On the first weekend of November, the Children’s Human Rights Defenders (CHRDs) had a residential weekend, with some children visiting for the day and some staying overnight. 5 CHRD MCPs came together from the Western Isles, Aberdeen, Clackmannanshire, Edinburgh, East Lothian, Glasgow and Perth & Kinross. They analysed Children’s Parliament issues from the past and looked to the future to see what they might take to Cabinet in 2023.
The weekend gave the group the opportunity to meet as a whole in person for the first time. It was an excellent weekend full of fun team building, looking back on their journey so far, and looking forward to the 2023 Cabinet meeting.
Katie Logie, Project Worker, tells us more…
Every year, since 2017, Members of Children’s Parliament (MCPs) meet with the First Minister and her Cabinet to lay out the priority issues they feel are facing children in Scotland. These issues are then considered by the Cabinet and Scottish Executive Team, and hopefully improved on, through the year between the meetings. The important thing to remember when the MCPs are curating these issues is that they are to represent the thoughts and ideas of children from across Scotland and, while there may be a crossover, they are not necessarily personal to the MCPs.
To ensure input from children across Scotland, this year Children’s Parliament designed a survey that we shared with all of our active MCPs. In total, we received nearly 100 responses. It split up the issues that Children’s Parliament have explored in recent years and asked the MCPs to rank them in order of what they feel is most important to children in Scotland. We acknowledged that all issues were important, but we wanted the MCPs to think about what needs the most attention now. The children ranked issues under four categories;
They also ranked these headlines, and the order above are what the MCPs ranked as the issues currently needing the most attention.
We also had a blank category, where we asked MCPs to suggest their own thoughts and ideas on issues that should be explored with decision-makers. Below you can see some of their fantastic ideas:
Using the results of the MCP survey, we wanted to use our time in person together to begin thinking about our issues for the 2023 Cabinet meeting. The Cabinet meeting is not where these issues end, it’s where they begin. We follow up and work on the chosen issues throughout the year (March-March). These issues are also raised in our meetings with the Executive Team – the top civil servants in Scottish Government. The calls to action are created in the hope that structural change is made based on the children’s recommendations. It is important that the issues reflect what children feel are the most pressing of that year.
To help our MCPs to make an informed decision on their issues, we put together a ‘Cabinet Marketplace.’ The Marketplace was designed to share with our CHRDs the results of the survey and information on previous projects Children’s Parliament have worked on, to help make decisions about what they will be exploring in the year ahead.
The market stalls allowed the children to ‘browse’ each issue – with Education Apples, Fairness Pears, Adults Making Rights Real Oranges and Healthy, Happy, Safe Bananas. By considering the issues through the lens of the survey results, and what previous MCPs have told us, it encouraged our Children’s Human Rights Defenders to approach them with empathy, kindness and consideration for children across Scotland – not just their own personal experiences.
The marketplace created a friendly, accessible environment for the children to approach these issues as equal citizens. Their ideas were acknowledged as important, listened to and supported in this setting. The MCPs proved to us once again that children are interested in issues that affect them, and have valid and important ideas on how to improve their lives.
After browsing the issues and their background, the children were given a ‘shopping list’ with a series of statements to help reflect on and think about what issues they might like to take into the year ahead. These statements included:
The shopping list gave the MCPs ownership on these issues, and ideas to better them. The shopping list could then be brought together to create a policy, or in our case, a fruit salad…
The children brought their ideas together in a ‘fruit salad’, where they shared their thoughts on some of the issues brought to the table. The children spoke a lot about school, and things that could be addressed in the education system. They also had a strong sense of the importance of fairness, and how some people may be struggling more than others because of reasons out with their control.
We don’t want to share too much on the results of the marketplace just yet, as our CHRD team need time to develop their thoughts and ideas further in the run up to the 2023 Cabinet meeting. However, it was an excellent session with the MCPs and ended in a wonderful discussion on the importance of ensuring Scotland is a happy, healthy and safe place for all children to grow up at home, at school and in the community.
“Children might have a good idea…sometimes a better one than adults and makes the world a better place” – MCP, Cabinet Marketplace, CHRD residential
To find out more about what we got up to on our residential, check out the reels on our Instagram page: @childrensparliament