Better Health For All

On the 7th November 2019, the Children (Equal Protection from Assault) (Scotland) Act 2019 received Royal Assent. This Act abolishes the defense of reasonable chastisement, thereby prohibiting the physical punishment of children, and so brings Scotland in line with its obligations under the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child to protect children from all forms of violence.

On the day of this legal change, I traveled from Scotland to England, and crossing the border I was very aware that while children in Scotland would benefiting this Act, children in England would not. English children will continue to be denied full legal protection from violence.

Changing the law is a tool to improve public health – this is my experience of the process that led to this change in legislation.

Finding allies

A group of children’s charities – NSPCC Scotland, Barnardos Scotland, Children’s 1st, and the Children and Young People’s Commissioner for Scotland came together in a coalition and together they commissioned a systematic review, published in 2015, on the effects of physical punishment of children (https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/media/1117/equally-protected.pdf)

The systematic review showed that the evidence could not be any clearer – physical punishment has the potential to damage children. The number one recommendation of the report was that all physical punishment of children should be prohibited.

In 2016, shortly after the Scottish Parliament election, the coalition of children’s groups approached John Finnie, a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), to consider taking forward a Members Bill to give children equal protection from assault – by prohibiting physical punishment of children. They chose to approach John Finnie because he had previously showed support for this issue before the end of the previous Parliament session by trying to get an amendment into a different Bill.

Using public health evidence & responding to consultation

In 2017, John Finnie’s proposal for a Bill to give children equal protection from assault went out for consultation. At that time the Scottish Government did not support legal change to give children equal protection from assault. However, the consultation had over 650 responses – 75% of these were supportive and many submissions cited the 2015 systematic review on the effects of physical punishment of children, and other public health evidence. After this consultation the Scottish Government changed their position and decided to support the Bill. I heard it said that it was the public health argument – rather than the children’s rights perspective – that influenced the Scottish Government to change their position.

Further engagement in the political process & working with the media

In September 2018, the Bill was introduced into Scottish Parliament and in the year that followed there was much public health advocacy in support of the Bill as it made its journey through the Parliament. This advocacy fit with the Faculty of Public Health (FPH) in Scotland’s Healthy Lives, Fairer Futures Call to Action (https://www.fph.org.uk/about-fph/board-and-committees/a-call-to-action/) priority on preventing adverse childhood experiences, which enabled the FPH to support the Bill. Advocacy on behalf of the FPH included submitting written evidence in support of the Bill, sending a briefing paper to all MSPs ahead of a key debate, as well as sending an open letter to the leaders of all the Scottish political parties before the final debate on the Bill. I found writing a first-person article in one of the Scottish national newspapers (https://www.thenational.scot/news/17502438.tamasin-knight-a-law-that-justifies-assaulting-children-harms-health/) helpful in increasing awareness that protecting children from physical punishment is a matter of public health concern.

On the morning of the final debate, several FPH members attended a gathering outside Parliament to demonstrate our support for the Bill, and this gathering was featured in the national print and broadcast media. The passing of the Bill was reported positively in the press, with calls for the rest of the UK to follow Scotland’s lead and introduce similar legislation (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/03/the-guardian-view-on-scotlands-smacking-ban-follow-the-leader)

Wales has since passed legislation to protect children from physical punishment (https://endcorporalpunishment.org/wales-prohibits-all-corporal-punishment/). While the children of Scotland and Wales will have their rights under Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child upheld, children in England and Northern Ireland will not. The difference living a few miles apart can make.

Written by Dr. Tamasin Knight
Consultant in Public Health Medicine
NHS Tayside