Scottish Government

Topic 2 The Children's Hearings Process - The Referral

Teachers' Sheet
Fascinating Facts Sheet 3 The Referral
Activity 3 Reasons Why Children Are Referred to the Children's Reporter
Activity 4 Facts and Figures

Teachers' Sheet
TOPIC 2 - THE CHILDREN'S HEARINGS PROCESS: Step 1 - The Referral

Activity:
Fascinating Facts 3 - The Referral
Activity 3 - Reasons Why Children Are Referred to the Children's Reporter
Activity 4 - Facts and Figures

Aims:
To introduce pupils to the reasons why children/young people are referred to the Children's Reporter.
To enable pupils to recognise that most referrals are for care and protection reasons rather than offences.
To provide an opportunity for pupils to interpret statistical information.

Materials:
A copy of Fascinating Facts sheet 3 and Activity sheet 4 for each pupil.

Method:
Hand out Fascinating Facts sheet 3 and discuss with the pupils.

Explain that something has to happen in the child/young person's life to start the process. Ask for examples.

Emphasise that anyone can refer a child/young person to the Children's Reporter and that a child/young person can refer themselves.

Divide pupils into small groups of four or five. Read through Activity 3 with the pupils, checking their understanding of the terms used.

Explain that reasons a) to e) are called care and protection reasons because all of these mean that the child/young person needs caring for and/or protecting.

Allow five minutes for the individual ranking and then 10-15 minutes for group discussion.

Record each group's ranking in one place. Comment on any pattern that emerges and ask groups why they have ranked a reason in a particular place.

Hand out Activity 4 and look at the statistics with the pupils. Pupils should notice that the offending figure is high compared to the individual figure for each of the care and protection reasons, but that it is lower than the total of all the care and protection referrals. The questions could be answered as a homework activity.

Fact: In 2003-04 around twice as many children were referred on care and protection ground as offence grounds.

Fascinating Facts 3 STEP 1 - THE REFERRAL

Something has to happen or someone has to be worried about a child or young person to start the Children's Hearings process:

• they may be a victim of a crime or have offended
• they may not have been going to school for a long time
• someone may be worried that they are not being looked after properly.

The police, social worker or school will usually tell the Children's Reporter what has happened, but anyone can speak to the Children's Reporter if they are worried about a child or young person.

WORD CHECK

incident = something that happens that might have a serious effect
victim = a person who has been harmed in some way by someone else
refer = to ask someone to look into something - in this case to tell the Children's Reporter about a child or young person

Activity 3 - Reasons why children are referred to the Children's Reporter

These are some reasons why a child or young person can be referred to the Children's Reporter.

On your own, rank these from 1 to 5 in the order in which you think MOST children or young people were referred to the Children's Reporter, with 1 being the most. Now discuss your ranking with the rest of your group. Can you agree a group ranking that you can share with the rest of the class?

Activity 4 - Facts and Figures

From 1st April 2003 to 31st March 2004 the number of referrals to the Children's Reporter for each reason were:

a) to e) are called 'care and protection' reasons.

Use the information in this table to answer these questions:

1. What is the total number referred for care and protection reasons?

2. What is the total number referred for offending?

3. Which of the care and protection reasons is the highest?

4. Which of the care and protection reasons is the lowest?

5. What do the figures tell you?