CHS is delighted that the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill has received Royal Assent, meaning it is now an Act of Parliament. This new law will help deliver the Promise, introducing significant changes to the hearings system for Scotland’s children.

Thanks to contributors

We are grateful to everyone who contributed their insights during the Parliamentary process and enabled CHS to advocate on behalf of children and families and ensure that the voices of lived experience were at the heart of the legislative process.

The legislation will:

• improve access to advocacy

• extend access to aftercare up to the age of 26

• improve the language used around care, including a definition of 'care experience'

• improve foster care through a national register and 'not for profit' stipulation

• improve service coordination

• restrict profits on residential care services

• boost support for kinship carers

• promote Family Group Decision Making

Changes affecting hearings include improving continuity through the introduction of an Enhanced Chair. This new role with additional responsibilities will help achieve greater continuity and consistency for children at hearings. It will reduce the number of times children have to retell their story to a panel.

The Enhanced Chair will also reduce drift and delay, through the power to refer hearings promptly to the Sheriff where agreement on grounds cannot be reached, avoiding repeated deferrals and allowing decisions about the child’s care to progress without prolonged uncertainty.

Volunteer decision-making continues

The Act will bring improvements for children and families in the children’s hearings system, but the fundamental aim will continue to be to protect the rights of children.

The Act reinforces the Government’s commitment to volunteers within the children’s hearings system and retains the right for Panel Members to make their own independent decisions in hearings alongside the new enhanced role of the Chair.

The hearings system will also continue to reinforce the 'Kilbrandon principles' on which is was founded more than 50 years ago, including that hearings should be inquisitorial not adversarial, and that hearings should address a child's needs, not their deeds. 

What happens next

The section of the Act on the redesign of the children’s hearings system is unlikely to come into effect before 2028-29 so CHS will now consider our implementation approach and ensure that we get it right for children and young people and for our Panel Members.

Meanwhile our work continues to progress on non-legislative changes to the hearings system, led by the Redesign Board.