Empowerment

Circle Scotland and Scottish Families Affected by Drugs and Alcohol (SFAD)

Circle Scotland is a long-term committed organisational member of Together. They believe that every child, no matter their background or circumstances should have the support they need to live a happy and healthy life. They work with families facing multiple disadvantages because of structural inequality, poverty, drug and alcohol use, imprisonment, physical or mental health, trauma, abuse, and loss. Circle have referred to United Nation Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) articles throughout.

Scottish Families Affected by Drugs and Alcohol (SFAD) a national charity which supports anyone affected by someone else’s alcohol or drug use in Scotland, whether they are still actively using substances, are in recovery, or bereaved. They give information and support family members with confidence, communication, and general wellbeing, and they link them to their services and local support services. They also help people recognise and understand the importance of looking after themselves.

Tell us about the work of your organisation in Scotland

Circle has been delivering Family Outreach Services since 2006 and currently has projects in the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, West Lothian, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire and Clackmannanshire. We deliver emotional, practical, relational, and social community-based support to families on a one-to-one, groupwork and family work basis. In 2023/24, Circle supported 723 families consisting of 922 children and 707 parents and carers. Listening and building on children and families’ rights and strengths has always been at the heart of what we do, often in communities that have unequal access to resources and who face health and social inequalities. We therefore take best interests (Article 3) and right to life, survival and healthy development (Article 6) very seriously.

How do you support children and families to learn about their rights?

Staff use their relationships and value base – empathy, connection, listening, proactive practical and emotional support – to overcome any barriers to rights being realised. Often this starts at the heart of the family, in their own homes, seeing their family relationships, understanding their access to resources (Article 26 & 27) and most importantly recognising their strengths and perspectives (Article 12). While respecting a right to a private and family life (Article 16), we develop a nuanced understanding of what individuals perceive as their challenges and co-deliver a bespoke support plan to help them realise change.

Our children, young people, parents/carers, wider family and kinship carers have invested trust in us as they see we listen without judgement and always include their voice in decision making. We support families to understand they intrinsically have a right to support – this may be with a food parcel, a small grant for furniture, help with bedtime routines, attending health care appointments (Article 24), valuing their opinions, reflecting back their worth to them and helping families make decisions in the children’s best interest (Article 3). We advocate alongside them and also facilitate lots of groups having open discussions about their rights, while creating fun, safe spaces to learn and grow.

We are approaching the anniversary of UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act being enshrined into Scottish Law can you explain how has it benefitted your organisation or how have you used the law in practice?

We have continued to build on and develop rights-based training for all staff. As we work in an ecological way Whole Family Approach – Circle Scotland, we meet in environments that children and/or families feel comfortable in, so our service is accessible to them and they have the choice to decide on what support looks and feels like (Article 31). This is important due to histories of trauma (including intergenerational trauma) which can influence fixed thinking and hypervigilance, along with health inequalities which impact on access through physical or mental ill health. UNCRC incorporation has given us fresh impetus to revisit our rights based approach to basic needs like having enough food, or having access to support for learning, by ongoing support and advocacy. We also seek to keep families together (Article 9 and 18) by scaffolding and developing families skills and capacities wherever possible. Particularly where the emotional availability of the parent is inaccessible in some way using Parents under Pressure. Parents Under Pressure (PuP) Program – Circle Scotland Where there is substance use (Article 33) we seek to minimise harm by working collaboratively with families, especially through times of crisis. We have brought the right to support in recovery to children, young people and any family member with dedicated workers and teams. Families Affected by Drugs & Alcohol – Circle Scotland 

We support children and young people to understand that their opinion really does matter, that small steps can add up and that they can affect changes in their lives, their health, their living conditions, their education (Article 28), and social opportunities (Article 15). Stigma and discrimination are experienced by many children we work with means that this is the first time they have felt heard (Article 2); taking time to build trust in the context of trauma and poverty.

Can you give a detailed example of your organisation delivering on the principle “empowerment” on taking a Children’s Human Rights Approach?

We have been delighted to partner with Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs to become an early adopted site for Grow Your Own Routes. The young people (ages 12 to 26) are all affected by family substance use. Our young people’s workers consult with them in everything we do. For example, we ask what food they want, where they would like to go, we have staff profiles so they can (often) choose whom they wish to work with, we offer a multitude of activities – obstacle courses, escape rooms, splat art, nails and beauty, football, making sushi, baking cakes, cinema trips, festivals and Pride, Halloween, Easter parties. This helps to develop their identities. Please see here for our launch: 🍃 Grow Your Own Routes Official Launch! 🍃 – Circle Scotland

The young people helped to by decorating our Routes room, planning the event, baking, producing art, a short film and some incredibly brave and inspiring SFAD young people spoke amazingly about their experiences. Adults, many who are duty bearers, truly listened (Article 12). We’ve made some changes to our way of working to embed a rights-based approach to participation. Our case notes are streamlined, we use encrypted WhatsApp and voice notes, rather than emails and reports. We travel (often affectionately called ‘whacky races’) around the local authority picking up and dropping off the young people to overcome barriers to access. We help prepare the young people for professionals meetings so their views in decision that affect them are articulated and heard, we help them get back into school if that is the right choice for them or access other support they may benefit from, where previously this would have been an assumption.  We support young people to prepare for and hold difficult conversations with adults (Article 39) and we build their self-esteem. They always have someone to talk to, including big decisions about where to live, who offers a safe relationship, what to do with their leisure time, what makes a good friend (Article 15). Our job is to ensure they understand their rights and genuinely feel listened to.

The initiative offers a co-produced and evidence-based youth work model focused on solutions and assets to empower young people to claim their rights and shape their own lives. Developed with direct input from young people, “Routes” supports young people to recognise the importance of their roots whilst acknowledging their families’ actions need not define their future paths.

Has being a Together member helped your understanding of a Children’s Human Rights Approach and why?

We were privileged to be selected for the development and engagement phases of the incorporation of UNCRC by Together Scotland and with our colleagues across Scotland. We facilitated groups with children and young people in three of our projects and consulted with babies (via parents and care givers). The children and young people produced clear messages about their lives, their people, their communities and Scotland. You can find them below: Family voices – Circle Scotland, State of Childrens Rights reports | Together Scotland. We have followed this with a recent evaluation of our children’s resilience project which includes young people’s voices which has led to change: Evaluation of Circle’s Children’s Resilience Project.

What advice would you give to other organisations on taking a Children’s Human Rights Approach to their practice?

• Build trusting, safe relationships, without judgement
• Ask about experiences of different rights and listen
• Co-create spaces that are safe and accessible for children and young people
• Take time and thought to remove barriers
• Seek permission for views and make this a dynamic process
• Commit to changes and have fun where possible
• Let go, new ideas and genuine change can be really freeing
• If something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t right
• Always feedback to children and young people, parents/carers
• Share findings to co-create change especially where rights intersect

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Together’s UNCRC Training Sessions
Together now offers two types of training sessions based on the content of the Children’s Rights Skills and Knowledge Framework:

• Taking a Children’s Human Rights Approach in Practice session, which covers the five principles of a Children’s Human Rights Approach in your work and organisation.
• Sessions dedicated to each of the five principles – Embedding, Equality and Non-Discrimination, Empowerment, Participation and Accountability. These sessions are a deeper dive into how to apply each principle in your working practice and the links they have to the other four principles. 

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