Four Things Heidi Teague Learned From Writing her First CRWIA
Children’s Rights & Wellbeing Impact Assessments (CRWIA) are a tool to consider how children’s rights are being realised and assess the impact on their wellbeing of decisions made through policies, programmes and projects.
With the incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in Scotland, it’s likely that more of us will be writing CRWIAs. This can feel intimidating, but having recently written my first CRWIA for our education programme Caring is Learning, I’ve found the process to be invaluable.
Funded by The Robertson Trust, this programme aims to work collaboratively with our network of local carer organisations and wider education stakeholders to ensure big systems change both locally and nationally to support young carers to fulfil their aspirations through education and not be disadvantaged due to their caring role.
Here are some key takeaways that hopefully will reassure you to approach the process with curiosity rather than fear!
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Think of it as a reflective learning opportunity
There are several questions under the CRWIA guidance, and each may require you to return to consultation responses, survey data, a theory of change, application documents etc. This is a great opportunity to do a deep dive not only into what you’re doing, but why and how. Think about what success would look like from the angle of children and young people – how will it impact them tangibly?
This can be a really powerful way to frame work and realise where there may need to be adjustments to stay aligned with your intended impact, especially as it can be easy to get caught up in the operational side! It may be helpful to have someone who arrives later in the development process work on the CRWIA, as they will be looking at the project with fresh eyes and may ask questions that highlight something valuable.
I found writing a CRWIA deepened my understanding of not only the programme but also the UNCRC, as reflecting on what rights it would promote in context broadened my ideas of how children’s rights might be realised.
Leave plenty of time
Writing a CRWIA takes time – I wouldn’t recommend trying to power through the whole thing in one sitting!
I found it helpful to chunk the questions into groups and tackle them during focused time over a few days/weeks. It’s likely that you may return to previous questions as you reflect on different prompts and evidence; you will probably have lots of tabs open with templates and resources to refer to as well. Pace yourself and build in plenty of time to process and digest all the information so you can do justice to all the work that has gone into project development.
Think about the intended audience
Articles 12 & 13 of the UNCRC highlights that children have a right to be informed about decisions that affect them and be listened to when they share their views.
CRWIAs are directly linked to work that will have an impact on children and young people, so if they are going to access this information and form an opinion on it, we need to think about meeting them where they are. Not many 11 year olds are likely to read a six page document full of technical jargon!
We decided to produce a short easy-read summary of the key points of the CRWIA using child-friendly language - aim for the reading age of a 9 year old. By using visual icons of the UNCRC articles and a ‘You said: So we’ll do’ format, the detail of the CRWIA can be condensed to the important information a young person needs to know.
It's not one and done; update and evaluate!
When a CRWIA is revisited, it becomes a tool for evaluation.
When a project has been up and running for a time, it is best practice to return to the CRWIA and examine the impact on children and young people, including any unanticipated impacts. It also includes a question to help you reflect on embedding sustainability into the work. The timescale for this will be dependent on the subject - what makes sense for a five year programme will not be the same for a six month project.
Remember to keep sharing updates with young people – this shows you follow through and helps provide reasoning for decisions made, which builds trust. After all, the whole purpose of a CRWIA is to protect and promote the wellbeing of the children and young people you work with!
Heidi Teague is Programme Officer (Education) at Carers Trust Scotland and has responsibility for two evidence-led and evidence-generating programmes focused on carers’ access to education.
Read the CRWIAs for the Caring is Learning programme, funded by the Robertson Trust:
CRWIA child friendly easy read version - Caring is Learning
Resources that may be useful:
Child rights and wellbeing impact assessment external guidance and templates - gov.scot
Children's Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment (CRWIA) Workshop - October 2023
A Step by Step Guide to Child Rights Impact Assessments
Introduction to children’s rights: training tool - gov.scot
