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Introduction
Children in Scotland was asked by the Scottish Executive to organise and facilitate a series of events with children and young people to explore their views in relation to the consultation paper, Getting it Right for Every Child - Proposals for Action. The events focused on aspects of the proposals identified by the Scottish Executive in their document Getting it Right for Every Child - What do you think? Children and Young People's Consultation. These included views on: joint working and information sharing; gaining children's views; criteria for referrals; operational details; and access to information about the Children's Hearings system.
Methodology
Due to the relatively short time frame for the consultation process, the work involved children and young people from established groups. Groups were approached on the basis of 'purposive' sampling i.e. they had certain characteristic that were likely to give different perspectives. Groups were held in a range of geographical locations across Scotland and included children and young people:
- Who had been through the Children's Hearings system
- Who were aware of the system but had not had direct personal contact
- Who were unaware of the Children's Hearings system
A total of 41 children and young people participated in the events, 26 male and 15 female. Participants were aged between 9 and 25 years. Five separate events took place (On two occasions, two groups joined together to form one event).
Sixteen participants (3 female and 13 male) aged between 13 and 25 years. This group included 11 children and young people who had been through the Children's Hearings system and five young people who were aware of the system but had not had any direct personal contact.
Five participants (4 male and 1 female) aged between 12 and 15 years. Whilst none of the children or young people in this group had been through it, they all had a basic knowledge of the Children's Hearings system.
Nine participants (3 male and 6 female) aged between 13 and 17 years. This group included one young person who had been through the Children's Hearings system and eight young people who had limited awareness of the system.
Five participants (3 male and 2 female) aged between 9 and 11 years. This group included two young people who had personal experience of the Children's Hearings system and three young people who were aware of the system but had not been through it themselves.
Six participants (4 male and 2 female) aged between 16 and 25 years. All participants had direct personal experience of the Children's Hearings system.
This consultation was carried out in line with Children in Scotland's research and consultation ethical guidelines (available on request). The children and young people who participated are not named in this report.
Several weeks before the events were held, accessible information explaining the purpose of the work and consent forms were sent to children and young people via their group leaders. To meet the diverse needs of the children and young people the methodology used was necessarily varied and flexible. In addition different tools were used throughout each event to create an atmosphere in which the children and young people felt comfortable and able to openly express their views. Activity-based methods were used alongside more traditional focus group approaches. Although the methods employed with each group varied slightly, each event focused on the questions identified by the Scottish Executive. The extent to which specific questions were covered differed slightly from group to group as some were more relevant to a particular group than others.
Because of the scale of work, this response is not a systematic survey of children and young peoples views. Instead the findings provide a snap shot of the views and experiences of those involved and a valuable perspective on the proposed changes.
This work was carried out independently on behalf of the Scottish Executive and the views expressed are those of the children and young people who took part. They do not represent Children in Scotland's views in relation to the consultation document Getting it Right for Every Child - Proposals for Action.
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