Bruce Adamson - Scotland’s new children’s tsar - is sunburnt, covered in midge bites and fresh from being dunked in a river at a summer camp for children who have been in care. But he would have extended his three-day trip to rural Perthshire if he could have done.
The set-up gave the children the space and confidence to tell “really powerful stories about their lives” and to share “incredible information about what solutions need to happen”, he says.
The consistent message coming from the children was that they had not felt loved, says Adamson, who began his six-year term in May. That is unacceptable; it is a breach of their human rights, he declares.
Adamson - Scotland’s third children’s commissioner - adds: “The whole purpose of our human rights framework is that children should grow up in an environment of love and understanding and compassion, so love is the starting point - and that’s for teachers, that’s for social workers, that’s for everyone.
“We need to make sure that professionals know that is part of their job, so it needs to be in the guidance, in job descriptions and built into the way we think about our jobs.”
But if schools are to become more supportive, and offer a more personalised approach to learning, more teachers will be needed, he argues. There is a compelling economic argument for increasing teacher numbers, Adamson says. “To have proper pupil participation in learning delivers great outcomes but it requires additional teachers and support and investment - but it’s a good investment and it saves money because you have less pupil disruption, and a happier workforce and better outcomes - not just education outcomes. The teachers know the children better so they can pick up on issues and intervene early so you are going to save money in the health system - particularly around mental health - and the criminal justice system.”
Staff ‘need support’
Adamson also empathises with those in teaching who are concerned about the workload implications of “named person” - the government’s scheme to give children and their families a single point of contact who can help them navigate public services. For school-age children, the point of contact will usually be a teacher. Professionals taking a role in “named person” must have the time, training and support, he says. Anything else would be “counterproductive”.
The children’s commissioner urges teachers to use “rights language” to challenge their bosses if they think they need more support or resources. He argues that rights language is powerful and can lead to change. However, Adamson admits that it was “incredibly disappointing” that the government recently “actively opposed” the incorporation of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child into domestic law, which would have given children the power to sue if they believed their rights had been violated.
“What we are seeing in countries that have done this is you don’t get a huge amount of litigation. The fact that something could be litigated is quite a strong motivator for decision makers,” he says.
Adamson was raised on a small farm in New Zealand. “At various stages we had cows, sheep, chickens, alpacas,” he says. It was a break from tradition to go away to law school. (“I still don’t think my family understands or respects what I do. When I go back I’m usually tasked with putting up a fence.”)
Adamson arrived in Scotland in 2002 at a time of “revolutionary change” - the parliament had just been established and the office he now holds was about to be set up.
Children’s commissioner is “the dream job”, he says. He can “fearlessly” hold the government to account when it comes to children’s rights (see box, below left), he explains. His budget, which sits at around £1.3 million, is protected - and it is virtually impossible to sack him, he claims. He is appointed by the Queen, and two thirds of Parliament would have to declare him incompetent.
Already, Adamson has hit out at the government’s failure to ban smacking and has criticised the SNP for not raising the age of criminal responsibility above 12. He has also spoken out about the scandal of Scottish pupils going hungry in the summer holidays. Scotland is in many ways an “amazing, progressive country” but in some areas, when it comes to children’s rights, we are “absolutely shocking”, he warns.
The commissioner says he needs to consult with young people before he settles on his priorities, but it is a must that they become more involved in decision-making at all levels. There are pockets of good practice, for example the youth councils established in some parts of Scotland, but he wants meaningful engagement across the board. Young people should not just be asked what they think and feel; they should be given “direct responsibility and budgets”, he says.
Schools could also be better at including children in decisions, Adamson argues. He would like to see “children being encouraged to understand that education is a right and they have the right to be part of the decision-making round their education”. Children’s rights should be embedded in the curriculum all the way from pre-school upwards, he adds.
While teachers might feel weary at hearing yet another call for something to be shoehorned into the curriculum, Adamson is convinced of the need for change.
“We need to be talking about the Convention on the Rights of the Child; we need to be talking about the other core UN treaties; we need to be talking about why they were created, and why we ended up with this framework after the horrors of the Second World War,” he says. “And why the governments of the world made these promises and the importance of holding them to account.”
He comes into work every day smiling because “I get to work with children,” he says. This is another reason why he thinks decision-makers should engage more with young people: it’s fun.
And, according to Adamson, that’s the case even when you are being “rivered” at a children’s summer camp in rural Scotland, wearing your last set of dry clothes, which had been carefully preserved for the drive home.
