NCB Now: Child impact assessment

In its third report on the implementation of the UN Convention on theRights of the Child, the Government aligned it with Every Child Mattersand other national programmes, making it clear that these comprise theGovernment's strategic frameworks for implementing the convention.

Whether Every Child Matters is as cross-cutting as claimed, or if thisassumption works in terms of government and service structures, isdebatable. Yet recent changes to ministerial responsibilities in theDepartment for Children, Schools and Families may have a profoundlypositive effect on the practice of parcelling out child policyareas.

By ratifying the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, the UKcommitted to comply with its articles. In 2002, in response to the UKGovernment's second report, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Childreferred to Article 4 of the convention, to undertake "all appropriatelegislative, administrative, and other measures for the implementationof the rights recognised in the present convention". This, linked withArticle 3 (best interests of the child), requires states to carry outsystematic consideration of the impact of the "best interests"principle, which is the rationale behind the child impactassessment.