Children's Hearings Redesign Board minutes: March 2026

Attendees and apologies

• Nicola Dickie, COSLA       
• Brian Taylor, SG,    
• Ben Farrugia, SWS
• Neil Hunter, SCRA
• Elliot Jackson, CHS          
• Melissa Parkinson, SG

Items and actions

Children’s Hearings Redesign Workstreams Update

March 2026

 

Introduction

The redesign of the children’s hearings system is part of the Programme for Government (PfG) commitment to Keep the Promise and deliver the national outcome for children and young people. The redesign of the children’s hearings system will be delivered through three main strands:

 

Legislation, through the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill

Policy and Practice, through the Children’s Hearings Redesign Board outlined below

Continuous improvement, through incremental changes implemented by practitioners.

 

This paper aims to provide a short summary of progress made on the workstreams overseen by the Children’s Hearings Redesign Board as part of their workplan. The workplan consists of four initial workstreams which are: Planning and Preparing for Hearings; Culture; Referral process; and Data and Information. These will be closely followed by four additional workstreams including: Language and Communication; Babies and Infants in the Hearings System; Processes During the Hearing; and After the Hearing. In recognition of the resource pressures across the system, we are planning implementation of the workstream outcomes up to 2030, to align with the wider Promise implementation plan.

 

The workstreams are being collaboratively developed by professionals and practitioners. Engagement and collaboration with children and young people who have lived and living experience of the hearings system will continue to be undertaken where it is appropriate to do so.

 

Planning and Preparing for Hearings Workstream

This workstream last met on 10 February 2026. The group is working well together and making good progress in considering what preparation looks like for each of the participants in the hearing. The group have developed a number of papers on supporting best practice which has been circulated to the Redesign Board for and been tested with wider stakeholders on the Children’s Hearings Improvement Partnership group.

 

The next steps will be to: consider how preparation is tied to culture in the hearings system; gather all our data on time, people, information, practice and environment; use the data and information to redesign the guidance, resources and training.

 

This workstream has been impacted by members capacity to carry out work in between meetings but remains on track to deliver initial products for testing by/in summer 2026.

 

Culture Workstream

This workstream aims to provide a set of principles and standards of practice and behaviour to be adopted by all participants across the children’s hearings system. It aims to identify and address the factors which would support delivery of a positive culture across the hearings system.

 

The group last met in 4 March 2026.  It is working well and has developed a set of children’s hearings system principles which will apply across the whole system. These have been discussed with the Planning and Implementation Group and the Redesign Board and have been tested further with the Children’s Hearings Improvement Partnership as well as Our Hearings Our Voice. The Group have considered the feedback and revised the principles for further discussion with a wider set of stakeholders.

 

Referrals Workstream

The group has been meeting regularly and is working well together. The Learning Leads, a multi-agency collaborative project, has developed learning materials for professionals working in the children’s hearings system. The project has launched a new resource on the learning hub hosted by the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration. Further resources are in development and expected to be launched in Spring 2026. 

 

The Enhanced Partnership Model has 2 Senior Practitioners recruited from within the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration to work with Police Scotland across G Division (Greater Glasgow) and C division (Forth Valley) supporting referral practices.

 

As part of a joint project between Scottish Children's Reporter Administration and Police Scotland, 3 reporters were appointed to work with the following Police Scotland Division Hubs: L Division (Dumbarton); U Division (Kilmarnock); and Q Division (Hamilton). This project supports the establishment of a Children’s Hearing Champion model and wider learning and referral practices within those hubs. The champion recruitment is well underway with positive uptake, and training delivery plans have been developed. Initial feedback has been extremely positive about the progress being made.

 

Data and Information Workstream

The group has met on several occasions to consider the overall purpose of the Data and Information Workstream and has identified two distinct and necessary areas of work. The first approach focuses on developing a comprehensive understanding of the existing data landscape, including ongoing work across the system and partner agencies. The second approach relates to providing oversight and support for work emerging from the other workstreams, including the provision of data to inform the evaluation framework that the Planning and Implementation Group are taking forward.

 

Future Workstreams

Work is continuing on scoping out the 4 future workstreams. Workstream groups will be established and first meetings will be held in early 2026 for the Language, Communication and Grounds and Babies and Infants in the Hearings System workstreams.

 

Language and Communication will consider the current language of grounds, and the processes and practice involved in communication approaches in the hearings system.

 

Babies and Infants in the hearings system will explore whether this should be a specific project or be mainstreamed across the other workstreams.

 

Both the Processes During the Hearing and After the Hearing workstreams will be shaped by the passage of the legislation and so cannot be fully scoped until later in the programme of work.

 

Contact: childrenshearingsredesignboard@gov.scot