Glasgow Child Friendly City Summit – Glasgow a city for children

Introduction

Glasgow City Council (GCC) has a vision of becoming a child-friendly city – one that delivers on the goals set out in the United Nations Children’s Rights Charter to ensure every child feels welcome, safe, and able to have fun (even when it rains). This vision is underpinned by a focus on place, people and planet. While work to date on tackling poverty has been successful, these efforts will be further enhanced by applying key insights from the Urban95 Academy.

Key Question

“If you could experience the city from 95cm – the height of a healthy 3-year-old – what would you change?”

This is the core question that Urban95 seeks to answer on behalf of the babies, toddlers, and caregivers who rarely have a voice in city policy, planning, or design.

I had the privilege of attending an event in Glasgow at which we heard from Chief Executive Susanne Millar and Councillor Kelly, City Convener for Housing, Development, Built Heritage and Land Use, who are both representing the council, and setting the vision and aspiration not just for this event but for the hard work of making a real difference to the lives of children and families. Uniquely, all participants spoke from not just a professional view but also from a personal viewpoint. I was reminded of this quote

“Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life.” — Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa.

Appropriate, as Glasgow was the first city to make Mandela a freeman.

I have attended many events of this type – in the words of one of the presenters, “where flowcharts and plans were considered by many senior people in suits”. However, this event was not quite like that. Let me explain more and why the event that showcased an ambition for the people of Glasgow has stayed with me.

Source: Glasgow City Council

Participants heard about actual achievements, for example, since 2017, GCC have made it their mission to address poverty, and not from a deficit approach, but from thinking about what those families and children could achieve with the correct support. Susanne Millar described how the Community Planning Partnership used a lens of public service reform to address child and family poverty. She powerfully described the alignment of officers and politicians who were all willing to let go of power and pass it to families and communities.

Councillor Kelly, the Scotland Community Champion at the 2023 LGIU & CCLA Cllr Awards, introduced his learning through Urban95, a joint global leadership initiative by the London School of Economics and the Van Leer Foundation, which focuses on how to make cities better for babies, toddlers and their caregivers. He shared how the experience of being a father had opened his eyes to how cities do not work for young children, their parents or other carers. He highlighted the topic of ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences), making the point that childhood experiences last a lifetime. He also highlighted statistics showing 50% of children in parts of Glasgow live in single-person households, with caring provided sometimes by a grandparent. Impressively, Glasgow has reduced the level of child poverty from one in three to one in four, through the No Wrong Door programme by using the power of GCC to include all departments in the mission. In addition, there has been a 95% reduction in youth crime in one community where a strong youth organisation is active.

You can find out more about Glasgow’s No Wrong Door programme and Tackling Poverty Strategy in our interview with Cllr Richard Bell, Deputy Leader of Glasgow City Council. 

Key takeaways

The context is important. Glasgow is working to ensure children are at the literal and figurative heart of designing the city. As part of the Glasgow 900 vision, the city is adopting a “whole-organisation” approach to public space. At a recent session, several key speakers outlined how this vision is being translated into action:

Source: Glasgow City Council

Empowering young voices

Mairi Baker, Glasgow Education Department Quality Improvement Officer, shared the work of the Glasgow School Forum. Baker highlighted how this initiative has translated the priorities of young people into a Children’s City Charter based on UNCRC commitments, including the Right to Play (Article 31). In a follow-up exercise, attendees were challenged to make personal commitments s to how they would they would meet the demands of the “future citizens” who will inherit the city.

Inclusive and feminist urbanism

Sarah Shaw, Head of Planning, spoke about putting children and young people at the heart of planning the public realm and public places. She specifically discussed this in light of Glasgow’s commitment to being a feminist city, stemming from the award-winning Girls@COP26 initiative, which engaged over 2,500 teenage girls. This legacy continues through Girls4Equality groups in every secondary school, which are currently shaping major redevelopments along the Broomielaw and Custom House Quay on the banks of the River Clyde.

Data-driven participation

Etive Currie showcased the power of involving Children and Young People (CYP) in the Place Standard Tool. She spoke about having the right conversations at the right time. By focusing on these “right conversations at the right time”, the city saw a staggering 1714% increase in participation compared to traditional methods, engaging over 5,000 young people. This work won an RTPI award for excellence for play strategy for Glasgow.  Our Play Sufficiency Assessment (Places to Play) is a co-designed, inclusive, and innovative participation model that gives children and young people in Glasgow a voice in designing places that work for them.  We are now focusing on creating a collaborative model for babies, toddlers, and caregivers to participate.

Source: Glasgow City Council

The “golden thread” of child-friendly design

Kate Beck, Policy Fellow at LSE Cities, spoke about the urgent opportunity to build on what is happening now, arguing that using a “child lens” is a primary tool for tackling urban inequality. She described children and caregivers as the golden thread of child-friendly design, which has huge benefits for tackling inequality and the potential to build on Glasgow’s current momentum.

Strategic design and safety

Following a discussion on good design, local living and creating child friendly neighbourhoods by Ivan McKee MSP, Sandy Robinson, Scottish Government Chief Architect, provided a broader habitat perspective. Robinson highlighted a sobering link between deprivation and road traffic accidents, noting that fatalities are significantly higher in workless households. He framed NPF4 not as a final outcome, but as a design process that must be fed by local context. To this end, GCC is collaborating with Public Health Scotland to “mine data” that unlocks potential for people, place and planet.

Play and community delivery

Liza Fior, Founding Partner at muf architecture, shared her expertise in embedding play within the delivery, from a focus on low-traffic public spaces to considering how community and multi-generational living benefits children.

Source: Glasgow City Council

Shifting power to the community

Finally, Fraser Stewart, Director of New Gorbals Housing Association, delivered a powerful reminder: communities demand to be heard, that they aren’t hard to hear or reach – they are often just “hard to listen to.” He argued for a genuine shift in power, suggesting that councils can make a massive difference by “giving the keys back” to the community, such as reopening school play spaces and providing the funding necessary for neighbourhoods to work for themselves.

Comment

I thought that the session came full circle as we started with devolving power and closed on sharing power. All easier said than done, but Glasgow has a vision for delivering a city that is hugely inspiring, and the focus on the mission of addressing child poverty through a person-centred and place-centred approach is impressive and urgent. This is summed up by an attendee who, in response to the Children’s City Charter, made the following commitment: “I will be a wee Weegee’s Champion”.

The afternoon workshops provided a unique opportunity to navigate Glasgow City Centre from a child’s viewpoint using Gehl Architects’ Eye Level City tool, amongst other methods, identifying opportunities for creating the right places to play.

LGIU will return to Glasgow later this year and share more detailed thinking and further practical insights and experiences.