Conference Poster: Children’s Hearings Scotland

The text of this poster reads as follows:

Making positive change - Upholding children’s rights Putting children and families at the heart of everything we do

Every day is an opportunity to do something better

Every day, CHS and our volunteers continue to focus on key areas:

• championing children’s rights
• taking a trauma-informed approach to all that we do
• embracing recommendations for change

This is only a small part of what we are doing now to make hearings better or children and young people.

Children’s rights need to be at the heart of every decision made for every child in Scotland

Recent legislative changes have gone a long way to support this;

• the introduction of sibling participation rights
• advocacy in the hearing room
• giving children and young people the choice whether they want to attend their hearing in person or virtually

All our volunteers have undertaken extensive mandatory training to understand these rights, and understand the vital role they play in protecting these rights in the hearing room.

Every child has a voice, and deserves to be listened to

Co-designed with children and young people, our new Child Friendly Feedback process helps and encourages children and young people to give us valuable input.

We want to know what went well, and what could go better.

If a child or young person feels they want to make a complaint, we want them to have the confidence to do so and for this to be as accessible as possible.

Embracing positive change for older children

At CHS, we welcome the changes proposed by the Children (Care and Justice)(Scotland) Bill and have already begun extensive work to understand the impact these will have in the hearing room.

We are committed to ensuring that every child under the age of 18 who requires support and guidance, benefits from the welfare based approach of The Children’s Hearings System to give them the best start in life.

All children have the right to be heard and for their views to be taken seriously and we must do everything possible to encourage older children to actively engage and help shape their own future.