Conclusion
The five participation events held to consult with children and young people on the Scottish Executive's document Getting it Right for Every Child: Proposals for Action were warmly received by participants across with a wide range of ages, experiences and geographical locations. Children and young people welcomed the opportunity to 'have their say' and stressed the importance of their experiences on influencing the future shape of the Children's Hearings system. The groups that had direct experiences of the system were, on the whole, more passionate and insistent on a number of issues. Whilst views expressed by participants naturally varied between groups and individuals, a number of points were raised consistently across groups.
All participants fully supported the Executive's proposal that all adults working with children and young people should have to work together to help children and young people who are experiencing difficulties. Whilst the proposal lacked detail, children and young people raised the issue that one structure does not fit all, and as such, services must be flexible in how they work together to meet a child or young person's needs.
On the whole children and young people who had experience of the system did not feel able to express their views and wishes at the panel, nor did they feel that their views were valued by the panel. The main inhibiting factors for children and young people related to facing large number of unknown adults and feelings of worthlessness. Participants fully supported the proposal of having one adult as a contact point, but went further in arguing that this adult should be someone that they know and trust. As such, participants felt that this key contact would vary from person to person and welcomed the proposal of panel continuity.
Whilst the vast majority of participants recognised the benefits to children and young people that would be achieved through information sharing, there was a sense of their right to confidentiality and privacy. As such, proposals relating to information sharing received strong support, but only on the grounds that children and young people are involved in decisions over who information would be shared with.
Whilst only a small number of the participants had first hand experience of working with a safeguarder, these children and young people did not value the role. The overwhelming opinion was that it was simply another unknown person that they were made to talk to. A number of participants felt that the position should be replaced with an adult who would advocate their views.
Finally, the proposal relating to victim involvement received keen discussion across groups. However, whilst children and young people identified a number of potential benefits there was strong agreement that it should not become part of a Hearing. Children and young people felt that the system was already heavily in-balanced in terms of power relations between child or young person and adults. It was thought that adding this extra element would add further pressure and stress to an already "daunting" process without necessarily achieving an improved outcome for the child or young person.