Call for more men to volunteer for children's panel

More men across Scotland are being urged to volunteer for the children’s panel as part of a recruitment campaign launched today.
 
Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS), the body responsible for the recruitment, training and support of those who sit on children's hearings, is seeking 560 panel members. 
 
There are currently 2,500 panel members across Scotland tasked with making decisions on how vulnerable children and young people are supported.

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The number of children’s hearings held in Scotland rose for the first time in five years in the 12 months to April, up 1.9 per cent to 36,904.
 
CHS is welcoming applications from anyone aged over 18, though an appeal for men in particular to come forward has been issued to ensure hearings have representation from both genders.
 
Under the Children’s Hearings Act, which came into force two years ago, each hearing of three panel members requires both men and women to sit on it.
 
According to CHS national convener and chief executive Boyd McAdam, who supervised the children’s hearings system within the Scottish Government between 1997 and 2004, achieving a gender balance has been a longstanding challenge. 
 
“We have a statutory problem if we don’t have enough volunteers to sit on the hearing and the gender balance isn’t there,” McAdam told Holyrood.
 
“We might have to bring them in from other areas [as a result], which impacts on volunteers even more.”
 
Work has also been undertaken with the voluntary organisation Who Cares? Scotland to feed young people’s views into the recruitment process, which runs until the end of next month.
 
“We're always looking for young people [to volunteer] and it’s something young people [in hearings] say they want,” added McAdam. “The research we’ve done with them [says] they’re looking for panel members who can relate more to them.
 
“But it’s a challenge [and] it’s time consuming. Some areas expect panel members to sit on two sessions a month – that’s three hours per session plus the reading beforehand so it’s quite a commitment.”
 
The single national children’s panel replaced the previous 32 local authority children’s panels under the 2013 legislation. 
 
CHS received 1,300 applications to become a part of the hearings system last year.
 
“Serving on the national children’s panel is a big commitment, but we know from speaking with panel members that they get as much out of it as they put in,” said McAdam.
 
“Each hearing involves our volunteers making decisions which can help change the life of a child or young person who is in need of help and, although difficult at times, it can be hugely rewarding.”