Rethinking Children’s Competence through Children’s Rights: Giving Professionals Space for Supporting Children

Children have a Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) right to be supported in the exercise of their capacities. In this chapter, interviews with a range of UK practitioners working with children (e.g., nurses, doctors and lawyers) are analysed. It emerges that professionals engage frequently with questions around children’s competence, whether or not they are required to officially assess it. The professionals interviewed were deeply supportive of children’s competence, but are operating in systems which frequently provide little space to increase children’s competence – this may make children more vulnerable.