Nicola Sturgeon failed to improve lives of young people, says Scottish Children’s Commissioner
Nicola Sturgeon “absolutely” failed to improve the lives of young people in Scotland during her time as first minister, the outgoing Children’s Commissioner has said.
Bruce Adamson, who is about to step down from the role, said Scottish children were no better off now than they were when he took office six years ago in 2017.
He added that he was “really disappointed” that Humza Yousaf had failed to mention the issue of children’s rights in his first major policy statement as First Minister.
Mr Adamson was also critical of the Scottish Government’s failure to incorporate children’s rights into law, accusing ministers of “prevarication and delay” on the issue.
His criticism of Ms Sturgeon’s time in office is significant as she repeatedly said she wanted her record to be judged on closing the gap between rich and poor pupils.
In her 2016 address to the SNP conference, she said “raising the bar for all and closing the attainment gap… is the number one priority of my government” and her “personal defining mission”.
Asked if he thought she had failed on this, Mr Adamson told the BBC on Sunday: “Absolutely. I think all of us need to look at what we could do better.”
He acknowledged that the Covid pandemic had a “huge impact” on children and that Ms Sturgeon had done “a really good job” of keeping people safe during a time of crisis.
But asked if children were better off than they had been in 2017, he repied: “No, they’re not. We need to do a lot better. Some of that was external factors like the pandemic and the cost of living…but some of it’s due to political decision-making.
“There are some real questions to be asked and answered by the Scottish Government about why we haven’t delivered on those promises to young people.”
Asked if he has faith that Mr Yousaf would do a better job, Mr Adamson said he had made “some big promises” but that he had not seen “anything” on how they would be delivered.
“I’m really disappointed that he didn’t mention children’s rights in his big vision for Scotland statement to Parliament,” he added.
“We’ve got no commitment to actually bringing the laws forward that will deliver change,” he said, adding that he was “hugely concerned” that “action isn’t following the words”.
Mr Adamson also raised concerns about the lack of movement on incorporating the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into Scots law.
A bill was passed unanimously by MSPs nearly two years ago to do this, but it was deemed by the UK Supreme Court to have overstepped the bounds of Holyrood and was struck down.
The Scottish Government has repeatedly pledged to amend the legislation and bring it back to Parliament, but it has so far not done so.
“I’m hugely concerned there’s been a year and a half of prevarication and delay,” Mr Adamson said.
A Scottish Government spokesman said it was “committed to making Scotland the best place in the world to grow up”, adding: “Ministers are committed to implementing policies aimed at helping to reduce poverty in children and young people, including the game-changing Scottish Child Payment, free bus travel for under-22s, universal free school lunches to children in primaries 1 to 5, and free higher and further education.
“The UNCRC bill is a critical piece of legislation that will help respect, protect and fulfil children’s rights, and ministers are determined to bring the bill back to Parliament for reconsideration as soon as practicable.
“Work to achieve this is well under way, including engagement with UK Government lawyers to try to reduce the risk of another referral to the Supreme Court on a revised bill.”
Mr Adamson, who is set to step down on Wednesday, will be replaced as commissioner by Nicola Killean. She will start work later this year.
