Moray

Clerk contact details

If you have any queries, or would just like to chat to someone about volunteering in the Children’s Hearings System, please contact the Clerk for Highland and Moray:

Name: Carol Maragh
Email: carol.maragh@highland.gov.uk
Phone: 01463 702120

Being a Panel Member in Highland and Moray

The area covered by Highland and Moray comprises Caithness, Skye and Lochalsh, Lochaber, Sutherland, Ross and Cromarty, Moray, Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey.

Volunteering as a panel member for the Children's Panel in Highland and Moray offers a unique opportunity to create lasting positive change in the lives of children and their families. 

You will also:

• contribute to your community
• develop personally  
• be part of a supportive network of skilled, experienced and highly committed volunteers 

When you join you will receive:

• comprehensive training 
• ongoing support
• develop and enhance a wide range of valuable skills such as active listening, critical thinking, decision-making, and problem-solving

Your commitment once fully trained: 

• preparation time ahead of hearings to read the hearing papers and reports prepared for each child's hearing
• sitting on at least two half day hearing sessions each month
• keep your skills, knowledge and experience up to date by undertaking a mix of online and face-to-face learning and development training and events as part of the panel community

Hearings schedule

Currently a mixture of in person, hybrid and fully virtual hearings are taking place across Highland and Moray. In person and hybrid hearings are held from the Inverness, Thurso or Elgin Hearings Centres which are managed by the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA).

All hearing sessions are scheduled during the working day to take place in a morning or afternoon so you would need to be available for a half day to sit on a hearing session. Hearings take place in:

• Inverness Hearings Centre all days of the week with the exception of Monday or Friday afternoons.
• In Thurso scheduled hearings tend to be held on Monday mornings and all day on Wednesdays. 
• In Moray hearings tend to be held on Tuesday afternoons, Wednesday mornings and Thursday afternoons
• In addition, there may be emergency hearings added for Highland and Moray on a Monday or Friday afternoon.

For more information and resources on what it is like to attend children's hearings, go to https://www.scra.gov.uk/.