'Getting it Right for Every Child' - The Review
of the Children's Hearing System '
The Scottish Executive Consultation Paper on
the Review of the Children's Hearing System.
The UNISON Scotland Response.
July 2004
Executive summary
UNISON Scotland firmly believes that the current review must
focus on strengthening the Hearings system, not on dismantling
it. The current system is grounded on a welfare-based, child-centred
philosophy, which deals with vulnerable children who require care
and protection or whom need their offending behaviour tackled.
That ethos is crucial to the system's success. To split the system
into a care and protection system and a punishment system would
in the opinion of UNISON Scotland be a retrograde step, rather
than an improvement to the system.
UNISON Scotland believes that the shortage of Child Protection
social workers is a major factor in the current failings of the
Children's Hearings system. It is a matter of fact that there
are not enough people doing the job. The 2003 Audit Scotland report
highlights that problem succinctly, its findings stated that between
300 and 500 children on supervision were estimated not to be getting
the service that the children's hearings had prescribed. In addition,
the report from the Council on Tribunals, the Child Protection
Audit and Review and an Executive Central Research Unit Report
into home supervision all found that social work services were
lacking in ways that compromised the Children's Hearings system's
ability to do its job.
Based on this evidence and the experiences of our own members
in youth justice UNISON Scotland believes that until social work
issues are resolved, the Children's Hearings system will continue
to fail some children.
UNISON Scotland also believes that if the children's hearings
system is to realise its full potential and serve the needs of
vulnerable children as well as the needs of those who offend,
it must be fully resourced. This is not the case at present.
UNISON Scotland members in youth justice regularly encounter
examples of needs not being met. Many Panel decisions are currently
not being implemented or properly supervised because of the lack
of trained social workers and the lack of places on specialist
programmes and—at the extreme—places in secure accommodation.
UNISON Scotland also believes that the Children's Hearings system
must be careful about becoming too specialist in its approach.
We acknowledge that the task that we ask panel members to perform
is incredibly complex and that it is appropriate to consider appropriate
training of a generalist nature. However, we fear that a move
to specialisation on Panels would threaten wider community involvement
in the system.
Introduction
This paper constitutes UNISON Scotland's response to the Scottish
Executive consultation document 'Getting it Right for Every Child
- Review of the Children's Hearing System'.
UNISON is Scotland's largest trade union representing
over 145,000 members working in the public sector. UNISON Scotland
represents workers from both the Scottish Children's Reporters
Administration and from Children and Families Social Work teams
in all of Scotland's 32 local authorities.
UNISON Scotland welcomes the opportunity to put
forward our views regarding the review of the Children's Hearing
System and to voice the wider concerns of our members who work
in the field of youth justice.
Responses
1. The Objectives of the Children's Hearing System
UNISON Scotland is supportive of the Executive's objectives for
the Children's Hearings System as outlined in the consultation
document. We are pleased to support the Executives vision of a
system that will make decisions based on children's needs, deliver
effective outcomes for children and their families and which will
also enjoy the confidence of local communities.
However, whilst we are able to give our broad support to the
Executive's stated objectives for the Hearings system, we are
disappointed that the Executive has not seen fit to make a clear
commitment in terms of resources.
It is the opinion of UNISON Scotland that if the children's hearings
system is to realise its full potential and serve the needs of
vulnerable children as well as the needs of those who offend,
there must be a commitment to properly resource the service. UNISON
Scotland believes that service improvement will only be realistically
achieved by a long-term commitment ensuring that additional budgets
and resources are allocated to the Children's Hearings system.
UNISON Scotland believes that you cannot consider the Children's
Hearing's system in isolation from wider social work issues. We
believe that until issues such as recruitment, retention and low
morale within social work are resolved, the children's hearings
system will continue to fail some children.
There is a clear link between an efficient and effectively functioning
Children's Hearings system and properly resourced Children and
Families Social Work services. Indeed, a recent Audit Scotland
report found that the current shortage of Children & Families
social workers effectively translates into around 400 children
a year failing to get the service they require from the Children's
Hearings system.
