control. They feel that if you recognise children ’s economic, social and cultural rights, the whole thing will run away from you and cost a lot more money than you can afford. I strongly suspect that it has been the Treasury that needed to be convinced about every step forward. And, of course, in an age of austerity you can understand it. No responsible Government can accept a situation where we spend more on paying the interest on our national debts than we do on schools, so the deficit has to be tackled.

However, we HAVE now got a Children’s Commissioner with decent powers and we HAVE removed most asylum seeking children from detention and we HAVE a whole lot of measures that protect children in the courts and we HAVE a lot of measures to ensure that children’s views must be heard and acted upon. The courts system unfortunately has suffered more than most departments under the austerity measures since, unlike schools and the NHS, the Department of Justice did not have a protected budget. And when you consider that the DoH and the DfE make up half of what we spend as a country each year, the burden of savings has fallen disproportionately on other departments. So what I have found is that each bit of progress has taken a lot of lobbying, a lot of negotiating with Ministers behind the scenes and a lot of time and energy. And a lot of nagging! In the meantime, the sad thing is that, apart from in Unicef’s Rights Respecting Schools where rights are lived, most children don’t know their rights anyway. Some have never heard of the UNCRC and most do not know what it provides for them. They and their parents don’t know the difference between rights and desirables. Some of

the parents think childre n’s rights means bolshie teenagers and they don’t like the sound of that. It’s a basic misunderstanding of the position of children in society as young citizens with their own rights as distinct from those of their parents. And, of course, information is power. If only we could get incorporation we would also get a lot more children and those working with them knowing what this country is obliged to do under the Convention and how to enforce it. And then they could advocate for themselves. And so without incorporation, we have to work piece by piece to enforce children’s rights. Has it not occurred to anyone in Government that this often costs a lot of money in appeals and Court time? Are Governments content to leave children in ignorance of their rights? Are they hoping that children will not come forward and ask for their rights? I fear that is the case. The channels for redress are long and arduous and depend on the decisions of particular law officers, local government officers and civil servants and this puts people off even trying sometimes. We HAVE had some very good ministers in the Coalition Government who have really “got it” as regards children’s rights. Sarah Teather did a lot when

she was children’s minister, especially in relation to the Commissioner and children with special educational needs by putting together a coherent plan for them. Edward Timpson also has his heart in the right place, especially in relation to fostering and adoption. It’s amazing what a bit of personal experience can do to convince a Minister to act. Lynn Featherstone and Norman Baker in the Home Office have done a lot in relation to matters such as FGM, asylum seeking children and trafficking. But each of them has had an internal battle in their Department against this brick wall of not wanting to let go the reins. Not trusting the Convention to which we signed up over 20 years ago! We often hear about the need for joined up Government. Well here is an outstanding area where that is needed. The framework of policies and services relating to children are inevitably shared among several departments of Government – as for adults. This means two things. First of all you get different approaches in different departments. Secondly each one has to make an effort to co-ordinate with other departments and often, despite good intentions, this falls to the bottom of the “ to do ” list when they are busy. So we land up with an approach to children which is not consistent. And the reason for the different approaches is the powers of the Secretaries

of State. Since I have been able to see more clearly behind the scenes of Government in the Coalition, it has become plain to me how very powerful they are. You may get a Minister further down the pecking order who wants to do something but, unless she can convince her SoS, it just won’t happen. Unless it’s part of a deal. So, it’s complicated! So I think we need to look to the experience of other countries who HAVE incorporated for examples of where incorporation has been an ADVANTAGE for the Government. This may not be possible to demonstrate in the short term but I bet it would be possible to demonstrate it in the long term. But can the benefits be shown over the five year term of a UK Government? Well, it’s interesting that Scotland is trying to do that with various aspects of children’s services and they’re monitoring the results . I do think they are ahead of us for one very good reason and that is that they managed to convince the Scottish Government money men of the long term financial benefits of a more child centred, early intervention and child rights approach to services. I think we have the WAVE Foundation to thank for that.

The beauty o f it is that it’s near to home. Governments can’t say “Oh Sweden and Finland are very different societies from ours.” Well, perhaps they are, but Scotland isn’t. And Wales where I live isn’t either and they too have moved step by step ever closer to a version of incorporation. In 2004 the Welsh Government, within the limits of its powers, adopted the Convention as the basis of all its policy making for children and young people, positioning its overarching strategy for children within a rights-based framework linked to UNCRC implementation. And they set up a scheme of monitoring children and young people’s wellbeing with criteria based on the Convention. The Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2010 is an example of new legislation which takes the UNCRC through the 7 core aims and further promotes the rights of children through tackling poverty and placing a duty to provide for play and participation of children. And then on January 18th 2011 this landmark piece of legislation, the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure was passed by the National Assembly for Wales with cross-party unanimous support. As of the 1 st May 2012 under the new Children's Rights Scheme, Ministers must show due regard to the rights in the UNCRC when making