Proposals to reform and streamline Scotland’s Children’s Hearings system by creating a single national body were published today by the Scottish Government.
The ‘Strengthening for the Future’ consultation includes plans to bring together the work of the Children’s Reporter service, the delivery and administration of Children’s Hearings and the recruitment and training given to panel members under a single national body.
Minister for Children and Early Years Adam Ingram announced the Scottish Government’s intention to create a single body to improve services for vulnerable children in January. Launching the consultation today he said:
"Our distinctive Children's Hearing's system - which is recognised by experts across the world - makes a huge difference to young people's lives, guiding them through difficult times, behaviour and circumstances.
"This may include ensuring appropriate services are in place to help vulnerable children who have been abused or neglected, or even those who have committed a crime so that they can get their lives back on track.
"By improving support for those who deliver that system, both professionals and panel members, they can in turn focus their skills on creating a better and brighter future for the children who need our help.
"The creation of the single national body will also allow us to reduce bureaucracy in the system while ensuring services continue to be delivered locally and with great consistency in decision-making for the benefit of everyone involved."
Douglas Bulloch, chair of the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration, welcomed the publication, adding:
"SCRA looks forward to reviewing the proposals and contributing to the consultation process in support of the Government's view that the Hearings System is the best way of providing assistance and support to Scotland's vulnerable children and their families."
The consultation will run until the end of October and will be available on the Scottish Government’s website.
Readers have left 5 comments. 1. Proposals to streamline Children’s Hearings system announced
Anonymous, Unregistered "Strengthening" is not what this is about at all. Government are embarrassed by the ever increasing workload of the hearing system due to the massive rise in care and protection cases. Once the review is implemented there will be an "improvement" in the figures for care and protection, therefore the review will have been a "success". Sweeping under the carpet simply covers a problem, but does not sort it. Panel members, such as myself, will be asked to cover geographic areas for which they have no local knowledge. This review is the usual fudge. Mr Ingram should be ashamed. If he really wanted to improve the lives of disadvantaged children, he would look at the lamentable state of the social work department and stop meddling with issues he has no grasp of. 2. Proposals to streamline Children’s Hearings system announced
ABC, Unregistered As a panel member for many years, my initial response to the proposals is one of dismay.. What is singularly lacking within the consultation paper is any proposal that would improve the services that young people need to access. So many areas of the document gave rise to wry smiles, however, what the "representative" body proposed will be dominated by local authorities and "other stake holders" with one lone panel member representing the hundreds of volunteers across Scotland is laughable. Do our legislators really think that panel members are in some cosy accord with Local Authorities? Come sit on a panel. As a body, panel members are wholly independent, and at times struggle to maintain that identity. Lumping us into one grey mass of bureaucracy is not the way to ensure independence of thought. Or maybe thats the point? 3. Proposals to streamline Children’s Hearings system announced
Anonymous, Unregistered Having read the consultation document i am dismayed at how much the document does not say and how much disregard ministers have shown for all the submissions over recent years by panel members nad CPAC members. I ask myself do politicions really understand and respect the ammount of work put in by the volunteers within the system both panel members and CPAC members. To say that i am dissapointed in the document would be an understatement and i hope that the new body are ready for the ammount of work that will come their way 4. Proposals to streamline Children’s Hearings system announced
Anonymous, Unregistered I wholly agree with the comments above. There are no positive suggestions other than taking the distribution of Panel Members expenses to the centre. As has been said above it is the provisison of services that is critical to the children. 5. Proposals to streamline Children’s Hearings system announced
Scottish Borders Panel Member, Unregistered I agree with the above.
The majority of the proposals are around the administration of the system and not the execution of it and its accessibility.
Grouping SCRA, CPAC and the Children's Panel together can not be in the best interests of the children and families and will lead to a "stiched-up" impression being given.
The Children's Panel needs to be a completely independent organisation and distance from all other agencies, in particular the local authority who are, at the end of the day, accountable to the panel and must action its decisions. Currently as it stands local panels appear to be directed by the local authority with regard financess and recruitment etc. While I acknowledge that in practice, in my experience, this had not lead to any major instances of concern, it is an uncomfortable position to be in. In this respect the proposals should aleviate this issue.
The consideration that reports should not be present during hearings in rediculous. They are an invaluable resource of legal advice & guidance during hearings.
In summary, the proposals seem to have been created by people who have no experience of the children's hearings system in practice and are purely from political and financial perspectives.
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