16 years of supporting children to stand up for their rights

Earlier this year, Clan Childlaw celebrated 16 years of providing legal services for children and young people that were focused on meeting their needs and empowered them to use their voices.

In our Member Spotlight, the organisation reflects on what has been achieved over the past 16 years, how it will continue to support children to stand for their rights and why it wants to influence change across the whole sector.

Clan Childlaw recently celebrated its 16th birthday, can you tell us why the charity was first set up?

Clan Childlaw was set up in 2008 because in Scotland children and young people regularly face legal decisions that change their lives without any legal help, and we wanted to change that.

One of our clients explained it like this: “Before having a lawyer, I was often ignored or blamed by the council, my parents or my social worker for my situation but my lawyer was always very understanding and would listen to everything I had to say.”

We know that children and young people need the lawyers they work with to do things differently, so we were set up to work in ways that work for children. We don’t make them come to an appointment in a lawyer’s office. We meet children where they are at, a place they choose, a place where they are comfortable and at a time that is convenient for them.

Can you highlight any significant developments you have seen in legal representation for children and young people over this time?

Since Clan was set up we have worked on over 6000 legal cases for children and young people. The law is always changing, and we are always finding new ways children and young people can use the law to make change in their lives.

Ten years ago the law was changed to give children leaving care the right to a place to live and support to make the transition to adulthood, and we expanded our work to support young people to make sure they get what that law entitles them to, to prevent them being made homeless after leaving care.

Four years ago, one of Clan’s clients played an essential part in getting the law changed. He took a court case which challenged the fact that he was not able to give his view when Children’s Hearings made decisions that affected his contact with his younger brother, taking it all the way to the Supreme Court. The decision expressly recognised sibling rights and, partly in response to the legal challenge, the Scottish Parliament put measures in place to allow siblings to participate in Hearings. We continue to work with young people so they can give their views when the Children’s Hearing system affects their relationships with their brothers and sisters.

In the last four years immigration law has changed, making things even more difficult for unaccompanied asylum seeking children. We have developed our work to help them navigate asylum procedures and ensure that unaccompanied asylum seeking children’s rights as children and care leavers are upheld so they have access to the same care and accommodation as any other child or young person.

Clan Childlaw has launched its 2024-2027 strategy, what will be some of your priorities be over the next few years?

Clan wants a Scotland where all children and young people’s rights are respected, protected, and fulfilled. For that to happen, Scotland has to be a place where all children and young people can stand up for their rights. To get closer to this, we will be working in three key areas – standing with others who help children to use their rights, standing out through the excellence of our work and standing for change.

We have also reset our values for our new Strategic Plan. We will show that we are supportive, we are bold and we are dynamic in all that we say and do.

Click here to read Clan Childlaw’s Strategic Plan 2024-2027 ->

How do the team at Clan Childlaw empower the children and young people they work with?

The best people to tell you about empowerment in the legal process are our clients, here’s what some of them had to say:

“I knew I had control when I understood that my lawyer was actually listening well to what I was saying.”

“I was listened to at all times, whether I was really upset and not in a good place. I was completely supported and given the right advice.”

“I felt so much comfort and control when I would go to court in particular by knowing my lawyer was right beside me. I didn’t feel alone.”

“[She] made my situation much easier to manage and was there when I needed her. It was actually like I was being listened for the first time in a long time. Up until that point, I wasn’t sure where my life was going.”

Children and young people are empowered by having their own lawyer who uses their legal skills to make sure that the young person is always kept at the heart of every decision made about them.

With the incorporation of the UNCRC into Scottish law last month, what impact do you hope this will have for children and young people now and in the future?

Clan wants a Scotland where all children and young people’s rights are respected, protected and fulfilled, and incorporating UNCRC is an important step towards that, but we work every day with children and young people whose rights are disregarded, our clients are the children who haven’t been able to rely on their rights being implemented.

Article 12 of UNCRC sets out one of the essential principles of UNCRC – that a child has the right to express their views on all matters that affect them, but it says more than just that. It says that a child has the right to legal representation to give them the opportunity to be heard in legal proceedings that affect them. Legal representation, in Children’s Hearings, courts and anywhere legal decisions are made about a child about their home, family or personal freedom means they can take an equal part in decisions that affect their UNCRC rights, they can hold duty bearers to account for respecting their UNCRC rights and they can access effective remedies when their rights are breached – they can use their UNCRC rights when they need to.

The incorporation of UNCRC is not one date or even one year in the diary. Incorporation means change and growth for everybody in Scotland that supports children, and that includes the care and legal systems. We are already working with legal interventions that empower children to use their UNCRC rights, and we are certain this will be one of our main areas of work into the future.

Clan Childlaw supports organisations who are working to help children and young people use their rights. How do you do this?

Clan has always worked as part of the children’s sector, alongside advocacy workers, carers and key workers to ensure that they can empower children and young people through advocacy informed by confident knowledge of children’s rights and with practical information on children and young people’s rights.

Our free, independent legal helpline is available to advocacy workers, support workers, carers and professionals who support children and young people. They can call and speak to a lawyer who will give them information about children’s rights to help solve their real-life problems.

We provide bespoke training and second tier advice to advocacy workers who advocate for children and young people in Children’s Hearings, strengthening their advocacy and giving children a direct link to legal representation when it’s needed.

Starting this year our UNCRC training programme (click here for more) for adults who work with children and young people is designed not just to give a theoretical legal overview of UNCRC, but to give practical knowledge and confidence in using UNCRC rights in advocacy to improve children’s lives. Over the course of the year there will be training on a variety of ways practitioners will encounter UNCRC in practice, including the rights of children in conflict with the law, brothers and sisters' rights in the children’s hearing system, the right to care, continuing care and after-care, the prevention of homelessness and the rights of unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

Click here to learn more about the work of Clan Childlaw