"Children and young people are amazing at helping us face challenges – they are so insightful"

16 Oct 2024

Aiming to champion and safeguard the human rights of Scotland’s next generation, the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland plays a vital role in ensuring all young Scots get the chance to grow up in an environment filled with happiness, love and understanding.

Appointed to the position in 2023, Nicola Killean brings a wealth of experience to the role of Commissioner, having worked with children of all ages throughout her career, and over the course of her term, young people’s voices will continue to inform her work.

In this Q&A, Nicola shares what she hopes to achieve as Commissioner – and why children and young people “give her the fuel” to push for change.

Children in Scotland: You have a wealth of experience working directly with children and young people for many years now – what achievements from your career so far will you use to help inform your work as Commissioner?

Nicola Killean: I’ve been lucky throughout my career to work with children and young people across a really wide age range, engaging with babies and toddlers right through to young adults and school leavers.

Having this opportunity at Sistema Scotland, and through the Big Noise programme (click here for more), gave me an amazing perspective around the importance of ensuring children feel included. My previous experience helps keep my focus as Commissioner broad, but I recognise the importance of always doing targeted work, too, particularly engaging with children whose rights are most at risk.

When I started the job in August 2023, one of my top priorities – and duty – was to continue listening to children and young people, using their insights to shape the work we’ll do over the coming years because, after all, I work for them and their rights.

It’s only by really listening to children and young people articulate the truth about what they’re experiencing every day, and what they’re experiencing within our different systems,that we are able to understand where we have made progress, where we should celebrate, and where the work still has to be done.

Children and young people are amazing at helping us face challenges head on – they are so insightful, and so full of suggestions about ways we can make things better, so the more we can tap into that knowledge, connecting the dots and ensuring decision making is influenced by their insight, the better.

A woman with long blonde hair smiles into the camera, wearing a bright yellow shirt. Behind her is a blurred mural of trees and animals

CiS: What made you want to take up the role of Commissioner?

NK: I was drawn to this role by a combination of being a real champion for children and young people, and a drive to make sure their rights are protected, respected, and fulfilled. And while shouting from the rooftops about how capable and amazing they are, we can also continue to focus on raising the bar to improve their lives.

I always say that children and young people give us the fuel to continue to do our work, to fight for things to be better. So, the more that we can be with them, listen to them, and draw on their insight, the stronger we will be.

The key skill that I’m going to try and draw on is a tenacity to find ways to navigate complex challenges, while still understanding how difficult it can be for practitioners and organisations to find meaningful ways to work.

CiS: When it came to developing your strategic plan for the next four years, your team listened to thousands of children and young people both online and in person to hear their views. What did they identify as the biggest challenges and issues to tackle?

NK: Creating a new strategic plan was a great opportunity for me because it gave me a really clear mandate to reflect on what children and young people want us to work on, how they want us to work, and how they want their Commissioner to fulfil their role.

Consistently, children and young people told us they were concerned about some key themes, including education, poverty, climate change, discrimination, and mental health. We know that more action is needed to support these issues – and there are lots more emerging new issues that children and young people are facing that many of us didn’t need to face when we were growing up, too.

What has really struck me is the pressure felt by many children and young people, which comes from a combination of things. Some of it comes from the education system, while some of it is from social media and the weight of expectation. There’s this huge pressure placed on them, so we need to pay a lot of attention to that, and ensure that the systems we create to support them don’t add to that feeling of pressure.

There’s a lot of work to do, but it’s also an optimistic time. We are able to look at how far we have come within Scotland, really celebrate our successes, and then brace ourselves for what we need to do next to continue the progress and make things even better.

CiS: What are the best lessons children and young people have taught you over the course of your career?

NK: There are so many things I love about working with children and young people. I love how honest they are, and their capability to understand complex ideas and topics. I also love that they are able to articulate what they think and feel, and if you really invest the time to listen, you can learn so much.

Long-term, relationship-based practice can be transformational for children and young people. I learned very early on in my job that earning the trust and respect of children and young people is so vital – as adults, we almost feel an entitlement that they will respect us, but we have to earn it, and prove we are worthy of their trust.

For some children that can take hours or weeks, and for others it can take years. But when you are able to put relationship-based practice in place, it’s absolutely priceless.

This excerpt was taken from Issue 6 of Insight, the bi-annual publication for Children in Scotland members.

To read the full interview, you'll need a digital subscription, which costs just £10 per year and provides access to two issues. For more information, contact Alice Hinds: ahinds@childreninscotland.org.uk

Already a member? Click here to read Insight Issue 6