The Children and Young People's Unit (CYPU) was established in November 2000 as a cross-cutting unit which would help co-ordinate Government policy relating to children following a report by the Social Exclusion Unit. It has a remit to ensure that issues concerning children and young people are represented and taken into consideration in Government policy, and to influence policy in the interest of children and young people. It aims to be a centre of expertise on helping children and young people achieve positive outcomes, ensuring they are involved in developing the services they use. This role is further strengthened by the 2002 Spending Review settlement.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is an international agreement that sets out a worldwide standard of rights for the lives of all children. The Convention protects children's rights by stating that all children everywhere, without discrimination, have the right to survival, to develop to the fullest, to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation, and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life. The UK signed the Convention on 19 April 1990 and ratified it on 16 December 1991. Since then we have reported twice to the Committee, most recently in September 2002. In October 2002 the Concluding Observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child were published and were debated at Westminster Hall.
The CYPU assumed responsibility for the UNCRC shortly after the Unit's formation. Responsibility had previously been with the Department of Health, who wrote the 1999 UK Report, but the CYPU submitted an update report to the UN in 2002 and co-ordinated the UK delegation to Geneva in September to represent the UK.
Whilst different departments have responsibility for their specific policies, the CYPU has the overall co-ordinating role for the Convention. This means raising awareness of the UNCRC, and looking at ways to improve the way the UNCRC is implemented. The devolved administrations are each responsible for ensuring that their policies reflect the UNCRC, but the CYPU has overall responsibility for England and reserved matters, and for co-ordinating the monitoring of the UNCRC across all four countries in the UK.
Following the publication of the UN Committee's Concluding Observations
in October, we have been looking at how we can improve the way the UNCRC
is implemented. The Convention touches on most areas of children's lives,
and so the task of implementing it necessarily involves a wide range of
Government departments. We believe that for the UNCRC to have the desired
impact, we also need to involve NGOs, service delivery bodies and the general
public, as well as children themselves.
We are thus seeking your views on how we might best do this, and would be
grateful for your consideration of the issues set out below.
If you have any further questions or comments, please contact:
Hilary Spencer (hilary.spencer@cypu.gsi.gov.uk
020 7273 4824) or
Rebecca Beeton (Rebecca.beeton@cypu.gsi.gov.uk
020 7273 1210)