The Scottish Government

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Chapter One: Introduction and Background

Introduction

1.1 This report presents the analysis of responses to the second phase of a major consultation exercise conducted by the Scottish Executive into the reform of children's services including reform of the Children's Hearings system in Scotland.

1.2 The Partnership Agreement adopted by the coalition partners in the Scottish Executive in May 2003 contained a commitment to review the Children's Hearings system. The stated aim was to develop and improve the system while maintaining its fundamental principles. In April 2004 the Scottish Executive published a consultation pack entitled Getting it Right for Every Child - Review of the Children's Hearings System as part of the first stage of this review. This was designed to seek views on the principles and objectives of the Hearings system as well as a number of key issues facing the system.

1.3 The responses to this first phase of consultation were supportive of the general principles of the Children's Hearings System but also revealed some concerns about the way the system was operating in practice. Particular concerns raised were that:

• Children did not get the help they need when they need it and were being drawn into the Children's Hearings system unnecessarily
• The system was not very good at dealing with more persistent or serious offenders
• The system was under strain as Panel Members were often poorly supported and were frustrated when their decisions were not always acted upon.

A full analysis of the responses to the first phase of this consultation was published by the Scottish Executive in October 2004 ¹.

1.4 In considering the responses to this consultation, Ministers have concluded that the review needs to look wider than the Children's Hearings system to address the need for a much more unified approach to children's services across all sectors. The proposals outlined in Getting it Right for Every Child - Proposals for Action recognise that improvements must be made to the wider network of support services for children as well as specific measures to improve the Children's Hearings System, to ensure that children get the help they need when they need it. This is in line with the Scottish Executive's commitment to ensuring that the child is at the heart of children's services and that decisions about children must be based upon the help they need.

1.5 The consultation document Getting it Right for Every Child - Proposals for Action identifies three main areas for improvement:

• Improving and unifying the services for children
• Strengthening the Children's Hearings system
• Modernising the Children's Hearings system.

The consultation document asked for respondents' views about 23 specific proposals relating to these broad themes. For each proposal respondents were asked:

• If they supported the proposed action
• If they thought the proposed action would meet the stated objective
• If they thought further or different measures are required.

In addition to the 23 specific proposals respondents were asked for their views on three more open ended questions on particular issues. These specific questions concerned:

• The Integrated Assessment, Records and Planning Framework
• The role of Safeguarders
• Arrangements for Supporting Panel Members.

The Consultation Process

1.6 The consultation pack was published on 21 June 2005 and was distributed to a wide range of organisations and networks including community groups, voluntary organisations, business organisations, local authorities and all current serving Children's Panel Members. The consultation pack was also published on the Scottish Executive's web site and a web based version of the questionnaire was made available to interested parties who wished to respond online.

1.7 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. The events focussed on children and young people's 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. 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.

Participants were aged between 9 and 25 years. The findings from these events have been submitted to the Scottish Executive in a full report prepared by Children in Scotland. This report is attached as Appendix C to this report. However, the key findings have also been incorporated into the analysis contained in the main report to ensure that the views of children and young people are fully reflected in the context of the overall responses to the consultation process.

The Respondents

1.8 The closing date for receipt of written or online responses was the 30th of September 2005. By this date 605 completed responses had been received. 406 of these responses came from individuals, representing 68% of the total responses received. 32% of responses came from a wide range of organisations All of these 605 responses have been analysed in preparing this report. In addition, a total of forty-one children and young people participated in the events.

1.9 The list of organisations that responded to the consultation is attached at Appendix A. Organisations that responded can be classified into broad categories as shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1 - Organisational Respondents by Category

1.10 Three-quarters of individual respondents who submitted a written response said that they had some direct involvement in the Children's Hearings system as a volunteer, and from the analysis of the written responses it would appear that most of these volunteers were current or former Children's Panel Members. A further 17% of respondents said they had direct experience of the Hearings system as a professional. While not all of these individuals gave details of their profession it is clear from the analysis that the main professionals who responded came from the social work, education and health sectors.

1.11 Only 22 individual respondents said they had direct experience of the system as either a parent or a child. This represents 5% of all respondents.

Analysis of Responses

1.12 The analysis of the consultation responses involved a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods.

Quantitative Analysis

1.13 The quantitative analysis aims to show the proportion of respondents that were supportive, or otherwise of the suggestions made in the consultation document. A coding framework was devised based on analysis of the first 100 responses. This was further developed and refined following ongoing analysis of responses. An SPSS database was developed and responses analysed using this software. The majority of questions were open questions and some degree of judgement was required in organising material and coding for the quantitative analysis.

1.14 In order to ensure consistency of approach, the research team was kept to a minimum size and worked closely together. Initially this coding was limited to an agree/disagree. However, once all responses had been received it was possible to develop a more detailed coding framework for a limited number of proposals.

1.15 Responses were also coded according to whether they had been received by individuals or organisations, by those involved with the Children's Hearings system in the capacity of volunteers, professionals or those not involved, and by whether or not the respondent had any experience as a parent or a child in front of a Hearing. All respondents were given equal weighting in the quantitative analysis. Where the responses of certain organisations were particularly relevant, they have been addressed in the qualitative discussion of each section.

1.16 Given the open ended nature of most of the questions in the consultation paper and the free text nature of many of the responses it was not always possible to code responses for quantitative analysis, e.g. where it was not clear whether a respondent was definitely supportive of a particular proposal. In addition, some respondents did not provide responses to all of the proposals and specific questions contained in the consultation document. The percentages shown in the qualitative analysis shown in the tables in Appendices 2 and 3 and quoted throughout the main sections of the report refer to the 'valid percentage', i.e. the percentage of respondents who responded to a particular question or proposal.

1.17 It is important to emphasise that whilst the quantitative information gives a basic overview of the majority of issues raised in response to each question, and an indication of the levels of support for some of the suggestions the consultation makes, it cannot reflect the detailed issues that respondents raise or reflect the reasons they give for their views. The numerical classification of a response only offers a crude approximation of the views offered by a respondent. These views are explored in more depth through the qualitative analysis presented in this report.

Qualitative Analysis

1.18 The nature of the consultation was such that the majority of questions were open questions to which respondents were invited to comment. The qualitative analysis aims to capture in more detail the concerns and issues raised by respondents, and the reasoning behind their views. A large number of responses were received, and comments on individual questions varied from one word answers, to long detailed discussions. The qualitative analysis used a Framework approach to identify key themes raised by a considerable number of respondents or by particular categories of respondents. Quotes from the submissions received from specific respondents are used to illustrate and support these themes and are generally indicative of the views expressed by a considerable number of respondents.

Structure of Report

1.19 The remainder of this report comprises the analysis of the responses received. The structure of the report follows broadly the structure of the consultation paper issued by the Scottish Executive.

Chapter 2 examines responses to the proposals designed to improve children's services.

Chapter 3 considers the responses to the issues raised in the consultation paper relating to the Integrated Assessment, Records and Planning Framework.

Chapter 4 analyses the responses to the proposals intended to make the Children's Hearings system work more effectively.

Chapter 5 considers the responses to the proposals in the consultation paper relating to providing better support to Children's Panels.

Chapter 6 examines issues raised during the consultation in respect of improving public confidence in the Children's Hearings system.

Chapter 7 considers the key findings arising from the consultation and offers some conclusions based upon these findings.

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