Children's Hearings Handbook

Date: 26th April 2013
Category: General measures of implementation
Author: Scottish Government

In June 2013, the Children's Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 will come into force and like its predecessors the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 and the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, there will be significant changes to hearings, however the fundamental role of panel members will remain the same.

In order to ensure that panel members can deal with the changes, the four Children's Hearing Training Units have been revised. This revision includes other legislation which has been introduced in recent years and which has had an impact on the work of the hearings, as well as best practice guidance which has been developed in the light of experience.

The original Training Resource Manual has been separated into two volumes:

• Volume 1: Legislation and Procedures contains the new act and new rules, and relevant section of all recent legislative changes and revised step-by-step procedures and best practice guidance.
• Download Volume 1 here
• Volume 2 - Children's Hearings Handbook is primarily about children: the problems that some of them face, the environment in which they live, their needs, their rights and the services that are provided to meet those needs as well as how best to communicate with them and the adults who are present at hearings.
• Download Volume 2 here