A Scotland for Children: A Consultation on the Children and Young People Bill

Here at North Edinburgh Childcare children have been having their own say through taking part in activities which explore children’s rights to be Healthy, Happy and Safe and what factors contribute to this. I am

running these activities with Joe (11)* and Cally (7)* and here is their feedback.

*The names of the participants have been changed to protect their identity.*

The Scottish Government is set to introduce a new Children and Young People’s Bill later this year. This Bill sets out a range of proposals for taking forward an approach

to children’s rights and services

The Scottish Government wants Scotland to be the best place for children and young people to grow up. They are making a plan to help make this happen and now it is our turn as citizens to let them know what we think. We will do some work together, we will investigate what children need and what adults can do to help. So the idea is to think about children’s lives, from before they are even born to being your age. Because we are thinking and talking about living and growing, we will be imagining Scotland is a huge garden and all the children and young people are the plants that grow in it. Together let’s create the most beautiful garden we can imagine.

These are our Garden’s we created.

Joe: “ My Garden has lots of different plants growing in it and lots of nice soil to help them grow, I have a sun in my picture so it is nice and warm and can also help plants grow but I also have a tree for shade away from the sun because too much sun is bad. I have a nice house next to the garden where my friends and family are and a litter bin so the garden is clean and organized.

Cally: “My Garden is sunny and has beautiful flowers in it. I have a big sunflower and a lovely red rose. My garden is wild because there are lots of things in it and me, my mum and my friend Rebecca are in it. My garden is in Corstorphine because this is a nice place.”

These are our gardens:

I need a sunshine in my garden so my plants can

grow and it is a sunny place.

I would have a house next to the garden for shelter and a place where

my friends and family would be.

The litter bin is in my garden so it

can be kept clean and can keep all

the rubbish away.

The big tree helps shade things from the sun and

trees are always in

nice gardens.

The orange dot would be where I would sit in the

garden because it is a nice spot being

shaded and protected from the sun and I could see all of my garden.

This is the plant bed which has got lots of different plants and vegetables in it. There is a sunflower, roses, carrots, cabbages and seeds waiting to grow into something else. The soil around them is the seeds food and

helps the seeds grow into the flower.

Joe’s Garden

This is my sunshine that

keeps my garden warm and helps

things grow.

This is my beautiful

sunflower that is very tall and

colourful.

This is my pond, it has lots of water in it which is good for

the plants and helps them grow.

This is a love heart I drew,

there is lots of love in my garden and we need love

to grow.

That is a lovely big red rose and me standing

on top in my lovely red dress.

The people are my mum and my friend Rebecca, they would

help the garden grow with me.

Cally’s Garden

Our Seed Packets – What we need when we are growing up:

Because we’re thinking about Scotland as a

garden, and the children and young

people as the plants, we are each going to

make a special seed packet about

ourselves.

This seed packet is about you and how you want to grow.

These are our seed packets with our

answers:Joe: “When growing up I need lots of water,

vegetables, food and exercise so I grow up healthy. I need a house to sleep and grow up in

that keeps me warm and I need lots of care and respect from helpful adults. The people who help me are my mum, dad and all my

family. My carers (young carers and befrienders) who take me out and my social worker. When I grow up I will be a strong

footballer who helps out other people.

Cally: When I am growing up I need lots of food like fruit and carrots and nice hot dinners. I also

need lots of time at school to help me learn lots of things and play with my friends. I need lots of love and care when I am growing up. The people who help me grow are my mum and dad, my brother,

my nana all of my family. social worker and my young carer helps me to grow. When I grow up I will be a hairdresser and a mum so I can look after

people.

Joe Cally

In real life, just like in our garden, we need lots of things to be Healthy, Happy and Safe as we are growing. Together we are going to think of what these things might be. First, let’s talk about what children need to be Healthy, and because we are imagining life is like a garden, we’ll record our ideas on the watering can. We will want to think about from before we are born right through to when we are fully grown.”

Joe and Cally worked together to feedback on what they think they need to have to be healthy. These were:

Healthy food like Fruit and vegetables,To take part in lots of sports such as running, athletics and football as these keep you fit. To be clean and have a clean place to stay, The sun can be good for you and being outdoors.We need people to care and look after us. (Someone to make sure we are getting all these things that make us healthy).

Next we thought about what children need to be Happy and we’ll record our ideas on the sun:

Joe and Cally worked together to feedback on what they think they need to have to be happy and what makes them happy. These were:

I am happy when I am in school and after schools club.People who are nice to me makes me happy.People helping me when I am hurt.Playing football makes me happy.Funny people who make me laugh.Playing with my friends.Singing with my friends.People who are kind to team.

 

And finally, we discussed what do children and young people need to be Safe.

Joe and Cally worked together to feedback on who keeps children and where they feel safe. These were:

My mum and dad keep me safe.The police, ambulance crew, fire men and other carers keep us safe.Adults that work with us like teachers, head teachers after school club staff, social workers and befrienders keep us safe.I feel safe when I am at home, in my classroom at school and in my after schools club.

We need all these people and places around us to keep us safe.

