Bruce Adamson, who is about to stand down as Children’s Commissioner after 6 years, has said that Nicola Sturgeon has failed to improve the lives of Scotland’s children in the time he has been in office.
Adamson claimed that Sturgeon has let families down on poverty and mental health, among other areas. While Scottish government said it was committed to making Scotland the “best place in the world” for young people, it had failed to take meaningful action to achieve this.
In a BBC interview, he claimed that the children most at risk in Scotland were failing to get the support that they need. He also went on to attack the Scottish government for failing to move forward on adopting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In the interview, Adamson said: “We have to focus on children’s rights, all of the things they need to thrive, an adequate standard of living for all children in Scotland, to have a safe, warm home, good nutritious food and the right clothes to wear”.
Adamson went on to claim that Scotland’s young people are still failing to be provided with the highest level of health and mental health care or the educational opportunities that would allow them to develop to their fullest potential. He said that under Sturgeon’s government, cuts had been made to what he called the scaffolding around families, such as youth work, early years services, free school meals and mental health services within schools. He went onto say that Sturgeon had “absolutely failed” young people and that he was not confident that her successor Yousaf would do a better job.
One of Sturgeon’s main policy promises over the 9-year period she was first minister was to close the attainment gap in academic achievement between poorer and more well-off children in Scotland. She totally failed in this: statistics from the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) published last year show that for pupils in the 20 per cent most deprived areas of Scotland, the Higher pass rate was 70.2 per cent that year, down from 83.2 per cent the year before. In the twenty least deprived areas, the Higher pass rate was 85.1 per cent, down from from 91 per cent in the previous year.
Education is vital not just for our children’s future but the future of our nation as a whole. There needs to be far more work put into reforming the system. The much-vaunted Curriculum for Excellence has been a failure and is reviled by teachers and students alike. It needs to be scrapped, as does the system of highly pressured end-of-year exams. A system of continuous assessment throughout the year would seem a far better way to get a true assessment of a pupil’s ability and knowledge.
In 2017, the Scottish Government abandoned the Scottish survey on literacy and numeracy that assessed performance in P4, P7 and S2; at the same time it also withdrew from international surveys assessing performance in science, maths and literacy. This means there is less information about the performance of Scottish schools than at any time since the 1950s. Having an in-depth view of exactly what is going on with schools and pupils is vital to being able to construct a successful policy for the future.
Money needs to be targeted to where it is needed most, i.e. the most deprived areas and the most struggling children. That funding also needs to be on a continuous basis, not just yearly awards that may be withdrawn the next year or which do not keep up with inflation. The state funding of tutors for children would be a massive step forward in helping to close the attainment gap, which only the wealthiest can currently afford.
Training higher quality teachers who are led by competent leaders is vital to closing the gap. Smaller class sizes and classes for children with additional needs would make a real difference.
We are seeing a massive growth in mental health problems among our young people due to various factors. Today’s youth mental health teams are understaffed and underfunded, with some young people having to wait in excess of a year to be assessed and access treatment. An expansion of this service is direly needed, as is the placing of mental health nurses or psychologists in every school.
While we are seeing an expansion in the rights of children, we must guarantee them access to education, food, shelter and healthcare. We also need to instil in them a sense of community and teach them that with rights come responsibilities. We are seeing an increase in youth disorder, with many realising that, under SNP sentencing guidelines, there are no real consequences to their actions. This is why we are seeing people under the age of 25 commit serious crimes, such as manslaughter through dangerous driving, and rape, walk away from court with community service rather than custodial sentences. That helps neither the offender or society. We need to balance rehabilitation with punishment, and young people need to learn that actions have consequences. Under the new SNP sentencing guidelines, that is not happening.
Sturgeon has not only failed our young people but she has failed all the people of Scotland. Worst of all, she has damaged our nation’s long term prospects. This looks set to continue under Yousaf, who will carry on Sturgeon’s mismanagement of our nation. The SNP needs to go.
