The Scottish Government has just finished their formal public consultation on the legislative change needed to redesign the Children’s Hearings System. Our Hearings, Our Voice (OHOV) believes it is crucial that the views of children and young people with Hearings-experience are at the heart of the consultation.
OHOV has worked hard to gather young people’s views, taking part in lots of individual and group conversations. In total, 25 young people across Scotland gave us their views: individually (13 interviews), or through 3 group discussions with board members at OHOV, Glasgow Champs and Falkirk Champs. The young people ranged in age from 15 to 22. Those 25 young people make up a significant proportion of the overall public response to the consultation.
Several key themes emerged through the consultation, which were consistent with what children have continually told us about Children’s Hearings in the past:
- The importance of supportive, trusted, skilled, accountable, and consistent adults in children’s lives .
- Children and families need information and Hearings decisions shared in ways that involve them, are easy to understand and are personalised to their needs.
- Children need support before, during and after their Hearings and much more needs to be done to prepare children for Hearings, to understand how they can participate fully, comfortably, and safely, and to enable them to exit the Hearings system fully supported and ready to thrive.
The responses we gathered mirror what OHOV members asked for over four years ago, when they published their 40 Calls to Action with a key focus on children’s experience and safety in Hearings, the way adults can consistently meet their needs, their right to participate fully and the importance of information they can understand.
The Hearings System Working Group, Sheriff Mackie and The Promise Scotland used the 40 Calls to help arrange themes for their work to redesign the Hearings System. The extent to which young people’s views are acted upon as the Scottish Government legislates for the changes required, will tell us a lot about how serious Scotland is about truly listening to expertise based upon children’s lived experience.
You can read more detail about these responses on our one-page graphic, our three page summary or by contacting Gordon Main for the larger report.