When discussing the well being indicators with children I focussed on asking children what they think the need to

be happy, healthy and safe as I found the SHANARRI language very formal for a discussion with primary school age children. Their responses covered the

SHANARRI indicators as to be happy, healthy and safe children said they required fruit, vegetables, food and water (healthy), do sports for fitness (active), respect

from adults (respected), have adults like mum and dad to look after them (responsible), need care and love (nurture), lots of time to learn at school (achieving),

have a house to live in to be warm and safe (safe) and need a family and important adults around

them(included).

When consulting with Joe and Cally on who has an important role in their lives in keeping them healthy, happy and safe, their responses were mum and dad as well as other members of their family e.g uncle, siblings, grandparents, public bodies were carers

(young carers/befrienders), social worker and school staff (teachers/head teachers).

These were adults who have a role in their life and the realisation of their rights.

These are people children feel are important figures whom they trust and listen to.

We have thought about what we think we and other children need to be Healthy, Happy and Safe and now we are going to use the image of the snail to write down some of the things that can get in the way, and stop children having their rights.These are the things Joe and Cally thought might get in the way of them being happy, healthy and safe:

•Not eating the right foods that keep us healthy.•Not having people around that look after us and keep us safe.•Not having someone to go to for help if we needed it.•No-one to take care of us if we were ill/unwell.•People that make us sad like bullies around us.

We have been imagining Scotland is a big garden, and you’ll know that when there are snails or other troubles in a garden it is the job of the gardener to fix them. As growing children you need lots of people around you to be your gardeners, and they can be adults in your family or people like teachers or nurses or social workers. In this session we talked about these adults

and how they help you.

We put all our artwork onto the wall so we could see what we had written about what keeps us happy, healthy and safe. From this we thought of what adults in our lives helped us to be

healthy, happy and stay safe.

Both Joe and Cally chose two adults, one a family member and one a professional adult as their gardeners. These were adults in their life who were important to them

and who helped to keep them happy, healthy and safe.

My dad and brother help to keep me happy, healthy and safe because:

They both look after me. Care about me and sister.My brother helps me if I am in trouble because if there are bullies or people being nasty he tells them to go away.They give me respectThey are both helpful and kind to me.

My social worker helps to keep me safe, healthy and happy because she:

Looks out for us and makes sure we are safe.She is funny and very nice to be with.She knows what things we need and helps to get them for me and my family.She cares about me and my sister.She comes to our house and takes us nice places.She is also helpful and kind.

These are Joe’s gardeners, the male gardener represents both brother and dad and the female gardener represents his social worker and these are the reasons why he has chosen them.

My mum keeps me happy, healthy and safe because she:

Helps to keep me clean.Takes me nice places.Looks after me.Puts me to bed at night.Helps me to be healthy.

My young carer keeps me happy, healthy and safe because:

She talks to me about things.Has a laugh with me.Takes me out to nice places.Makes me happy.Asks me how I feel.

These are Cally’s gardeners, the gardeners represent mum and her young carer and these are the reasons why she has chosen them.

We have talked about Scotland being a big garden and now we have thought about all the gardeners and their diff erent

jobs. There are so many gardeners in a big garden there needs to be someone whose job it is to make sure that everyone is

working together to look af ter all the plants properly. I n the garden this person is called the Head Gardener. The Scottish

Government thinks it would be a good idea to have someone called a Named Person to do the same sort of job f or children as

a Head Gardener would do in a garden. Even though the most important person in your lif e might be your Mum, or Dad, or

Granny or your Carer, the idea is that the Head Gardener/ Named Person will be a professional person and not someone in

your f amily”.

It is important for adults to do their jobs properly so that children get the help they need to grow.  “What help will your gardeners need to do their jobs to help keep children healthy, happy and safe and have their rights?” Joe and Cally: “They would need to know us and our family and be told what we need to be happy, healthy and safe.”

“What should happen if children don’t get their rights?” - Joe and Cally were unsure as to what should happen if children don’t get their rights. They think that someone in charge of children getting their rights should make sure they always do.

Joe and Cally worked together to come up with the type of person they would like to be their head gardener. These are the qualities they thought their head gardener should have:

Their head garden should be someone that was trained to be a head gardener.Someone like our social worker because she knows us and our family very well.Someone who would talk to me to find out what I want.Someone who can help to take care of me and my family.Maybe someone who was a health person, someone who would know how to keep us healthy.Someone who knows all our different important adults.Someone who already helps to look after me.

We think the most important duty of the head gardener should be to make sue we are being safe, healthy and are happy. The toughest thing about being the head gardener would be having lots of children they need to keep happy, healthy and safe.

Their would have to be different head gardeners when you are a baby and a teenager because you will know different people. You might change so they might have to do different things to make sure you are happy, healthy and safe.

We have worked together to create a beautif ul garden where everything can grow well because the gardeners are working hard to do a good job. We have talked about how the Scottish Government wants Scotland to be the best place f or children to grow. We have thought, talked and written about the things we think the Government should know. Now the adults will put all of this inf ormation into a report and send it to the Government. But there is one last thing we thought you might like to do. We have some postcards for you to finish. There is a place f or you to write the message that you think is the most important thing f or all of Scotland’s Gardeners (of course that’s all the adults that help look af ter the rights of children) to know so that Scotland really is the best place f or YOU to grow up in.

Thank you for all your hard work and remember your rights to be healthy, happy

and safe and let other children know that to!”

Joe and Cally