Introduction

This is a joint report from the Office of the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children & Young People , Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, and Children’s Commissioner for Wales. It sets out the views and work undertaken by the Commissioners as part of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s examination of the UK’s combined Sixth and Seventh Periodic report under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

The Commissioners are Independent Children’s Rights Institutions. Their statutory functions differ but all centre upon the promotion and protection of children’s rights, with particular attention to the UNCRC and informed by children’s views and experiences. The devolved settlements of the three jurisdictions differ. Within this report, the Commissioners comment only on matters affecting children within their respective jurisdictions of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. In accordance with the legislation which established the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, the Commissioner has made representations to Welsh Ministers on these issues.

Children and young people’s views must be central to decisions affecting them, and the Commissioners have also submitted a report of children’s voices and experiences to the UN which is also available for download. In addition, we have also produced a simple version of the report which uses symbols to convey its key themes and topics for use when working with Children and Young People.