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Children: Commissioner and UN Convention

Answer

The Children's Views and Interests Team changed its name to become the Children's Commissioner Sponsorship and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Team in September 2007, to reflect the team's main functions. The Children's Commissioner Sponsorship and UNCRC Team's functions are: central government sponsors for 11 Million (formerly the Office of the Children's Commissioner for England) non-departmental public body; policy responsibility for the role of the Children's Commissioner for England; co-ordination of the UK Government's report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child; and, co-ordination of the Department for Children, Schools and Families' Children and Youth Board. The team also manages a number of grants to external organisations made through the department's Participation Fund and the Children, Young People and Families Grant Programme. These functions also applied to the Children's Views and Interests Team. The Children's Commissioner Sponsorship and UNCRC Team is made up of three civil servants: one grade 7, one senior executive officer and one executive officer. The Children's Commissioner Sponsorship and UNCRC team regularly liaises with counterparts in the devolved Administrations. On the basis of information supplied by officials in the devolved Administrations the numbers and remit are comparable to the Children's Rights team in Scotland and the wider remits of the Rights and Entitlements Team in Wales and the Children and Young People's Unit in the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister in Northern Ireland.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

4289; 702 c249-50WA

Session

2007-08

Subjects

Civil servants Children's Commissioner for England Staff UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Department for Children, Schools and Families

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk