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1.5 Children’s budgets and impact assessment
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommends that states “identify the
proportion of national and other budgets allocated to the social sector and, within
that, to children, both directly and indirectly” 10 , in order to demonstrate how they are
meeting their obligations under Article 4. Work has been undertaken
internationally 11 , and in Wales 12 , to develop and pilot methodologies which identify
and assess budgetary allocations to children.
The Committee also calls for states to take (ex-ante) child impact assessment and
(ex-post) child impact evaluation of budget processes 13 to understand the likely
impact of decisions on children’s rights and how far the best interests of the child
have been a primary consideration in decision-making. The obligation to consider
children’s best interests “extends .. to the approval of budgets, the preparation and
development of which require the adoption of a best-interests-of-the-child
perspective for it to be child-rights sensitive.” 14
In its examination of the UK in 2008, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
noted
“The Committee notes with appreciation the increase in expenditures on
children in recent years. Nevertheless, the Committee is concerned that the
increases are not sufficient to eradicate poverty and tackle inequalities and
that the lack of consistent budgetary analysis and child rights impact
assessment makes it difficult to identify how much expenditure is allocated to
children across the State party and whether this serves to effectively
implement policies and legislation affecting them.” 15
The Office of the Children’s Commissioner is not aware of work undertaken since
2008 by the UK government to undertake child rights impact assessment in relation
to budget decision-making.
1.6 A child rights framework for budget impact assessment
This Child Rights Impact Assessment does not attempt to quantify the share of the
budget allocated to children. Nor does it review the process of budget-decisionmaking
to find out how far these decisions took children’s best interests into account.
Instead, it considers the likely impact of budget decisions – particularly those relating
to tax, tax credits, welfare benefits, and public expenditure - on children’s rights. The
Assessment asks how far the government has met its obligations to devote
maximum available resources to the progressive realisation of children’s rights.
10 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 5, 2003, para 51
11 Save the Children/HAQ Child Rights Centre, ‘Budget for Children Analysis’, 2010
12 National Assembly of Wales, Children & Young People’s Committee ‘Children’s Budgeting in
Wales’, 2009
13 UN ComRC, General Comment No. 5 (2003), op cit.
14 UN ComRC, General comment No. 14 (2013) on the rights of the child to have his or her best
interests taken as a primary consideration , para 31
15 UN ComRC, Concluding Observations, United Kingdom, 2008, para. 18
Office of the Children’s Commissioner: Child Rights Impact Assessment of Budget Decisions
June 2013 13