Children’s Advocacy in the Children Hearings System: Expert Reference Group: December 2022

Attendees and apologies

(Chair), Scottish Government (SG), Pam Semple
Advocacy Service Aberdeen, Kevin McBeath
Barnardo’s, Selwyn McCausland
Borders Independent Advocacy Service (BIAS), Lorna Ratky-Smith
CAPS Independent Advocacy (CAPS), Jane Crawford
Children 1st, Bryan Evans
Clan Childlaw, Agota Rauktyte
Independent Advocacy Perth and Kinross (IAPK), Julie Hutton and Sarah Fogg
Infant Mental Health Implementation and Advisory Group, Anne McFadyen
Social Work Scotland (SWS), Charles Rocks
Scottish Child Law Centre (SCLC), Sadia Arshad
Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA), Alistair Hogg
SG, Louise Piaskowski and Harriet Waugh
Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance (SIAA), Suzanne Swinton
Who Cares? Scotland (WC?S), Kay McKerrell and Denny Ford

Apologies

Advocacy Western Isles, Cathy Anne Dunn
Angus Independent Advocacy, Craig Bartholomew
Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice, Ross Gibson
Children’s Hearings Improvement Partnership (CHIP), Elaine Adams
Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS), Edward McKim 
Law Society of Scotland, Morag Driscoll
Partners in Advocacy, Iain Templeton
Scottish Children’s Report Administration, Melissa Hunt
Scottish Government, Tom McNamara and Mel Parkinson

Items and actions

Actions and activity since last meeting

The chair confirmed to members that there had been no corrections or amendments requested to the draft note of last meeting on 28 July 2022, therefore it was considered accepted and will be published. The main topic of that meeting was the Scottish Government update paper, Training and CPD Skills and Knowledge Framework proposal paper, and an update paper from SCRA.  

The chair provided an update on the actions noted at the last ERG meeting starting with ongoing work:

Action

SG to ensure Children and Young People Commissioner Scotland Report was shared with ERG members.
SG to share TEAMS chat of the meeting with ERG members for the benefit of those with no access during the meeting.  

Update

These actions are completed.  The CYPCS report “Statutory duties in secure accommodation: unlocking children’s rights” and the MS teams meeting chat record were shared after the meeting with the 28 July draft meeting note.

Action

For SG and CHIP - SG to discuss with Elaine/CHIP if the issue of automatic funding for legal aid sits with CHIP or another more appropriate forum.

Update

This action was discussed with Elaine, and she will take it forward to CHIP on her return to work.
Members Updates agenda items, the following actions were noted:

Actions

For SCRA - Advocacy organisations to let (Melissa/Alistair) know of instances where the advocacy worker is not permitted into the hearing. 

For CHS - to take account of discussions here at the ERG around the role of the Chair in the Practice and Procedure Manual for Panel Members revisions.

These was in terms of practice experiences that were not following the procedure guidance “a representative of the child or a relevant person has a right to attend the hearing whether or not the person they are representing is in attendance.  Therefore, an advocacy worker who is instructed by the child to attend the hearing has a right to attend from the start whether or not the child is also in attendance”.

Update

Alistair (SCRA) advised that he had not been made aware of any such instances as discussed at the last meeting and reiterated that should it become an issue in future that advocacy organisations should get in touch with SCRA.
 
Edward (CHS) previously advised in relation to what instruction the Panel Chair has in relation to finding out what the child wants, would be taken forward in the update of the Manual for Panel Members work that was currently underway.  

Action

For SCRA - to consider when they could produce statistics in future to inform local analysis to take place in an effort to identify and share good practice across all localities. This was in relation to deferred decisions.

Update

Alistair (SCRA) covered this under the Members Updates agenda item.

Action

For CHS - Group members to let Edward know of any suggested topics for inclusion in the panel members refresher training due to be carried out in September.

For CHS - Group members to get in touch with Edward with any suggestions for panel member survey questions. 

Update

The advocacy survey with the panel community has been completed.  A summary of the response has been provided with the meeting papers for today. 

CHIP Language work agenda item, the following action was noted:

Action

For CHIP - ERG members to let Elaine know if they are interested in feeding into/ being part of the group working on this area of work.

Update

Scottish government will invite Elaine to provide an update for the next meeting.

Comms & Engagement agenda item, the follow actions were noted:

Action

Scottish government to convene a comms and engagement sub-group meeting to discuss what activities can be undertaken to further enhance our communications and engagement strategy.

Scottish government to set up a meeting with SWS to identify ways we can work even more effectively together to increase referrals and to address the late referrals from social workers.

Update
A short meeting of the comms and engagement sub-group took place on 8 November 2022.  The purpose of this was to identify what activities can be undertaken to further enhance our communications and engagement strategy. It was a fast-flowing ideas session discussing: 

• What is / has worked well in terms of local and national resources and practices?
• What are the key things we need to focus on locally and nationally to make further progress?

