Writing on location in Shetland, Cathy McCulloch, Co-Director of Children’s Parliament, reflects on the importance of reflecting Scotland’s diverse, vibrant communities across our work: “To be properly inclusive requires thinking beyond the norm: how do we reach children who wouldn’t normally have opportunities to engage in exciting projects with external agencies?”
The outcomes we realise with children are achieved through the strong and positive relationships we build with them. While funders will express a wish for work to be inclusive, it is rare for the essential, additional resources to be made available. Travel, subsistence, accommodation and time all need to be factored in. We remain more committed than ever to ensuring children from all parts of Scotland are included in our work, but we are getting better at how we do it.
For a number of years, each month the team travelled to the Western Isles to work with a group of 20 children, their parents and carers, teachers and other professionals. A huge amount was achieved and we are still in contact with many of our first MCPs all these years later. Due to staff changes in the strategic leadership teams, we were unable to support a continuation of the work after our funded programmes ended. With the imminent incorporation of the UNCRC into Scots law, we’re hopeful we can develop new relationships on the back of new programme funded work there.
I’m currently writing this blog from Shetland at the end of a very productive day with senior members of the Children and Young People within the Council. When we were deciding where go with our Artificial Intelligence programme which we’re running with Scottish Government, the Scottish AI Alliance and The Alan Turing Institute, we made the offer to a school in Shetland. The Head Teacher jumped at it and since the start of the 2022 Autumn term, we have had a series of online meetings between the children in Shetland and the other Children’s Parliament Investigators in Glasgow, Stirling and Edinburgh. This week is the second trip to meet the children and progress their work on the AI programme.
An important premise for us is that all children, no matter their background or ability, should develop an understanding for their place in the world and be able to recognise their right to agency, to develop that agency and use it to influence decisions – locally, nationally and internationally. And for children in rural and island communities, this right is as important to them as it is to children who are more easily accessible to those of us working in the central belt. Inconvenience to adults is no reason to exclude children from places further away from the majority.
Children’s Parliament has been committed to ensuring all work includes children who reflect the diversity of Scotland’s vibrant communities. To be properly inclusive requires thinking beyond the norm: how do we reach children who wouldn’t normally have opportunities to engage in exciting projects with external agencies? The very fact of making the 24 hour journey to get to Shetland sends a strong message in itself. We have been made so very welcome and have met some inspirational and committed workers leading and delivering inspiring and impactful programmes of work. They are keen to share what they’re doing. We’re keen to learn from them. And we’re also keen to ensure that the voices of children are heard alongside those of children from other parts of Scotland to help them feel connected and of equal value.
Our work on AI in Shetland has allowed us to develop new contacts and connections on the islands. The positive feedback from children and teachers has allowed us to begin to develop new working relationships across the authority to support their knowledge, understanding and implementation of UNCRC based on a real time piece of work which they can engage with directly. Demonstrating impact, and providing opportunities for children from Shetland to engage both virtually and in face to face residentials and conferences, encourages those responsible for delivering on UNCRC implementation a level of confidence and a layer of support that they might otherwise find difficult to access. Most importantly, it sends a message to children that they are valued, that adults from the mainland have made the journey because they want them to be involved in the AI programe, that they have something to offer.
Bringing children from islands to conferences usually requires travel to the central belt and in the next couple of months we have children from the Western Isles joining children from other rural and urban parts of Scotland to gather in Edinburgh for the annual meeting with the Scottish Cabinet. In March, children from Shetland will join the other Investigators in Glasgow for the first AI conference. There’s no doubt the risk assessment takes on another level in terms of travel but really, everything else is the same. How much support do the children need? Who can provide the support? Do they need funding for clothes/suitcases etc? What will the travel arrangements be? For many children who live in island communities, it may be the first time they’ve left the island, the first time on a plane or a train – but that’s not exclusive to island children. We recently had a child from Glasgow travelling on a train for the first time and who will soon be having her first flight experience to the UN in Geneva. There may sometimes be caution or concern from adults that the children might struggle with what we see as a fantastic opportunity. And these concerns are important to acknowledge and see if it’s possible to assuage. We adults do have a tendancy to want to protect children from things we think they’ll find difficult or too challenging – children do often need encouraged to see that they can. When we work with a keen, committed and supportive partner, in terms of what children can achieve, the sky’s the limit.
From our work in The Western Isles, we know we need to work hard to maintain the positive relationships we build up while working in any community. We are in a better position now as we’ve grown and our programme of work is recorded on our website to be shared and used by anyone with an interest in children’s human rights and effective participation with children. We want our local partners to be able to use Children’s Parliament’s networks to share their own practice and to join a growing band of adults from across all sectors and areas of interest to help increase knowledge and understanding of the impact of a rights based approach for children and families.
