When it comes to children's rights it seems Wales is streets ahead of its English neighbours. While devolution has allowed Wales to take a child-focused approach in its decisions, England is lagging behind and in some cases pulling Wales back on UK-wide issues.
Two separate reports, one by the Children's Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) and another from Save the Children in Wales, show wide disparities between the countries in achieving recommendations laid out by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). For England, the CRAE report is bleak. It shows the government has achieved just 10 of the 78 proposals laid out by the convention.
Carolyne Willow, national co-ordinator for CRAE, says: "What this report shows is an overall neglect of the convention as the framework for improving children's lives and position in society."
Lack of progress
The report, State of Children's Rights in England, shows a deterioration in law or policy in the last year in nine areas of the convention. These include abolishing the use of plastic baton rounds for riot control, reviewing the use of restraint and solitary confinement in custody, education, health and welfare institutions, and prohibiting all corporal punishment in the family.
Willow says: "Top of the list in terms of what has been done badly is the juvenile justice system policy and the treatment of children in trouble with the law."
She says work on the age of criminal responsibility, more children coming into contact with the criminal justice system at a younger age for lesser offences, and the treatment of children in custody are all areas where there has been no progress.
The report shows the government has also failed to speed up the elimination of child poverty and review the availability of legal representation and independent advocacy to unaccompanied asylum seeking children.
Despite child poverty receiving a negative result in the report, Willow says the government's commitment to reducing poverty is a big plus point.
But Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust, criticises the way both the convention and the report deal with some issues, such as comparing smacking children with knife and gun crime.
The report says: "Coming in the same year that more than 50 young people have died following a knife or gun attack, and the Unicef report showing children in the UK are the least happy of the world's 21 richest countries, the lack of ministerial courage to end all forms of violence in the family home is wearing thin."
But Wells says: "It is difficult to take seriously a report that begins by bracketing moderate smacking by responsible parents with knife and gun attacks. "CRAE would have done better to have listened to the children consulted as part of the government's recent review of the law on reasonable punishment. Those who were smacked in a controlled way by parents who explained what was wrong with their children's behaviour reported feeling safe and secure and respected their parents' stance on discipline."
Non-violent discipline
In Wales, the matter of non-violent forms of discipline is an area in which the Welsh Assembly has made excellent progress. Keith Towler, Save the Children's programme director for Wales and chair of the UNCRC monitoring group, which carried out the report, says: "The assembly has taken a strong stance against physical punishment against children, which is fantastic because physical punishment is wrong."
The report has a positive attitude to what has been achieved so far in Wales including action on children's participation, developing a strategy to reduce child deaths as a result of violence and reducing health inequalities.
Towler believes it is the Welsh Assembly Government's attitude that has helped: "What the assembly government delivers is whole strategies underpinned by the convention," he says. "What we have through strategic documents is an absolute commitment from the Welsh government."
The Welsh report, Stop, look, listen: the road to realising children's rights in Wales, clearly indicates which government is responsible for each recommendation, showing which nation is achieving well. "The UK government from our perspective in Wales is working against the convention. Our frustration is that we're working with it and the UK government is pulling us back."
Looking towards the future, Willow and Towler have clear thoughts on what needs to be done. For Willow, one of the priorities is the forthcoming Children's Plan. "The plan needs to be underpinned by the convention both in prevention and as a vision for children in terms of children being treated as individuals with feelings."
In Wales, Towler feels it is important to focus on practice and outcomes for children: "The assembly has set a framework from where it needs to grow."
KEY POINTS
- United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child covers:
- Civil rights and freedoms: freedom of expression; access to information
- Family environment and alternative care: right to live with parents; to be reunited with parents if separated from them
- Heath and welfare: rights of disabled children; right to health care social security and child care services
- Education, leisure and cultural activities: right to education, play, leisure.
