Inside the closed court of the children’s hearing system
THE children’s hearing system came into law in 1968, following a report by an investigatory committee under Lord Kilbrandon. The existing juvenile justice system was deemed to be unsuitable because it combined the characteristics of a criminal court with that of a treatment agency. Kilbrandon recommended a separation of these functions.
The law was updated in 2011, including a number of changes involving new grounds, updated legal orders and pre-hearing panels.
The hearing is carried out by three lay members who have gone through a training course. They are selected from the overall children’s panel which is comprised of around 2,700 volunteers in 22 areas.
The children’s reporter is there to see that the panel decision is competent or procedurally correct. However, he or she takes no part in the decision-making and the reporter does not have to be a lawyer, although many are.
These hearings take place in closed court, there is no reporting, recording or shorthand note of the proceedings, with the reporter responsible for taking a minute.
The vast majority of hearings don’t involve criminal allegations but welfare issues, like custody or parental contact. There is an appeal process, rarely used, to a sheriff, again in a closed court, who does not have the power to impose his own judgment but only to refer the matter back to a panel for further consideration.
There is no guarantee that the panel which then hears the case is the same one which made the original decision.
Critics, lawyers representing clients at hearings, claim that panels almost automatically defer to social work recommendations in cases, that the lay members don’t have the expertise or qualifications to make life-changing decisions and, as there is no requirement for panel members from a previous hearings to attend subsequent ones, there is a lack of continuity.
A further criticism is that the system does not readily allow children to raise their own concerns in absolute confidence.