Children's hearings redesign: consultation analysis

Conclusion

Overarching themes

Although the analysis within this report was conducted on a question-by-question basis, several strong themes emerged across responses and across questions. We have briefly outlined some of these themes by way of concluding this report. These overarching themes are:

• Prioritising the child’s voice and the child’s best interests.
• Retaining and strengthening the parts of the current system that work well.
• Considering potential unintended consequences of changes to the system.
• Legislative change alone is not enough.
• The needs of specific groups of children.
• Building on research and data.
• Sustainable resourcing and funding.
• Change beyond the hearings system.

Prioritising the child’s voice and the child’s best interests

A theme that cut across many questions was the importance of retaining the child’s voice and the child’s best interests at the heart of the hearings system, and within all aspects of the redesign. Upholding and furthering children’s rights, including their right to participation (which was highlighted as being related to, but different from, the child’s attendance at their own hearing), and developing meaningful trauma-informed practice throughout the system were also key ideas in this vein. The potential for conflicting rights, particularly those of the referred child and those of their parents, carers, other family members, or relevant persons was repeatedly cited across responses. In particular, concerns were raised about parental rights overshadowing those of the child at the centre of the process, and parents’ legal representatives’ approach to the hearing potentially jeopardising the focus on the child. Many felt that this was a key area that could be tackled and improved through legislative change.

Retaining and strengthening the parts of the current system that work well

Many respondents, while open to change in certain areas of the system, stressed the importance of retaining parts of the system that currently work well, based on the foundational principles of the Kilbrandon Report. However, there were varying views among respondents as to which parts of the system worked well and what degree of change was needed to facilitate improvements to the system. Any efforts to improve the Children’s Hearings System must be for the sake of children and to improve their experiences, rather than making change for change’s sake.

Considering potential unintended consequences of changes to the system

The potential for problematic unintended or unforeseen consequences of making changes to the hearings system was raised in several different contexts throughout the consultation. Respondents stressed the need to recognise that any change may have both intended and unintended consequences and the need to thoroughly explore what these might be and what impact they might have. The potential for litigation and the loss of case law with links to other areas of the law were key concerns, as were the risk of (further) delay in the progression and decision making in children’s cases, and the resource impact of implementing change to one part of the system on other parts of the hearings system, the justice system, or on social workers and other professionals. Even fairly minor changes to the system could have much wider implications, affecting all agencies with roles and responsibilities in working with children and families who could come into contact with the hearings system. These implications would vary by agency and sector, and full and detailed understanding would be crucial. The knock-on effects in terms of efficiency and effectiveness must also be explored. The retention of existing safeguards and developments of the new safeguards in respect of certain changes to the system was frequently cited.

Legislative change alone is not enough

Another key idea raised repeatedly throughout the consultation was that legislation is only one element of change among many needed to improve the system. It was also suggested that other kinds of change in many of these areas could be achieved more appropriately and more effectively through other means: for example, through practice change, culture change within the system, implementing existing legislation, embedding and building from good practice, and training, skills development or guidance, with various areas for focus identified. In addition, many respondents expressed the view that legislative change in itself was unlikely to result in meaningful changes to the experiences of children and their families – rather, people and support was the key to this, although these changes could be supported or underlined by legislation. This was particularly notable in respect of efforts to support children’s (and their families’) understanding of, and participation with, the Children’s Hearings System.

The needs of specific groups of children

The specific support needed by particular groups of children was cited as requiring careful consideration within any redesign – these included babies and infants, children in conflict with the law, people who have been harmed, children affected by gender-based violence, children with disabilities, neurodiverse children, refugee and asylum-seeking children, those with families across borders, and care experienced children. Various respondents provided especially detailed responses highlighting the needs, research, and best practice with these groups in relation to different areas of the system, and that this information should be given further consideration as part of the redesign process.

Building on research and data

Respondents emphasised that all change should be underpinned by evidence and data, and that existing and developing research in relevant areas should be considered and built upon. The importance of utilising existing information about children’s needs in Scotland that the hearing system provides was raised as was the need for better data collection and recording in order to facilitate robust evaluations of the impact of changes (both intended and unintended) to the system.

Sustainable resourcing and funding

The need for sustainable and adequate resourcing and funding of the system (and beyond) was perhaps the biggest theme that emerged from the dataset overall. The context within which changes would be implemented must be a fundamental consideration. Particular concerns and comments raised in this vein included: a lack of resources generally; stretched services surrounding the hearings system; multiple changes being made at one time without consideration of the resource impact on another area; a cluttered policy and legislative landscape; practice inconsistencies; the need for sufficient time, resources, expertise, and workload capacity; staff supervision, support, and an improved culture to enable staff to work effectively alongside children and their families; to be able to build relationships over time in order to gather information, assess, plan and adequately prepare and support children and their families throughout the hearings process. For some respondents, addressing these issues would be a better use of limited resources than wider systems change, with it being crucial that more responsibilities are not added to overstretched services and professionals who are not resourced to meet these demands.

Change beyond the hearings system

The hearings system is only one part of the wider childcare system and change in any part will affect others. Often these wider parts of the child’s journey through the hearings system sit out with the system itself, so well-functioning preventative, early intervention, and transitions support, and whole family and community support, was seen as important to the success of redesign. In addition, the needs that bring children into the hearing system and these wider agencies often cannot be addressed by any one agency, with for example, the impact of structural inequality – in particular, poverty – repeatedly mentioned.