The Scottish Government Response To 'A Scotland for Children: A Consultation on a Children and Young People Bill'

Additional Provisions

A number of additional provisions will be included in the Bill that were not included in the consultation. The reason for this is that the need for these provisions was not identified at the time the consultation was launched. Engagement with relevant stakeholders on these provisions has, where it was considered necessary, been carried out and will continue as the Bill is introduced to Parliament, through its Parliamentary passage and implementation.

Children's Hearings - Area Support Teams

Paragraph 12 of Schedule 1 to the Children's Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 provides that the National Convener of Children's Hearings Scotland must establish and maintain Area Support Teams (ASTs) for each designated area (consisting one or more local authority areas). Before establishing the ASTs, the Convener must obtain the consent of each constituent local authority. However, the AST establishment process that recently concluded has highlighted inconsistencies around the time taken to obtain the required consent from each local authority, and around differing conditions being set before consent has been granted. This process has identified that a more nationally consistent and efficient process would be beneficial to the Children's Hearings system. Such improvements to the process would offer benefits to children and young people, as volunteers within the Children's Hearings system would be more encouraged to join, or stay within, it if they can quickly and easily identify the structures/areas they would either be joining or being supported by. This would enable them to, therefore, get on with the job at hand at directly, or indirectly, supporting Scotland's most vulnerable children and young people.

Stakeholder engagement has included ongoing informal discussion with the main national volunteers' representative groups, with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) and with Children's Hearings Scotland (CHS) since mid-2012, in order to monitor the issues affecting implementation of the Children's Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011. The Scottish Government circulated a policy paper to key hearings system partners in December 2012 seeking views on proposals to make two changes to the 2011 Act through the Bill. A total of 27 responses were received, comprising 5 organisations, 11 groups and 11 individuals who work within the hearings system. A majority of respondents favoured the proposals to amend the 2011 Act. The new powers were welcomed as a means of helping to ensure consistent support for panel members moving forward and a way of avoiding long, drawn out discussions on AST structures in future

Therefore, the Bill will include provisions which amend the 2011 Act to remove the requirement that the National Convener obtain the consent of each constituent local authority before establishing ASTs, and replace it with a requirement to consult instead.

The addition of local authorities to the group of bodies obliged to assist the ASTs (which will in turn assist the National Convener) will ensure local authorities have a clear duty, and the National Convener will be better able to secure standardised, consistent support.

The Bill also contains a provision which imposes a requirement on local authorities to provide the National Convener with administrative support.

Amendment to Section 44 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995

The Bill will contain a provision which will amend the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (the CPA) to create a new right of appeal against a local authority decision to place a child in secure accommodation following an order made under section 44 of the CPA. Such an order is made when a child pleads guilty or is found guilty of an offence in respect of which it is competent to impose imprisonment on a person of 21 years or over (except an offence under section 9(1) of the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004).

The amendment to the CPA is simply intended to ensure that children who are placed in secure accommodation following an order being made under section 44 to this Act will have the same appeal rights as children who are placed in secure accommodation under the provisions of the Children's Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011.

Substantial thought was given by stakeholders to the role of secure care as part of the Securing Our Future Initiative process, and joint views and recommendations were agreed. The secure accommodation provisions in the Children's Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 were the subject of debate during passage through the Scottish Parliament and give effect to some of those recommendations. As only a small number of orders are actually made under section 44 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, it is not considered that there will be significant resource implications, or that the change will be contentious among stakeholders.