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ANNEX 5 LORD ADVOCATE'S WORKING GROUP RECOMMENDATION 134
"Recommendation 1: that in order to provide support services for young witnesses in a structure providing greater consistency and inter-agency accountability:
1.1 Child Protection Committees should appoint a subgroup to take forward operational support of young witnesses with terms of reference covering both criminal and Children's Hearing court proceedings and young witnesses in general, not solely those who are victims. Subgroup members should represent all key groups, including the judiciary
1.2 Child witness officers should co-ordinate independent familiarisation services provided by trained employees of Child Protection Committees' member organisations. In less populated areas, this co-ordinating role may require only a part-time or shared position
1.3 Those involved in child witness support and preparation should receive training on the standards set out in the protocol developed by the Child Witness Support Working Group, which describes the scope of appropriate preparation and emphasises the need to avoid doing anything to contaminate the child's evidence
1.4 Child Protection Committee member agencies should contribute the time of staff acting as familiarisation workers, mileage and training costs and accommodation for the child witness officer, as in the model adopted by the Child Witness Co-ordination Group, a subgroup of the Area Child Protection Committee for Kingston-Upon-Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire
1.5 The Scottish Office should be invited to consider options for resourcing child witness officer co-ordinators and the necessary administrative support, including the possibility of partnerships with child welfare organisations. It is estimated that coverage of the 26 Child Protection Committees for Scotland could be achieved for £663,000 (based on £39,000 for a full-time co-ordinator with administrative support in eight Child Protection Committees, with the remaining 18 Committees being served by 18 half-time positions). "
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