With this in mind, UNISON Scotland gives a cautious welcome to
the Executive's recent announcement of a review of Scotland's
social work services. We hope to put forward the views of our
members and to work closely with the 21st Century Social
Work Group to enhance the pay and conditions that will attract
and retain staff in Children and Families teams throughout Scotland.
2. The Principles of the Children's Hearing System
UNISON Scotland is broadly supportive of the principles
for the Children's Hearings System outlined in the consultation
document. We are pleased to support the Executives vision of a
system that is grounded on a welfare-based, child-centred
philosophy and which deals with vulnerable children who require
care and protection or who need their offending behaviour tackled.
UNISON Scotland is convinced that the Kilbrandon rationale remains
sound and that this ethos is crucial to the continued success
of the Children's Hearings system. We believe that splitting this
system into a care and protection system and a punishment system
would be a retrograde step that would not improve the overall
effectiveness of the Panel system.
UNISON Scotland is concerned that at present many Panels
in Scotland maybe prevented from arriving at their decisions based
solely upon what they believe to be best for the child. Rather,
some Panels maybe arriving at decisions based upon what disposal
options are available to them within their local authority area.
This is a clearly a resources issue and one which must be addressed
promptly if the Hearings system is to realise its full
potential and serve the needs of vulnerable children.
UNISON Scotland is concerned that the lack of disposal
options available to many Panels will have a destabilising effect
on the whole Children's Hearing's system. As such, UNISON Scotland
would like to have seen a statement of intent regarding future
funding levels and the inclusion of a principle stating that the
Panel system would at all times arrive at decisions
based solely upon what they believe to be best for the child.
3. Improving Outcomes
Whilst recognising that every child dealt with by the
Hearings system has different needs, UNISON Scotland believes
that the Children's Hearing's system should be able to offer every
child whom it deals with a core set of outcomes.
This should mean that the Hearings system should be able
to ensure that there has been a reduction in the identified need
of the child and that the child is able to live and function in
an environment free from intimidation and physical harm.
The Scottish Children's Hearing's system is internationally
renowned for its holistic approach to children's needs and one
in which all agencies need to co-operate to achieve the desired
outcome for a child. This is why UNISON Scotland believes that
in the Children's Hearing's system, similar outcomes should apply
to all the relevant agencies. We firmly believe that to deal with
only one aspect of the underlying problem that effects a child
is an approach that will ultimately fail the child.
4. Single System
UNISON Scotland is supportive of the current generalist
nature of the Children's Hearings system. The Children's Hearings
system considers the child in the round and takes into account
all aspects of the child's life as part of a joined up approach.
UNISON Scotland believes that it must not be destroyed
by partial or wholesale removal of its work on youth justice and
we trust that the founding principles of the system will remain
as the foundations for building better-funded, better-resourced
and better-supported services.
UNISON Scotland's members who work in the field of youth justice
believe there is general confidence in cases that go to panels
and in the decisions that are reached by lay people—who have training,
but not specialist training—sitting together and administering
lay justice. We believe that this is supported
by the evidence on how few panel decisions are appealed in the
sheriff court, even though that course is open to anybody whose
child is placed on a supervision requirement.
UNISON Scotland does not favour the specialisation of
Panel members. We consider it a strength of the current system
that Panel members are trained in a generalist manner and are
able to deal with any case coming before a Children's Hearing.
It should be remembered that Panel members already have
access to specialised advice if they wish, Reporters are present
in an advisory capacity at all Hearings and Panel members are
also able to call on reports from specialists prior to arriving
at decisions.
In addition, UNISON Scotland is concerned that specialisation
will be detrimental to the overall effectiveness of the Children's
Panel system. Firstly, a drive towards specialisation on Panels
could give the impression that specialisation is a prerequisite
to volunteering and could prevent wider community involvement
in Children's Panels. Secondly, we believe there is a danger that
specialisation could also give undue relevance on Panels to the
person who is perceived to be the expert.
UNISON Scotland believes it is essential that a joined-up approach
is taken to policy and practice in relation to youth offending
and child protection. Our members who work in the field of youth
justice are supportive of a single assessment framework for children
and the development of IT systems to allow the appropriate sharing
of information across agencies.
