On 3rd October, a highly critical report was published by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. It accuses the UK Government of failing to meet international standards on the treatment of children. In June, the children's rights alliance for England (CRAE) reported on how miserably England is failing its children – this time by achieving just 10 of the 78 proposals laid out by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
When I did my research into Children Rights in Health Care, the people closest to the front line, the teachers, school nurses GP’s and Paediatricians, felt that the framework of ‘rights’ was an inappropriate way to judge their work and the language of ‘rights’ made them immediately defensive. “If our systems are not upholding children’s rights in every way are our approaches and systems wrong” said one? Choices and decisions about children and their health care are incredibly complex and difficult – needing the utmost sensitivity. I did not find much ‘wrong’ with the work I encountered. Indeed the groups I met were among children's closest allies.
What are often lacking – (and this was also supported by my research) are the skills to engage and involve children so that they have a presence in decisions often made on their behalf. As my work in health education and spanning three decades has taught me, working with children and young people in a participatory way is challenging. Few systems or strategies support it. Our current school system works against it. Few organisations set up adequate training or support for staff at the front line. If we could find better ways of working WITH children and young people, we would not need all this fist-shaking, we would be respecting the humanity of individual children in all our decisions as part of the way we do things.