The outcome was to develop a paper of good practice that can be shared and followed by all partners involved in supporting the advocacy offer for children and young people. We would aim to produce the paper, accompanied by a plan of action to address the areas where further work is needed for a more detailed discussion within this sub-group at a meeting to be arranged for later in the year.

A meeting was held with Charles Rocks from SWS – Charles has a slot on the agenda to discuss what usefully can be done.

Training and CPD agenda item, the following action was noted:

Action

ERG members to let Clan Childlaw know if there were any specific areas of practice that should be included in this year’s training offer.

Update

Clan childlaw have used feedback from advocacy organisations to develop and select the topics for the refresher training.  You will see from SG update paper these are offence grounds and disclosure; appeals and reviews; secure accommodation and deprivation of liberty orders; and participation rights and other routes to sibling contact.

Skills and knowledge framework agenda item, actions noted were:

Actions

For All - ERG members to consult with colleagues to develop a corporate response to implementing the Skills and Knowledge Framework.

Scottish government to organise a Skills and Knowledge Framework meeting to allow ERG members to provide detail of what they and their organisation could do to contribute to an Implementation Plan.

Update

Feedback from organisations is that work is ongoing.  The action to arrange a meeting for ERG members to provide detail will take place in the new year.  

We have shared our work with the Staying Connected sub-group looking at workforce planning to make connections where possible and ensuring we are all working to a common goal and not having too many different pathways and frameworks.  Linking up with policy colleagues is ongoing.

Infant Rights and Voice

Anne McFadyen and Harriet Waugh gave an interesting and informative presentation to ERG members on work that had taken place to develop Infant Rights and Voice, creating best practice guidelines and an infant pledge. The work is based on the Lundy model within a Scottish context and focuses on space, voice, influence and audience.  The infant pledge encourages mindful commitment to facilitate infants to express their feelings, consider their views, uphold their rights and take action accordingly, with a reminder it is everyone’s responsibility to listen to the voice of infants.

Charles Rocks (SWS) asked that when the Infant Pledge goes live that the Children and Families Standing Committee would love to carry out a deep dive as this fits in very nicely with a refresh of GIRFEC being undertaken. Charles commented that this was really powerful stuff and he looked forward to its publication.

Selwyn (NPN/Barnardo’s) commented that non instructed advocacy is a huge area and a rights respecting issue and anything that gives weight to views would be very welcome.  He extended an invitation to Anne and Harriet once the documents are published to discuss further with the Children’s Hearings Advocacy National Provider Network organisations.

Alistair (SCRA) commented that he was reflecting on how this would impact Reporters.  He was wondering how it would work; what sort of weight should it be given; ‘observing and watching’ requires interpretation; what skills do people need; and was thinking in particular about the evidence and appeal process.  He noted there had been a big focus on children under 5 in the Hearings System Working Group (HSWG).

Anne informed the ERG that this is just the beginning of the work and that there was more to be done, particularly in terms of acknowledging “interests” and “feelings about”.  Harriet (SG) emphasised that not any one single cue is acted upon, that it is not the pivotal thing.  She used the term concern, corroborate, validate as a way of describing how action and activities would be taken forward.

Scottish Government update – a written SG update paper accompanied this item 

The chair highlighted some topics from the Scottish government update paper: providing an update on the funding position in terms of spending to date and commitment beyond 2022.  It was confirmed that a budget of up to £2 million for the delivery of the children’s advocacy in children’s hearing national scheme for the next financial year 2022-23 had been secured. This allowed an increase in grant offers to all providers to increase capacity. In addition, expansion of the provision to take on work relating to children and young people in Scotland on Deprivation of Liberty Orders (DoLS) was factored into grant offers. A budget of £2 million was also agreed for the financial year 2023-24. As always, this agreement is in principle as it is dependent on the passage of the Scottish Budget through Parliament. The 2023 to 2024 Scottish Budget will be published on 15 December 2022.

Scottish government have commenced the annual 1-2-1 meetings with advocacy organisations and have others scheduled in diaries over the coming weeks. We were delighted to be able to attend an in-person meeting with CAPS Independent Advocacy – the first time we have been able to visit an organisations’ premises and see first-hand the child-friendly environment and to meet advocacy workers.  We are grateful to Jane and Kyna and their team for the opportunity to discuss all things advocacy face-to-face. We have other in-person visits arranged with some organisations and it is our aim to be able to come and see all of the advocacy organisations as we continue with our programme of 1-2-1 discussions.  

The Chair asked members if they wanted to discuss any other matters set out in the SG Update Paper.  No topics were raised in respect of the update paper.

Members updates – any business arising 

Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA)

Alistair (SCRA) provided an update on SCRA matters.  

