Children's Care and Justice Bill - policy proposals: consultation

1. Consultation Process

1.1 Responding to this consultation

The consultation will run for 12 weeks and we are inviting responses to this consultation by 22^nd June 2022.

In order to respond to this consultation, please use the Scottish Government's consultation hub Citizen Space, which you can access online here.

You can save and return to your responses while the consultation is still open. Please ensure that consultation responses are submitted before the closing date above. You do not need to respond to every question.

If you are unable to respond using our consultation hub, please complete the Respondent Information Form and send your responses to consultation questions to CC&JBill@gov.scot.

In addition, an Easy Read version of the consultation and questions will be made available imminently. Further supporting materials including a conversation guide for professionals working with children and young people and associated materials have been produced, following feedback from young people themselves, and will also be available are available here. We are also happy to engage with children and young people directly-please contact CC&JBill@gov.scot.

This formal public consultation is not the only means by which the Scottish Government will seek views on the proposals and related issues. Many of these matters are subject to ongoing and in-depth engagement with partners and stakeholders, whilst others have already been subject to primary legislation or other public consultation in preceding years. Throughout the period of this consultation, engagement work with key partners and stakeholders will continue. We will be providing input to existing groups and forums. If it would be helpful to engage with you or your organisation in a specific arrangement, please get in touch at CC&JBill@gov.scot.

1.2 Handling your response

If you respond using the consultation hub, you will be directed to the About You page before submitting your response. Please indicate how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are content for your response to published. If you ask for your response not to be published, we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

If you are unable to respond via Citizen Space, please complete and return the Respondent Information Form included in this document. To find out how we handle your personal data, please see our privacy policy

1.3 Next steps in the process

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public, and after we have checked that they contain no potentially defamatory material, responses will be made available to the public at Scottish Government consultations. If you use the consultation hub to respond, you will receive a copy of your response via email.

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence. Responses will be published where we have been given permission to do so. An analysis report will also be made available in summer 2022.

1.4 Comments and complaints

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to Scottish Government consultations.

1.5 Scottish Government consultation process

Consultation is an essential part of the policymaking process. It gives us the opportunity to consider your opinion and expertise on a proposed area of work.

You can find all our consultations online: Scottish Government consultations Each consultation details the issues under consideration, as well as a way for you to give us your views, either online, by email or by post.

Responses will be analysed and used as part of the decision making process, along with a range of other available information and evidence. We will publish a report of this analysis. Depending on the nature of the consultation exercise the responses received may:

• indicate the need for policy development or review
• inform the development of a particular policy
• help decisions to be made between alternative policy proposals
• be used to finalise legislation before it is implemented.

While details of particular circumstances described in a response to a consultation exercise may usefully inform the policy process, consultation exercises cannot address individual concerns and comments, which should be directed to the relevant public body.