Children's Hearings Redesign Board May 2024

Attendees and apologies

Members

Laura Caven, COSLA, Chair

Brian Taylor, Scottish Government, Co-Chair 

Neil Hunter, Principal Reporter, Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration

Elliot Jackson, National Convener, Children’s Hearings Scotland

Lindsey Byrne, Social Work Scotland

Officials

Emma Wilson, Scottish Government

John Urquhart, COSLA

Susan Downes, Scottish Government (secretariat)

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions

Laura Caven opened the meeting by welcoming members to the meeting and noting that it was both her and Brian Taylor’s first meeting. Members agreed the minute of the previous meeting, and authorised publication on the Children’s Hearings Redesign Board webpage.

Action  

Secretariat to publish minute from the previous meeting on the Children’s Hearings Redesign Board webpage.

Susan Downes summarised the actions from the previous meeting highlighting that most of the actions were either complete or covered on the agenda with the exception of:

RB-9 - Secretariat to arrange a workshop with COSLA and SWS to discuss those recommendations identified as requiring ‘further work needed with Local Authority and Social Work’. A short meeting was held on Thursday 9 May, however, a full workshop was not possible due to timing of the meeting between COSLA and SWS and the Board meeting. This will be arranged for a later date.

RB-11 - Secretariat to draft communication for Children's Hearings Improvement Partnership (CHIP), commissioning the required work and identifying reporting expectations. This has been delayed due to work on the consultation.

Consultation & Engagement

Emma Wilson provided an update on the work currently being undertaken on the Scottish Government (SG) consultation on Children’s Hearings Redesign. SG’s published response to the Hearings for Children report categorised the recommendations into accept, accept with conditions, consult and explore and do not accept. the SG is required to consult on any proposed legislative changes.

The team have had discussions with partners in regard to specific issues but there has not been wider discussion as the consultation process itself will promote engagement on the topics involved.

​​​​​​​The consultation document includes open and closed questions, providing space and opportunity to provide ideas and feedback. The narrative and analysis of responses will be important when developing policy instructions for any legislative developments. The document doesn’t cover everything that may require legislation, because consideration needs to be given to sequencing. For example, administrative matters can only be considered once we know what a redesigned system will look like.

​​​​​​​An early draft is currently with Scottish Government Legal Directorate and analysts before going through the official Ministerial approval process. An embargoed copy of the document will be shared with members in advance of publication. Subject to approval requirements the plan is to launch the consultation in the second half of June.

​​​​​​​Members highlighted the number of consultations with a children and families focus which are planned for similar timescales. Members were assured that work is being undertaken across the Children and Families Directorate to co-ordinate this work as much as possible, but this needs to be balanced as there are complex issues that need to be really explored in detail within our consultation.

​​​​​​​The children’s hearings team are planning engagement events to compliment the consultation. These will include online events to launch and close the consultation, in person events and tailored local events. Consideration will be given to the timing of these to allow for maximum participation.

Action

Secretariat to provide a draft timeline for the launch and close of consultation and timeline for analysis.

Update on SWS workshop on views on the SG response HSWG recommendations.

​​​​​​​Laura introduced this paper by noting that Social Work Scotland (SWS) colleagues had been working hard to get this paper completed in time for the board. The paper has been developed by SWS and is supported by COSLA. The paper will be made publicly available at a future date.

​​​​​​​Lindsey Byrne confirmed that the hybrid session was well attended by Chief Social Work Officers, service managers and other staff. There is a strength of feeling about how the report was developed without social work representation on the core group, but also acknowledgment of the need to build positive relationships to focus on what’s next and the improvement required to deliver for children and young people.

​​​​​​​The workshop helped to identify a number of recommendations where there is work already in train and being managed out with the redesign process. There was recognition that some recommendations are built on the feedback from those with lived experience but that one person’s experience is not necessarily reflective of the system as a whole.

​​​​​​​The paper highlights that the next steps of redesign need to set out the priorities using more positive and inclusive language to identify opportunities to make progress in a collaborative, positive and transparent way.

Action

Lindsey to check and confirm when the SWS paper can be circulated more widely.

