Children’s Rights Alliance annual report card holds government accountable on children’s rights

The Children’s Rights Alliance recently released their 2019 Report Card, an annual publication evaluating the Government’s progress on actions for children. The Report demonstrates the progress that has been made to date, but also highlights the work that still needs to be done in protecting the rights of children and young people in Ireland.

Piquant worked with the Children’s Rights Alliance to design the 2019 Report Card Publication in addition to producing a series of digital and social assets that were effectively used to communicate the content of the Report Card to as wide an audience as possible.

The Report Card is an established accountability tool, scrutinising the Government’s own commitments to children, and is important reading for politicians, policy makers, service providers, non-governmental organisations and academics.

2019 marks the eleventh iteration of the Report Card. This year, the Government was awarded an overall ‘C’ grade for living up to its promises to children, an increase on last year’s ‘C-’ and a significant improvement from the ‘D+’ grade that was awarded in 2017.

This grade represents a satisfactory attempt, but some children are still left wanting. The lowest grade received in the report is an ‘F’ grade in the area of Child and Family Homelessness, a drop from an ‘E’ grade last year. Further, two ‘D’ grades were assigned in the areas of Mental Health and Traveller and Roma Children.

Speaking of the launch, Chief Executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance, Tanya Ward, said, “Report Card is our most anticipated report each year. We work closely with our members and Government departments to ensure the information is as up to date as possible and the grading is carried out by an independent panel that includes Judge Catherine McGuinness.”

“For the eleventh edition, we were keen to update the design of Report Card, while staying true to our children’s rights focused approach. We were delighted to work with Piquant on designing a new look and feel for our flagship publication. The team were fantastic to work with and we are thrilled with the end result!”