Businessman giving back to community
Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS) has launched its biggest national campaign to recruit 700 new volunteer Children’s Panel members to work with children and
As an 11-year-old growing up in Wishaw, James Fleming was referred to the Children’s Panel on several occasions after he was, as he describes it,“a naughty boy”.
Although he remembers the experience, and the stress it caused his parents, it had such a profound but positive effect on James that now – as a successful international businessman who has travelled the world – he is giving back to the community that shaped the man he is today by volunteering as a Panel member.
“I was a challenging young boy, always up to something,” said James, 48.
“Two or three times, I got in trouble with the police for the same thing. Nothing serious, but serious enough for the police to be involved. I was never a nasty, bad boy – naughty, rather than bad.
“I was referred to the Children’s Panel by the police. Both my parents went with me. I was given a sore bottom – because it was allowed in those days. I got dismissed. They said they believed there was no compulsory order required and they put it back to my parents to deal with in the family home, with support from the social work department.
“I remember being terrified, but really respectful. I was brought up to respect people, be polite. I was conscious of how I had upset my parents, and the people in front of me were telling me: ‘You have parents who care about you and you should be thankful’.”
In his late teens, James moved to young people in their local communities.
Here, we speak to two Lanarkshire volunteers who had very different reasons for becoming members of the
West Lothian for work and was soon to emigrate to the Middle East. He lived abroad for more than 20 years, running and building successful businesses.
Children’s Panel.
But both are motivated by the same desire to give something back – and to listen and make decisions, no matter how big or small, that
“I was very fortunate that I took control of my life. It was about me and my mindset. Luckily, at a young age, I realised it was up to me,” said James, who returned to Lanarkshire will have a profound impact on the lives of infants, children and young people.
I got in trouble.. nothing serious, but enough for the police to be involved
in March 2017, when he and wife Enas launched training and development company, The Power Within, based at Strathclyde Business Park.
Having trained as a life and personal development coach while abroad, James on his return to Scotland volunteered with the Samaritans, and was quick to respond to a radio advertisement for new Children’s Panel members.
“I wanted to give something back to the local community, without receiving anything in return,” explained James.
“I believe I can talk to young children and teenagers, when some adults really struggle. I can come to their level and look them in the eye, because I have been there. I can really empathise, because I have walked in their shoes.
“My parents broke up when I was 15. A lot of things happened in my childhood that would potentially send a lot of kids on the wrong path. I had a dad who was very supportive.”
The key to being a member of the
Children’s Panel, he says, is not to be judgemental – and to remember that you are there for the child and not the parents.
“You have to be quite a strong person,” said dad-of-one James, who is keen to stress that only a small percentage of children and young people are referred to the Children’s Panel because they’ve had a brush with the law.
“You also need to be strongminded. There are another two Panel members, and if you do not agree with their view, you have to be able to stand your ground and make a decision based on your experience and what you have heard.
“You hear a lot of harrowing, heartbreaking stories, and you need to be able to let it go when you walk out the door – because you know you are having a direct impact on that child’s life, for the better.”
A total of 3324 children’s hearings were held in Lanarkshire between April 1, 2019, and March 31, 2020 – 1550 in South Lanarkshire, and 1744 in North Lanarkshire.
During those hearings, 558 referred children and young people were supported in South Lanarkshire (230 girls and 328 boys), while in North Lanarkshire, 597 referred children and young people (208 girls and 389 boys) received support.
In South Lanarkshire, where a total of 816 cases were referred, 221 of them were referred by police, 190 by social work and 146 by schools.
Of the 597 total referrals in North Lanarkshire, 294 came from police, 135 from social work, and 136 from schools.
Other sources of referral include court, health, Procurator Fiscal, relatives and the Children’s Reporter.
In South Lanarkshire, most of the referred children and young people (270) fell into the 13 to 15 age category (48.4 per cent), and 41 were babies under 12 months of age.
Among North Lanarkshire referrals, 320 of them were aged between 13 and 15 – that’s 53.6 per cent of the total referrals. Infants aged under one accounted for 35 of the referrals during this period.
There are a range of reasons why a child or young person may be referred to attend a children’s hearing. In the last year, approximately 84 per cent of all referrals in Scotland were on care and protection grounds.