What is the Children's Hearings System?
The Children's Hearings System deals with children and young people in Scotland under the age of 16 who are in need of help.
There are two main reasons why the Children’s Hearings System will help a child or young person:
- If they are in need of care and protection.
- If they have got into trouble with the police or at school.
About 47,000 children and young people in Scotland go through the Children’s Hearings System every year.
What is a Children’s Hearing?
A Children’s Hearing (sometimes just called a Hearing) is a legal meeting that children and young people are sometimes asked to go to with their families or carers to help them sort out their problems. Around 6,500 children and young people in Scotland are asked to go to a Hearing each year and this is called being ‘referred’ to a Hearing. Children's Hearings are held in private, and a Children's Reporter and three Panel Members will be there.
What is a Children’s Reporter?
A Children’s Reporter (sometimes just called a Reporter) is the person who makes decisions about a young person to help them sort their problems out. For example, once a young person has been referred, it is the Children’s Reporter who decides whether or not that young person should attend a Hearing.
What is a Panel Member?
A Panel Member is a person from your local community who volunteers to sit on a Children’s Panel. Panel Members are just normal people - they might include a plumber or a shop assistant. Lots of them have their own children and grandchildren. All Panel Members are given special training so that they can make decisions to help the children and young people who come to a Hearing. There are three Panel Members at every Hearing.
Why are young people referred to the Children’s Reporter?
There are lots of different reasons why a young person might be referred to the Children’s Reporter - known as the ‘grounds for referral’. Young people can be referred to the Children's Reporter if:
- they have not been going to school.
- they have been in trouble with the police.
- they have been drinking alcohol or taking drugs.
- their behaviour has been causing concern at home, school or in the community.
- someone is worried that they are not being cared for properly by their parents or carers.
- an adult has hurt them or someone in their family in some way.
What will happen at a Hearing?
One of the Panel Members will introduce everyone in the room and will then read out the legal reasons for the Hearing (these are called the ‘grounds for referral’). You will be asked whether you accept that these reasons are correct. The Panel Member will also ask your parents or carers if they accept that these reasons are correct. If these reasons are accepted by you and your parents/carers, the Panel Members will go on to have a discussion about you with everyone present.
What if the grounds for referral are not accepted by the young person, or their parents or carers?
Where the legal reasons for the Hearing (the grounds for referral) are not accepted by the young person, their parents or carers or the young person does not understand them, the Panel Members cannot make a final decision. If this happens, the Panel Members have two options:
No action - They can decide not to take the referral any further and that would be the end of the Hearing. You would not have to go to another Hearing unless you were referred again.
More information - If they wanted to find out if the grounds for referral were true or not, the Panel Members could ask the Reporter to send the grounds for referral to court so that a Sheriff can decide if they are true or not. This is sometimes called sending the grounds to proof. If you are over 12 years old, you may have to go to court. The Reporter will be able to provide more information about this if it happens at the hearing but it is nothing to worry about.
What can the Children's Hearing decide?
It is the three Panel Members and not the Children’s Reporter, who decide what action should be taken to help a young person at a Hearing. They can decide:
- that they don’t need to do anything about the grounds for referral and decide not to take it any further. This is called discharging the case. This might be because things have improved for the young person at home or school and the Panel Members don’t feel that the young person needs to come back to another Hearing.
- that more information is needed to help them make a decision about what is best for the young person and they can decide to continue the Hearing until a later date.
- that compulsory measures of supervision are needed to help the young person and can make a Supervision Requirement.
What if the young person does not agree with the decision of the Children’s Hearing?
If the young person does not agree with the decision of the Hearing they should tell someone immediately. The person they tell should be either the person who looks after them, their social worker or the Children’s Reporter. They will help the young person talk to someone about why they do not like the decision and help them decide if they would like to go to court to appeal the decision. If the young person wants to appeal the decision of the Hearing, this must be done within 21 days of the date of the Hearing.
For more information about attending a Children’s Hearing take a look at the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration website.
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