Coordinated Government for Children
Our key calls for change:
- A Welsh Government Cabinet Minister for Children with responsibility for Children’s Rights
- A National Plan of Action on Children’s Rights & transparent monitoring
We were pleased that the previous Welsh Government finally implemented our call, for a Minister for Children. However, the Minister for Children and Social Care, did not have a seat at Cabinet level and was expected to have oversight of all children’s rights under the UNCRC, as well as cover the very wide remit of adult social care.
One of our key calls is that the new Welsh Government ensures there is a Cabinet level Minister for Children.
We believe, like many organisations across the children’s sector in Wales, because children under 16 do not have the right to vote or a seat at the decision-making table, there must be a Minister for Children at Cabinet level, that has a clear focus on representing children’s rights and makes it absolutely clear that all Welsh Government Ministers must give due regard to the UNCRC when exercising any of their functions.
There also needs to be better and more effective monitoring and accountability and a national action plan that uses children’s rights indicators, time bound targets and clear & transparent budgets (For further info see Dr Croke’s blog here).
We also work actively to promote that both the UK and Welsh Government take human rights seriously, to ensure there is no regression on the protection of human rights (See Dr Croke’s blog here).