In terms of the feedback from the ERG in July 2022 with regard to the statistical data on deferred hearings and the request to have the exercise repeated, Alistair informed the group that Donald at SCRA was looking at the case management system to determine a less resource intensive means of gathering meaningful data.  

Alistair explained that SCRA had been under resource pressure lately in terms of budget and impacts from the teacher’s strike, recent mail strikes and delays at court all contributing to real challenges getting cases through.  However, in terms of SCRA engagement on recent activities Alistair mentioned policy matters through the Children’s Care and Justice Bill and the raising the age of referral for 16/17 year olds; The Promise working group and the co-design groups where a report had been presented to HSWG secretariat (where early involvement of advocacy was mentioned); and sitting on the Bairns Hoose Government Group where there had been a recent standards consultation, all resulting in a high focus on important matters.  A busy time for SCRA.

Children’s Hearings Scotland 

Apologies were received from Edward (CHS) for the actual meeting, however he had provided a written update - Practice and Policy Bank Advocacy Response Summary.  The survey prompted interesting feedback on Panel Member experiences in relation to children’s advocacy during hearings.  Panel Members were asked 7 questions:

During the hearings you have sat on:

how often is Advocacy discussed in the Hearing?
what has prevented Advocacy being discussed during Hearings?
how often do you observe an Advocate attending?
for chairs only – is informing a child of Advocacy a part of your checklist for chairing a Hearing?
If you are chairing and the child is not in attendance, would you ask if the child had been made aware of advocacy and by who?
have you decided to defer due to the child/young person not being aware of Advocacy?
Where there are siblings with participation rights, how often has the sibling of the child/young person had an Advocate in attendance?

ERG members were invited to give any comments, suggestions or queries on the CHS paper to Pam/Louise by email and these would be forwarded onto Edward for consideration.

Action

Any comments or questions on the CHS Practice and Policy Advocacy Response Summary to be forwarded to SG for passing onto Edward at CHS.

National Provider Network (NPN) Update 

Scottish government (Pam) invited Selwyn (Barnardo’s/NPN Chair) to give an update on the network’s recent activities.  

Selwyn commented that as mentioned by Alistair earlier in the meeting, strike action has impacted on the work of the advocacy organisations too. He commented that all providers were recording an increase in face-to-face Hearings which obviously brings about travel implications both for the child/young person and for the advocacy worker too.  It has been noted too, that the make-up of the Hearings seems to be becoming more complex in nature resulting in a greater number of meetings and Hearings to attend.

In terms of practice issues, Selwyn again highlighted the difficulties caused by short notice referrals.  This is still an issue reported by all organisations and further discussion needs to take place with Social Work Scotland (SWS), Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS), Scottish Children Reporter Administration (SCRA) and advocacy organisations to get earlier referrals and more notice.

The NPN is represented on the Sheriff Mackie led Hearings System Re-design working group and continues to provide valuable insights into the value of independent advocacy for children and young people.  

The NPN has continued work on non-instructed advocacy.  The final draft of a policy document and a draft framework is ready to be sent to SCRA and CHS to discuss.

Selwyn commented that since it was almost a year since the introduction of the Outcomes Tools work the next meeting of the NPN would focus on gaining key learning and experiences.

Sarah (IAPK) is a member of the language project and reports back to the NPN as to developments taking place, linking in with the work of other organisations too to make sure there is a common goal being worked towards.

In terms of advocates gaining access to hearings, Selwyn advised this is very much an improved picture, however, there are still some inconsistencies across localities. 

Many organisations had been undertaking recruitment of advocacy workers over the past weeks and this had reportedly all gone well with a great response to adverts.

Following information from organisations about the wellbeing of staff, the NPN focussed on gathering details on how organisations are supporting their staff and disseminated good practice and materials to assist with this important aspect of work. Staff wellbeing, with a particular focus on vicarious trauma, is a standing agenda item at NPN meetings.

Non-instructed advocacy 

Selwyn (NPN) updated the ERG on the development of the non-instructed advocacy work. The sub-group of the NPN specifically looking at this work has met regularly and attended the recent SIAA Roundtable event where non-instructed advocacy for all children and young people, not only those involved in Children’s Hearings, was discussed. The draft document is almost ready for colleagues and partners to comment upon. It is hoped that the sub-group will be able to work alongside SCRA and CHS colleagues to develop a working protocol. All of this output will be sent to ERG members for deliberation in the coming weeks.

Suzanne (SIAA) advised the ERG that it was likely that updating of SIAA guidance would fall into next year (i.e 2023).  Suzanne also said she would be meeting with the NPN members to discuss next steps.

