Children's hearings redesign - policy proposals: consultation

1. Consultation Process

1.1 Responding to this consultation

The consultation will run for 13 weeks, and Scottish Government are inviting responses to this consultation by 28 October 2024.

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

The Scottish Government appreciate this is a detailed consultation and you may not be able to complete it in one sitting. You can save and return to your responses while the consultation is still open. There is no requirement to complete every question in the consultation. You can fill in the full consultation or you can respond to the particular questions or sections you have an interest in. However, please ensure that consultation responses are submitted before the closing date above.

If you are unable to respond using our consultation hub, please complete the

Respondent Information Form and send your responses to consultation questions to Children’s Hearings Redesign Team, Victoria Quay, Edinburgh, EH6 6QQ.

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 are being produced and will also be available soon. Scottish Government are also happy to engage with children and young people directly – please contact childrenshearingsconsultation@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, while 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. The Scottish Government will be providing input to existing groups and meetings. If it would be helpful to engage with you or your organisation in a specific arrangement, please get in touch at childrenshearingsconsultation@gov.scot

In addition to this consultation, there are a number of public consultations and engagements on issues related to Keeping the Promise planned over the next twelve months, including: “Moving On” into Adulthood; the definition of “family” and “care experience”; and the future of foster care. Some connected engagement with the care experienced community will take place to consider issues across the four consultations.

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, the Scottish Government will regard it as confidential, and 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 the Scottish Government handle your personal data, please see our privacy policy: https://www.gov.scot/privacy

1.3 Next steps in the process

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public,

and after the Scottish Government have checked that they do not contain material that cannot be published (e.g. potentially defamatory material), responses will be made available to the public at http://consult.gov.scot. 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 the Scottish Government have been given permission to do so. An analysis report will also be made available in winter 2024.

1.4 Comments and complaints

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to http://consult.gov.scot.

1.5 Scottish Government consultation process

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

You can find all our recent consultations online: http://consult.gov.scot each consultation details the issues under consideration, as well as a way for you to give the Scottish Government 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. The Scottish Government 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 in developing new legislation.

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.