A fundamental principle of Getting it right for every child is that there are clear and transparent ways of accessing advice and help. This means that every agency or service in Highland that has connections with children or their families takes responsibility for responding to any request for help.

There are two main reasons why children should be involved in decisions that affect their lives:

1. children have the right to be involved
2. children have the capacity to be competent commentators on their lives

The right for children to participate in decision-making is enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Children (Scotland) Act 1995 and  Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 and Additional Support for Learning 2004 as amended 2009 and Children and Young Persons(Scotland) Act 2014. These specify that children have a right to be involved in decisions that affect their lives. The Scottish Government is committed to the participation of children in decision-making (Scottish Executive, 2007). Those rights also extend to children being able to give consent to actions being taken that affect their well-being.

The diagram below outlines the connections between key principles of practice and children’s rights in helping us keep The Promise. The diagram highlights how the Lundy model of participation can be used to ensure children and young people’s voices are at the heart of service planning, development and delivery. A short video explaining this further can be found here. 

Further information on Highland’s Participation Strategy and Children’s Rights is available at: Children's Rights & Participation Highland

Parents and carers are also ‘experts’ on their children in the sense they know more about them than anyone else. Most parents want to do their best for their children and understand how their children will respond to help. Practitioners should treat all parents with dignity and respect and see their role being to support and help families.

Practitioners cannot do this without actively involving children and the people important to them in deciding what to do to help.  Without children and families’ perspectives on their personal difficulties, practitioners’ and clinicians’ information is incomplete and they cannot reach a full understanding of children’s circumstances and needs.  This part of the guidance provides advice about how to include children, young people and their parents, and value their contributions in making sense of what is happening to them and creating a plan for help and action.