​​​​​​​Board members discussed the existence of common misconceptions about roles and responsibilities, the need for a cultural reset, to build strong foundations of understanding and mutual respect. There was also agreement of the need to include other key partners in these developments particularly Scottish Legal Aid Board and the Law Society to ensure that children’s welfare concerns remain central.

Views were expressed that capacity, resources, and disinvestment in some support service has impacted on the level of respect within the system. The audit and accountability requirements within the three key delivery bodies are different, this could be streamlined into one collective accountability regime. Improvements should be measurable so could consider if the data collected would be sufficient to capture this and where additional or improved data would be required.

The wording of recommendation 7.5 has caused some confusion and the Board were reassured that the Scottish Government is considering a broader review to inform the Redesign Board’s work rather than highlight the practice of any one set of professionals.

Recommendation 7.5 “There must be a national review of multiple ongoing child protection, care and support processes and meetings, including review meetings, to identify where unnecessary duplication takes place, where drift and delay is introduced, and where information could and should be better shared collaboratively with the Panel or Reporter to better inform decision-making.”

Early discussions have taken place with the Centre for Excellence for Children's Care and Protection (CELCIS) about potentially undertaking some research to get better understanding of systems across children’s services and how these relate and connect to Children’s Hearings. This will link in with other work being done across the Children and Families Directorate and is at the early stages so there is scope for the board to influence this work. 

​​​​​​​Neil Hunter drew the Boards attention to work produced by CHIP in 2016, the vision and values paper was adopted by CHIP members but was not fully implemented. The work potentially needs refreshed but remains relevant and could help steer how the Board articulate what they are actually aiming to achieve. The board agreed the need identify and learn lessons from the past.

Action

 Neil Hunter to circulate the CHIP Vision and Values paper, highlighting some areas of continued relevance.

Workplan

​​​​​​​Susan Downes introduced the workplan paper, noting that at the last meeting members asked for work to be done to pull together all the available information on the recommendations into a single repository. The workbook circulated now brings together all 138 recommendations from the Hearings for Children report, the Scottish Government’s published response and identifies whether the recommendation has been accepted, accepted with conditions, not accepted or if further exploration and/or consultation is required. It also includes work which is currently underway within each of the members organisations.

​​​​​​​Members discussed how the spreadsheet provides a great overview of the recommendations, provides reassurances that work is ongoing and is not all the responsibility of the Board. Members agreed the value in maintaining the spreadsheet for audit purposes to demonstrate progress made but there is a need to now step beyond the recommendations, recognising that the Hearings for Children report is a starting point rather than defining vision, and identify the Redesign Board’s priorities.   

Action

Emma Wilson to provide a paper for the next meeting which details current and planned activity that maps to the recommendations and beyond.

​​​​​​​Members agreed to provide 3 or 4 priority areas from the Hearings for Children report reflective of their organisations’ priorities for the which the Planning Group can discuss areas of shared focus and develop into some tangible targets and priorities for the Board.

Action

Members to provide 3 or 4 priorities for discussion.

​​​​​​​Members discussed the potential opportunity to connect across organisations in relation to hearings experiences, to have honest conversations about the cause of frustrations, resources, limitations and expectations going forward. A collective idea of ‘what good looks like’ across all parties is essential to ensure hearings are as productive and supportive as they can be.

Action

 Workshop to be arranged to provide opportunity to connect across organisations.

OHOV

​​​​​​​Emma advised that Gordon Main from the OHOV group has been in touch and confirmed the group are still keen to continue to be involved in the redesign work.

​​​​​​​OHOV have developed an animation which will premiere on 22 May to which members have been invited. They have also spoken about doing a listening event which is still in development. They have developed a paper which will be circulated shortly, propose this is discussed at the next meeting of the Board.

​​​​​​​Members were very interested in this work and will consider how to ensure this work is used most effectively. 

Any other Business

​​​​​​​Members discussed suggestions about how to engage and connect with CHIP. The CHIP membership is fairly wide, chaired by the Scottish Government with good representation from all key partners in the Hearings System including statutory and third sector organisations. The group have done so much work around information and language that could help inform some of the redesign work. It was agreed that work could be allocated to CHIP once priorities are decided.

​​​​​​​No further items were raised.

Date of next meeting

TBC​​​​​​​