Hearings for Children report: response

The Scottish Government Response

While some HfC recommendations require further work and consideration, including the need for consultation, the Scottish Government intends to progress as many as possible as rapidly as possible, acknowledging the practical and resourcing constraints.

To that end, Ministers’ clear view is that a significant number of recommendations can be progressed now, where there is system capacity to do so. We will work with all relevant parties to take this work forward - while remaining mindful of the need to continue to support the safe, high-quality operation of the current system. Careful attention will be paid to the necessary sequencing with other pending and potential changes in the policy and legislative landscape in the years to 2030.

A further group of HfC recommendations - focussed on practice, procedures or data in the system and where new law or significant system change is not required - will be assigned to a new Children’s Hearings Redesign Board and other existing strategic partnerships for progression, delivery and oversight.

The HfC report is broad and complex, with many, and interlinked, recommendations. This response aims to properly reflect the intricacy, substance and implications of the report’s proposals. Therefore, this Government response cannot be binary if it is to be useful, and must necessarily go beyond ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for each recommendation. We have therefore divided our responses to the HfC recommendations into broad categories for either acceptance, consultation, further work or declination, and have assigned them into phased categories for delivery.

• Complex issues mean that competing valid views do arise, but where it has been demonstrated that there is enough information to further develop work on these issues, these will be progressed to public consultation.
• Where a proposal for change has been made, but a full answer to it requires further research or review, the Scottish Government will engage with the relevant and most appropriate parties to progress that in 2024.
• Where Ministers have felt unable to progress a recommendation for legal, policy or other reasons, this will be made clear.

A full list of the recommendations, indicating how they have been categorised can be found below. A detailed list of the recommendations and responses has also been published alongside this response.

We have adopted a numbering system along with a very short explanatory note which gives the summary view of the Scottish Government position in relation to each of the recommendations. This system is intended to offer clarity on which recommendations the Scottish Government is able to support at this stage, and to provide the context for that support.

1 – Accept. Work can begin without a need for consultation or new legislation. Next steps to implement the proposal will be identified, along with any workforce and funding needs, and provided to Ministers for decision where required.

2 – Accept with conditions. Support recommendation with a view to public consultation or further consideration.

3 – Explore and consult. Support in principle, though issues and questions do remain, and have to be subject to further scrutiny and/or consultation.

4 – Do not accept. Ministers’ view is that the recommendation has to be declined.

It is important to note that where a recommendation proposes that an issue has to be considered or explored (such as at 2.3 and 8.6), this denotes acceptance of the action to consider the matter in further detail - not at this stage to agree to its being implemented. A final decision will be made, and communicated, once the necessary further work has been done.