Tam's diary

I met with Rory Mair and Robert Nicol, COSLA.  This was an opportunity to give an update on developments since I met soon after taking up post and in particular, give an update on a RIGHT blether and the response to it. Rory informed of the developing relationship between national and local government and we shared views on the challenges of the implementation of policies, for instance in early years.  We agreed that I will speak to the leadership group early in the new session of the new administration and address the issue of early years implementation at national and local level.  I welcome this as well as speaking to other relevant COSLA groups following the leadership meeting.

I visited Rowantree Primary School, Dundee.  It provided me with the opportunity to return the excellent exhibits Rowantree made in response to a Right Brilliant Thing and to thank them for these.  It also provided an opportunity to personally give the results of the RIGHT blether votes as Rowantree missed out in attending a RIGHT BIG blether.  Indeed, I had to apologise for the disappointment of the pupils in them not having places allocated for the event.  I had an interesting discussion with Ms Lusby as she is piloting teaching materials around domestic abuse and it this links to one of the responses to a RIGHT blether.

 I later visited Craigie High School to present them with their Rights Respecting Schools award.  I was warmly welcomed by the pupils and teachers, shown round the school and impressed by the obvious pride they took in achieving the award and I look forward to them developing this.

I attended a conference on children with disabilities highlighting the current issues in the field.  As my team are gearing up for work in this area, I found it a very useful and informative conference and I met a number of people I expect to have further contact as the agenda develops.  This was particularly helpful to me as I become familiar with the main issues for children and young people with disabilities.

I attended the final 2011 show of the ‘Safe and Sound’ programme in South Lanarkshire.  This programme has been running for a number of years and assists primary aged children explore issues of personal safety through drama and song.  I was immensely grateful to receive a personal invite to the event, from one of the stars of last year’s show.

I spoke at the Children’s Hearing 40 year celebratory event in Edinburgh.  I focused on my own personal working experiences of the system, highlighting where I think there are strengths, where we can make improvements and where we need to remind ourselves that there are challenges in striking a balance between best interest and listening children and young people - or as one member reminded me after my talk, it is more than listening and all about “hearing them”.

I met with the Board of Together.  This was an early opportunity to inform the Board of the Strategic Plan, in particular, the results of a RIGHT blether and the work areas that derive from the vote.  I agreed to revisit the Board in the near future as time ran out and there was interest in covering many more shared issues.

 I spoke at the launch of the Forth Valley Protocol on Human Trafficking.  I found it encouraging that there are local developments in relation to raising awareness and improving our response to human trafficking and that in the Forth Valley, this includes children and young people.

 I attended the final session of the Poverty Truth Commission in Glasgow – along with 400 others.  The day consisted of moving testimonies from people living through poor circumstances and outlining the importance of including them in the process of improvement and meeting the challenges of inequality – the Commission tag-line is “nothing about us, without us is for us”.  For those involved in was obviously an empowering process and it will be interesting to see what are the longer- term impacts of such an approach.

Stefan Stoyanov and I attended the second meeting of the Scottish Child Rights Implementation Monitoring group.  The group consists of representatives from Scottish Government, my office and Together, the children’s voluntary sector representative organisation.  The meeting covered a wide range of topics related to UNCRC implementation as well sharing information. The agenda is challenging and it may be useful to give further thought as to maximising the usefulness of the meeting.

I met with Donna Bell (Scottish Government, lead on early years).  We discussed the potential for developing the approach to the early years, given that all main parties are supportive of improvements in service.  We agreed that, if there is the potential to link any legislative changes with UNCRC, this is worth further discussion.

I met with Mary Philip (Regional training co-ordinator for Children’s Panel members, Northern local areas).  This was part of the preparation for my input to an Inter-Island Conference to be held in Orkney in May.

Nico Juetten, Scott Wood (Scottish Government) and I visited Wales to find out more about the ‘measure’ for UNCRC recently introduced through legislation.  We met with representatives from the Children’s Commissioner’s office, government officials and a Ministerial advisor closely involved in the process.  There are many points of learning for the progression of the work stream around the incorporation of UNCRC into Scots Law which can be fed back into the group considering this in Scotland.  For me, the main points were: 

• The close co-operation among the main participants from the Children’s Commissioner’s office, government officials and politicians and advisors 

• The process to achieve the ‘measure’ was progressed over a long period – including a parliamentary Committee considering it for more than 2 years. 

• The importance of political backing was absolutely critical as was the careful management of the process at a political level 

The potential reach of the ‘measure’ is very significant and currently includes UNCRC training for 3500-4000 central government civil servants 

I attended an election hustings event hosted by Holyrood magazine focussing on education issues.  While there was agreement on the importance of developing approaches to improving the early years provision, the discussion quickly moved to further education and training and job opportunities, which formed the main part of the session.

 I met with Bill Maxwell, Fiona Carlisle and Ken Muir (HMIE).  The prompt for this meeting was to explore the increased role pupils could play in school inspections.  HMIE have recently carried out a wide ranging consultation on the inspection process and are considering proposals to involve pupils more in process including the reporting of the findings of the inspection report.  The meeting helpfully focussed on the response to a RIGHT blether, particularly the work stream around poverty and the impact on educational attainment.  HMIE agreed to be members of a steering group on this when we are in a position to initiate this piece of work.

I met with Joan Rose (Regional training co-ordinator for the Children’s Panel Members, Lothian and surrounding areas).  This was a preparatory meeting for a presentation to Panel Members I am to give later in the month, celebrating 40 years of the Children’s Hearing system.

I met with Graham Thomson, Scottish Centre for the Study of School Administration (SCSSA).  This was a most stimulating discussion, especially around the challenge of responding my office’s Strategic Plan work stream of children having the ‘same (educational) chances no matter how much money their families have’. 

 I visited the Barnardos unit in Glasgow providing accommodation to unaccompanied asylum seekers and spoke to staff and four young people.  The main purpose was to hear the views and experiences of the young people on the asylum process.  The young people were understandably reluctant to relive their traumatic stories, although were very vocal with regard to their views on having age appropriate accommodation for them.