UNISON Scotland does not believe that giving the Children's Hearings
system the lead role in co-ordinating action across all interventions
involving children to be an effective way to ensure decisions
are taken consistently. Our members in SCRA do not perceive their
role as one in which they should be held responsible for co-ordinating
action across all interventions or indeed one in which they should
be held responsible for ensuring consistency in decision-making.
Rather, our membership is of the opinion that the provision of
‘co-ordinated' training programs for both Reporters and Panel
members, incorporating the latest research and understanding in
the field of child protection, would be more effective in enabling
the different agencies to achieve greater consistency.
UNISON Scotland would suggest that the task of co-ordinating
action would be better suited to a body like the Social Work Services
Inspectorate, whose stated purpose is to work with others to continually
improve social work services.
UNISON Scotland recognises that there is always room for improvement
within the Panel system and does not have a difficulty with the
proposal to ensure better evaluation on the impact of interventions
on children dealt with by the Hearings system.
However, we would make two points on this matter. Firstly, it
is the consideration of our membership in youth justice that in
cases where children have left the system such an undertaking
is largely unfeasible. Secondly, it must be recognised that evaluation
of every child who passes through the Children's Hearings system
is a massive undertaking and one that will require huge investment
and the allocation of adequate resources if it is to be successful.
The Executive should be aware that this task cannot be done on
the cheap.
5. The Hearings System and Parents
In our response the Anti-social Behaviour consultation UNISON
Scotland welcomed, in principle, the introduction of Parenting
Orders (POs). However, we qualified this support with a hope that
parents who had a PO granted against did not simply experience
this as a punitive measure but as a measure that included positive
benefits in supporting them to provide better parenting for their
child. This remains our position in regards to POs.
It is a popular misconception that the Panel system
somehow lacks the ability to influence parents. Parents
attend the hearings with their children and are not only party
to what is going on but are also essential partners in the process.
In addition, the Children's Hearings system also has open-ended
powers to attach conditions under Supervision Requirements and
a Panel has at its disposal a number of mechanisms for directing
parents to engage with the development of their child.
UNISON Scotland is concerned that the proposals within
the Antisocial Behaviour Bill to give Reporters and Children's
Hearings the powers to call for the issue of POs will place further
demands on a service which is already stretched. Apart from the
obvious funding and resource issues our members have serious misgivings
regarding the ability of the system to effectively police POs.
UNISON Scotland is opposed to the Children's Hearings
system having penalty powers over parents who breach POs. It is
our belief that to do so would open up the prospect of
legal representation being brought into a system that has functioned
effectively up until now with only a minimal degree of official
legal representation.
UNISON Scotland is opposed to the idea of establishing
‘Family Hearings'. We believe strongly that the focus of the current
system must continue to be on the needs of the individual child,
rather than on the parents or siblings.
6. Hearings and the Community
UNISON Scotland is aware that many people within Scotland's communities
do not have faith in the Children's Hearings system. We believe
that for a system that uses the commitment, skills
and input of trained members of the local community, to reach
decisions on what is best for a child within that community, this
lack of community confidence is concerning.
UNISON Scotland can offer a number of suggestions on how we believe
this confidence can be restored. Firstly, the Children's Hearings
system can be more pro-active in making the community aware of
its role and also be less reticent in communicating its successes
within the community.
Secondly, Children's Hearings system could perhaps adopt a more
user-friendly approach. This does not mean detracting from the
seriousness of its task but perhaps highlighting the ‘human
side' of its work and its commitment to bringing long-lasting
improvements in the lives of those children whom it comes into
contact with.
UNISON Scotland also believes that individual social workers,
Reporters and Panel members all have a role to play in improving
links between the Children's Hearings system and local communities.
Perhaps by going out into the community with roadshows and visits
to schools etc these professionals can help counteract the negative
impressions that many people have regarding the system and in
turn create a more positive image of the Children's Hearings system
and the work it does.
UNISON Scotland considers it vitally important that the Children's
Hearings system retains the principle of having local volunteers
deal with local cases. We believe that Panel members extra knowledge
of a child's surrounding and of the services that are available
locally enhances the Panels understanding of a case and is one
of the systems key strengths.
