The Children's Hearings (Scotland) Bill will underpin reform of the Children's Hearings system; a reform programme that provides the opportunity to improve outcomes for children and young people, addressing their needs and promoting their rights - improving the way we support our most vulnerable children and their families.
The Scottish Government is committed to a welfare based children's hearings system, focused on early and effective intervention, designed to build on the principles of Kilbrandon and the Getting it Right for Every Child approach. The Getting it Right for Every Child approach is the key to this and the Scottish Government remains fully committed to it and to implementation of the Early Years Framework and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. We need a system which responds effectively to the challenges it faces today - both the large growth in numbers of children needing care and protection and the need to deal with offending behaviour by young people.
The Scottish Government is continuing to engage heavily with key partners within the children's hearings system to progress drafting of the Bill. As part of this work we are currently setting up a number of short-life stakeholder working groups under the auspices of the Children's Hearings Strategic Project Board to look, over the next few months, at key elements of our reform proposals. In addition to this work, we have launched a newsletter which will provide regular progress updates to our stakeholders on work relating to the Bill. You can access the first, second and third editions of the newsletter on this website.
We welcome views on our overview and table which set out the changes to the draft Bill (published in June 2009) that the Government intends to make; what those changes are designed to achieve and the concerns they are intended to address; those issues on which we are still considering how best we can move things forward; and those issues on which we propose no change at present.
We are in the process of receiving final feedback but if you have any immediate feedback or would like more information please email the Children's hearings bill team.