Date: 6th January 2016
Category: Family Environment and Alternative Care, Child poverty, Disability, Basic Health and Welfare

The Cost of the School Holidays study was designed to inform a Glasgow Life feasibility study exploring ways in which holiday provision could better meet the needs of families living in poverty and ensure uptake by children and young people from low income households.

Date: 6th January 2016
Category: General measures of implementation

The final draft statutory guidance for the GIRFEC provisions in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 was released on 1 December.

Date: 6th January 2016
Category: Civil Rights and Freedoms

Research about the experiences of ethnic and religious minority young people was conducted by Newcastle, St Andrews and Edinburgh Universities from 2013-2015 and was recently published.

Date: 6th January 2016
Category: Family Environment and Alternative Care

'Secure Care in Scotland, a scoping study' is published and is designed to help identify evidence gaps regarding the outcomes experienced by children and young people placed in secure care in Scotland.

Date: 6th January 2016
Category: Care Experienced children

The Scottish Government commissioned the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA) to carry out the research report - 'Permanence Planning and Decision Making for Looked After Children in Scotland', the aim of which was to assess progress in delivering improvements since the implementation of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007.

Date: 6th January 2016
Category: Children in situations of exploitation, Special protection measures

The Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 received Royal Assent on 4 November 2015. One of the things the Act does is to place a duty on Scottish Ministers to publish a Strategy to tackle human trafficking and exploitation. Neil Rennick, Director for Justice in the Scottish Government has published a blog providing discussion on this.

Date: 6th January 2016
Category: Child poverty

The UK government plans to give up on its own targets to end child poverty. The Welfare Reform and Work Bill will scrap the child poverty targets and introduce new measures of 'life chances' instead, including worklessness and educational attainment. The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) have launched a new campaign with Rebecca, a mum of two who describes how, despite her and her husband both working full-time, they still struggle. She's started a petition asking the House of Lords to hold the government to account on child poverty. Nearly 50,000 people have signed the petition, you can also do so below.

Date: 6th January 2016
Category: Other human rights treaties and mechanisms

Eurochild carried out the assessment of the 2015 European Semester with the help of its member organisations. The work draws on the experience of the past four years' (2011 - 2014) analysis of the National Reform Programmes (NRPs) of EU Member States, with an extended scope in 2015. In the 2015 analysis, Eurochild particularly assessed the extent to which the European Commission 'Recommendation on Investing in Children: Breaking the cycle of disadvantage' (2013) has been implemented across the EU and whether the European Semester process is helping or hindering the achievement of positive outcomes for children.

Date: 5th January 2016
Category: Civil Rights and Freedoms

In July 2014, Together responded to the Scottish Government's consultation on Scotland's electoral future - these views have been included in the summary of responses.

Date: 8th December 2015
Category: Protection from abuse or neglect

CPC Scotland promotes policy and best practice for the protection of children across Scotland. It plays a leading role in the development and promotion of agreed common standards and effective procedures. The group informs national child protection policy, working alongside the Scottish Government in order to make a positive difference to the lives of vulnerable children and young people.

Date: 8th December 2015
Category: Protection from abuse or neglect

"Neglect is a complex issue but art can help, so let it" - this was one of the key messages to come out of the first of four Scottish Universities Insight Institute funded seminar sessions organised by WithScotland and the University of Dundee, exploring how arts-based techniques can be used in research and practice when interacting with neglected children.

Date: 8th December 2015
Category: General principles, Child poverty

The written declaration on investing in children is a 300 word text with four specific demands that required 376 signatures by MEPs from 7 September - 7 December 2015 to be published in the minutes of the European Parliament and forwarded to relevant EU institutions.

Date: 8th December 2015
Category: General measures of implementation, Right to life, survival and development, Disability, Basic Health and Welfare

Climate-related disaster and changing weather patterns increase the risk of malnutrition, vector-borne diseases such as malaria, and water and food-borne diarrhoea. According to the World Health Organisation, children suffer a much greater burden of these climate-related diseases than adults. Yet despite rhetoric about protecting our planet for future generations, children and their rights have been largely absent from COP21 negotiations.

Date: 8th December 2015
Category: Other human rights treaties and mechanisms

Plans to scrap the Human Rights Act have been delayed for a second time until 2016, Justice Secretary Michael Gove has confirmed.

Date: 8th December 2015
Category: General principles, Family Environment and Alternative Care, Civil Rights and Freedoms

Following public consultation earlier this year and an intensive period of joint working with organisations from across children's and adult services and parent groups, Scottish Government have made available the revised draft Statutory Guidance for the GIRFEC provisions. The new law and draft guidance aim to improve outcomes for children, young people and families by ensuring a consistent approach to how we support children's and young people's wellbeing wherever they live in Scotland. It is hoped that the draft guidance will enable services to operate effectively by:

Date: 8th December 2015
Category: Care Experienced children

The Children's Minister Aileen Campbell has announced new plans for looked after children which will aim to improve services and help ensure every child has a permanent home.

Date: 8th December 2015
Category: Non-discrimination

An updated version of the guidance on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has been produced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Runnymede Trust.

Date: 8th December 2015
Category: Disabled children, Other human rights treaties and mechanisms, UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)

To mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities last week, CRIN has published an analysis of the work of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in which they press for the rights of children with disabilities to be addressed with the same consistency and rigour as adults' rights.

Date: 8th December 2015
Category: Age of criminal responsibility

Together's Director has joined an advisory group set up by the Scottish Government to consider the policy, legislative and procedural implications of raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 8 to 12.

Date: 8th December 2015
Category: Child poverty

Together welcomes the adoption of the European Parliament Resolution Reducing inequalities with a special focus on child poverty. The resolution, adopted by large majority, is the formal endorsement of the 2013 European Commission Recommendation 'Investing in Children: Breaking the cycle of disadvantage'. This is the first European Parliament resolution specifically on child poverty since 2008.