Child welfare reporters and child contact services consultations: Scottish Youth Parliament report

Introduction

The Scottish Youth Parliament has consulted with young people to inform the Scottish Government consultations on Child Welfare Reporters and Child Contact Centres. The Scottish Government have been revising the law around when adults cannot agree on what is best for their children. One of the areas they are looking at is child contact centres. The Scottish Government want to ensure that all child contact centres are safe and child-friendly places. They also want to ensure the people who work at child contact centres are well trained at working with children and families. Secondly, the Scottish Government have been looking at child welfare reporters who help judges make decisions when the adults in a child or young person's life cannot agree on what's best for you. We want to ensure that all child welfare reporters are well trained and experienced.

The Scottish Youth Parliament held a focus group and one-to-one interviews to gather information from young people on questions posed in the consultation and collated these responses in this report to inform the consultation. This report outlines the responses in two parts, firstly Child Contact Centres and secondly, Child Welfare Reporters.