The SCCYP Model
SCCYP has developed a model for carrying out children’s rights impact assessment to facilitate the review of law, policy and practice. This model contains information on what assessments are, why they are necessary and how they should be carried out. The guide also contains a set of template forms for conducting assessments.
What it does
Children’s rights impact assessments are a way of looking at decisions, policies or legislation and identifying and measuring their effect on children and young people and their rights. They allow the effect to be predicted, monitored and, if necessary, avoided or mitigated. In developing our assessment model, one of our goals has been to embed children’s rights in decision and policy making and, with this in mind, we will be encouraging decision and policy makers to carry out their own children’s rights impact assessments. Our model has been deliberately designed to be flexible in the hope that it can be used by others and adapted to suit their own needs.
Types of assessment
The SCCYP model includes two types of assessment – an initial ‘screening’ assessment and a full impact assessment. To support ourselves and others in implementing this model, we have created screening and full impact assessment forms to enable the findings of the assessment process to be clearly evidenced.
Development
At SCCYP, we are currently using the model in a number of ways. We are undertaking initial screenings and, where necessary, full impact assessments to predict the possible impact of proposed policies or legislation on children and young people’s rights. In some cases, initial screenings have been used to inform the Commissioner’s response to a consultation whilst in others, concrete recommendations have been put forward to avoid or mitigate a predicted negative impact. In addition, we have been using the model to help inform our response to some of our external enquiries.
Follow this link to download the full SCCYP report, or the impact & assessment forms.