As part of a wider consultation CTSI will be facilitating a consultation.

As you may know the Committee are currently scrutinising the Children (Equal Protections from Assault) (Scotland) Bill which has been proposed by John Finnie MSP.

The purpose of this Bill is to end the physical punishment of children by parents or those caring for them by removing the defence of ‘reasonable chastisement’ which can be used to justify using physical force on a child.

The Committee want to hear the views of people across Scotland on this issue and know that this is a topic that has already sparked many conversations up and down the country.

To help people participate and share what they think, the Committee has created a ‘Meeting in a Box’ which contains information about the Bill and the process it will go through. It also has some discussion cards to help prompt some group conversations and feedback sheets to send feedback to the Committee.

In particular, the Committee hope that this will encourage smaller, informal groups to discuss the issue and have their say. This is part of the wider engagement work they are doing on the Bill, which includes a formal call for views, visits to a number of community groups and taking evidence from expert witnesses in Parliament.

You can find out more about this Bill and the work of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee’s work here