Deprivation of Liberty Order (DOLs)

Louise (SG) provided an update on the uptake of Deprivation of Liberty Order (DOLs) work.  There had been 15 notifications received and of those 15 so far 3 children and young people had taken up the offer of advocacy.  Louise advised there was a meeting later in December to discuss learning from the experiences of the advocacy workers and organisations.  Louise specifically wants to know if the guidance is right and provides enough information for advocacy organisations.  Selwyn commented that the support from Clan Childlaw has been very helpful in the DOLs cases.

Communications and Engagement 

Pam advised ERG members that a sub-group meeting had been convened – a half hour meeting with the aim of generating ideas, good practices, and next steps which would be detailed in a document which would be shared to all members to assist in our efforts to ensure communication remains high on everyone’s radar.

Pam then invited Charles Rocks (SWS) to give the ERG members an understanding of the context around the concerns from advocacy organisations about early notifications in relation to social workers.

Charles provided context by outlining the following areas:

• How do we support social workers coming out of university?  Newly qualified social workers do not have the experience of placements during the covid restrictions. This has impacted on their skills and knowledge.
• There are workforce capacity issues. Some areas are working 50-60% capacity.
• Children have a “right” to a relationship is very much acknowledged.
• There is an unfortunate theme emerging that Children’s Hearings has become adversarial, which has resulted in social workers experiencing a lack of confidence in their own abilities.

Charles went on to say there were different routes and pathways into a Hearing, and his thoughts were that this was usually when “risk” could not be managed. Social workers were looking to make sure there is additionality and asking themselves the questions about how to improve the experience of children going into 2023. He encouraged people to look at the data but to get on to local groups, and local areas to make sure the provision is publicised as much as possible.

Charles said he would look at social worker induction and post qualifying to identify where there was scope to take forward the themes that have arisen. At the moment Charles feels there is a bit of a disconnect and it is important to reinforce Children’s Rights, UNCRC etc, musing how do we frame that?

Charles is of the view that everyone has to encourage children to voice any difference of opinion. To that end Charles feels strongly that education has a part to play in making children aware of their rights and advocacy support.

Charles closed by reminding everyone that not all areas have commissioned services for advocacy, and it is difficult to suggest a one size fits all perspective.

Selwyn invited Charles to an NPN meeting to discuss the matter further. Charles was happy to accept that invitation.

Training and CPD 

Making children's advocacy real in children's hearings training  

We continued to work with Clan Childlaw in 2022-23 for the delivery of advocacy worker training on behalf of the Scottish Ministers. To recap the training requirement for children’s advocacy workers is set out in the Regulations for the national scheme under section 122 of the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011. The Regulations state child advocacy workers must attend and successfully complete continuing training and qualification requirements. It is not absolutely necessary for managers to complete the training although we would encourage them to complete this too.   

Induction training - approx. 4 hours e-learning, plus half day interactive session

All new starts are able to access the e-learning materials as part of their inductions to the organisation or to the hearings advocacy work when they start with you – please let Agota Rauktyte at Clan Childlaw know details of new starts by telephone 07484510824 or email Agota.Rauktyte@clanchildlaw.org to get delegates set-up with access to the Moodle learning platform.  

The e-learning should be followed by the interactive session which this year offers face-to-face opportunities as well as virtually. All new staff should complete both parts of this training. 

The details advocacy organisations provide help us plan the demand and when might be suitable times in the year to run these interactive sessions, making sure everyone who needs to complete this can do so.

Refresher training – interactive session

The topics covered in these sessions are offence grounds and disclosure, appeals and reviews, secure accommodation and deprivation of liberty orders, and Participation Rights refresher and other routes to sibling contact. 

The first in-person training day took place in Victoria Quay on 16 November. Whilst the numbers attending were lower than had been notified to clan childlaw (Agota will follow up with organisations to establish reasons for non-attendance and to accommodate staff in one of the other 3 events planned for this year), the discussion at the session was lively and gave the attendees the opportunity to network and discuss experiences with each other as well as gaining valuable legal advice from solicitors. It was a really nice experience to actually meet up with advocacy workers and hear their experiences and discussions.

It was reiterated at the ERG that advocacy workers MUST attend the annual “refresher” training as this is adapted on an annual basis to take account of changes in legislation and new practice. It was acknowledged that there was a bit of confusion around the term “refresher” training with some organisations not realising that this was a mandatory element and could impact on grant conditions. We are working with Clan Childlaw to rebrand that element of the training/CPD – perhaps referring to it as “update training”?  However, we hope it is clear now who should attend the training events. If there is still any confusion, please get in touch with Louise at SG and she will ensure everything is cleared up.

Reporting and Monitoring

Pam advised the ERG that 7 of the 10 annual grant monitoring meetings had been held, with a further 2 to be held in the coming days with one still to be diarised.  These discussions have been invaluable in providing “the big picture” to SG allowing for consideration to be given to activities going forward.

Any other business 

No other matters were raised and the Chair thanked everyone for their participation and input and closed the meeting.