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Getting it Right for Every Child
Consultation Pack on the Review of the Children's Hearings System
Section 4
Background Material: Facts, Figures And History
This section of the pack sets out relevant statistics showing how things have changed since the Children's Hearings system was established in 1971. It shows how society has changed and also how children's needs have changed. The final two diagrams show the composition of current Children's Panel membership by social class and age.
There is also further information on the history of the Children's Hearings system.
*The definition of a lone parent with dependent children has changed since 1971. In 1971 a dependent child was classified as a child aged 14 or younger living at home with parent; however, if the child remained in full-time education they could still be classified as a dependent child up until the age of 25. The definition of a dependent child in 2001 was a child under the age of 16 living with parent.
Children And Referrals To The System
In the decade before the Kilbrandon Committee started its examination, the number of children aged 8 - 16 inclusive against whom charges were proved with or without a finding of guilt ranged from 15,000 in the mid-1950s to over 20,000 at the start of the 1960s.
Since 1971 the majority of children aged 8 - 15 who offend have been dealt with the in the Children's Hearings system. Now only around 100 - 150 children are prosecuted in the courts each year, for road traffic offences and/or for serious crime.
FACT
If all time standards are met, the overall elapsed time from first referral to action to help the child in the Children's Hearings system will be 90 working days at most. This includes the full assessment of need. |
** 2774 Panel members: includes newly appointed panel members due to take up post on 16 May, and those who are due to stand down then.
1 National Statistics - Social and Economic Classification (NS - NSCE). For more on what each category means, go to www.dfid.gov.uk/pubs/files/omnibus2002-appendices.pdf
The Children's Hearings System: History
The aim of the Children's Hearings system is to find out the main problems a child has - "the needs of the child" - and to decide what has to be done to solve them. This is described as acting "in the interests of the child", or "the welfare principle".
Kilbrandon
The Hearings system was developed as a result of concern in the late 1950s and 1960s that change was required in the way that society dealt with young offenders and delinquents. Lord Kilbrandon chaired a committee which investigated solutions to the problem that the court-based system appeared not to require young people to face up to their actions and failed to improve their offending or family circumstances. The committee found that often young offenders and those with care and protection needs were one and the same. They made recommendations which were radical for their time in proposing a tribunal-based system of Panel members drawn from the community to consider both needs and deeds of young people. This became law in 1968 and the Hearings system began operating in 1971.
At the core of the Kilbrandon Committee recommendations which set up the Children's Hearings system is the belief that, whatever the reason for the child coming to the attention of the public authorities, all children should be dealt with wherever possible in the same system. The needs of the child should be assessed so that appropriate treatment can be applied. The child should be involved and any legal discussions which might be necessary should take place in court.
FACT
Of 16 and 17-year-old care leavers in 2002-03, only 40% achieved any qualifications - a similar proportion to the previous year. This compares to more than 90% for Scotland as a whole. Only 40% of young people leaving care were in education, employment or training. This compares to 86% of all 16-19 year olds in Scotland. |
The Hearing is the forum for discussing the child's needs and what action is needed. These measures should last as long as necessary and could involve taking the child away from home (in foster care, placing them in residential schools or accommodation, or, if necessary, in secure accommodation.) Under the current system a child may be under supervision until age 18 if there is still a need for action.
This one system was proposed because children who offend or who are at risk of abuse or neglect have similar issues in their lives, mainly to do with family circumstances. What is needed is a system which can identify the problems and act to overcome them. The Kilbrandon approach means that juvenile offenders are not punished in the traditional sense for what they have done. They are not fined or sent to prison. The experience of the juvenile courts which preceded the Hearings system was that this approach did not prove effective.
FACT
On 30 June 2003 there were 10,137 children under compulsory supervision. A decision on whether to keep a supervision requirement in place must be reviewed at least once within 12 months. |
The problems which led to offending frequently required longer-term attention which punishment could not address. The Report recommended that these problems should be dealt with through "social education" - nowadays mainly undertaken by social workers. Offenders should face programmes and measures designed to challenge their attitudes and bring about a change in behaviour which should prevent future offending.
Information and research continues to support the idea that young people who offend and those with welfare needs are the same young people. Around a quarter of all children referred on offence grounds are also referred on care and protection grounds at the same time. Scottish Children's Reporter Administration research shows that the majority (over 60%) of those who offend frequently when older will have first been referred to the system around the ages of 5 - 9, usually on care and protection grounds. A survey of young people in Polmont in 1997 showed that 41% had been enrolled in special educational facilities as children; 82% had truanted from school; 83% had been suspended from school; 55% had been expelled or excluded.
The full text of the Kilbrandon Report is available on the website www.childrens-hearings.co.uk.
Developments Since 1971
The system has been tweaked and adapted since it was established, but never fundamentally reviewed. Alongside it there have been changes.
Measures to protect children were strengthened following a number of enquiries into the deaths or serious injury of children in the 1980s. Child Protection Case Conferences were introduced for professionals to exchange information, assess risk and develop a child protection plan. This approach is not based on statute and cannot compel either parents or children to comply with agreed plans.
In the mid-1980s a new role of safeguarder was created within the Hearings system to help represent the interests of the child where they might not coincide with the interests of the parent or if the child had difficulties in understanding the proceedings. The role was amended in the 1995 Act to "safeguard the interests of the child".
In 1995 the Children (Scotland) Act required the welfare of the individual child to take centre stage, supported by the development of statutory care planning to look at individual needs. The Act also created the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration as a national body. Reporters previously worked in local authorities. Formal legal representation was added at the beginning of this century to assist children where necessary in Hearings.
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