Children's Hearings (Scotland) Bill
The Children's Hearings system is Scotland's largest tribunal set up to support children and young people at risk or in trouble. The system is founded on the principle of local people from the children's own communities making decisions about how best to address children's needs.
Following responses to a national consultation on its future - which showed desire for Scotland-wide changes to improve consistency and practice - the Scottish Government is to introduce legislation that will strengthen and streamline the Children's Hearing system, ensuring improved support for our most vulnerable young people through a locally delivered, nationally supported model.
The Scottish Government believes that the Children's Hearings system remains the best way of providing support and assistance to Scotland's vulnerable young people. However, the children and families which the system is supporting today are facing significantly different challenges and circumstances from when it was created 40 years ago which is why the Bill aims to:
- Improve outcomes for children and young people by changing functions and practice to improve support for both professionals and panel members delivering the system
- Build on the Scottish Government's child-centred approach to helping young people and families at risk, thereby keeping the ethos and principles of the Children's Hearings system while seeking to strengthen and modernise the system
- Ensure that children's rights are properly upheld and enhanced in line with our commitment to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and to increase efficiency within the system through legal and procedural changes
- Protect the integrity of the Children's Hearings system and the role of the Reporter to best ensure the needs, rights and protection of Scotland's children are at the heart of a strong, modern system which is shielded from emerging European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) challenges
- Re-assert the independence of panel members by maintaining and supporting panels made up of local people, best placed to make decisions for children in their community while strengthening their knowledge and understanding of the complex issues young people can face
- Streamline both processes - to improve understanding and use of the system - and structures such as recruitment, selection, training and continuing support of panel members
- Create a new body to be responsible for all functions associated with the Children's panel including recruitment, selection and training of panel members. The Scottish Children's Reporters Administration will continue to deliver the Children's Reporters service
A working draft of the Bill was published in June to enable discussions to be held on our proposals and we received a wide range of comments, including some concerns. Given the crucial role this system plays in supporting children and young people the Scottish Government is clear that these reforms must not be rushed.
We owe it to our young people and those delivering the system to do all we can to ensure it is as successful as possible and have therefore decided to take the necessary time to discuss the proposals further with stakeholders before introducing legislation to parliament early next year.
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