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Section Five: Information about the Children's Hearings System
Of the 41 children and young people involved in the consultation, six children and young people thought that there was currently enough information on the Children's Hearings system as things stand. One young person felt, very strongly, that information on the system and details of the system should only be provided to those who attend Hearings. This young person felt that the happenings of a Children's Hearing in a locality should not be discussed publicly, particularly in the case of welfare cases:
"You should only have information if you are going to a Hearing, not for every one, you shouldn't advertise it, other people don't need to know"
The remaining, large majority, of children and young people felt that there was not enough information on the System and agreed with the proposal to disseminate information about Hearings in each local area:
"I've never really heard anything about it, all I know is that it is bad" Young Person - Event 2
"You dinnae know what it's about when you are asked to come" Young Person - Event 5
"It would be good if you were told more about it and what happens and people know about it" Young Person - Event 4
- What information would you like to have access to?
On the whole it was felt that there should be more information and that information should be easier to access. The information that children and young people wanted was split in to two distinct categories, these were:
- General information about what the Children's Hearings system is and what happens, for all children and young people.
- Specific information about the proceedings, for children and young people who are going through the system.
The main five areas children and young people wanted information on were: what the Children's Hearings system is: why you go to the panel; what happens at the panel; who will be at the panel; and what happens after the Hearing. One young person also suggested that there should be readily available information on what help there is for children and young people going through the Children's Hearings system.
- How would you like to get information about how Children's Hearings work?
Participants had lots of ideas about how to inform children and young people, the following suggestions were made:
How to give us information about the Children's Hearing System
- Posters
- Talks
- Panel member talks
- Examples
- Case studies
- E-mails
- Credit card flyers
- Leaflets
- Videos
When prioritising these suggestions, a clear preference emerged. The preferred method of receiving general information about the Children's Hearings system was 'through talks'. Children and young people wanted adults who knew about the system - possibly panel members or young people who have been through the system, to talk to them about it. It was felt that this could best be done through talks at schools, youth groups and clubs:
"Panel members should travel to school classes to talk about it" Young Person - Event 2
For specific information, for children and young people in contact with the system, children and young people said that they wanted people to talk to them about it on a one-to-one basis. One group agreed that using case studies and past example would really help:
"Case studies - because that's more interesting and positive than just some information which doesn't really mean much if you have never been to a Hearing" Young Person - Event 1
"Examples, you know like case studies so you know what's going to happen, who's going to be there, what will happen after, things like that" Young Person - Event 1
Email, posters and videos were also popular options. It was thought that emails and posters should contain information about Children's services in general as well as the Children's Hearings system.
Leaflets were by far the least popular option, however it was suggested that if information had to be in leaflets, that they should be "child friendly", eye catching and different. A well-received suggestion was that they could be in the style and size of credit cards. Children and young people suggested that "child friendly" would mean: short; to the point; simple words; and not too much writing. The strong message was that long leaflets (over one A4 page) are not read.
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