Experiences of virtual Children’s Hearings: A rapid consultation report

Year: 2020
Topic: Adoption, Child protection, Children's hearings system, Corporate parenting, Emotional abuse, Foster care, Kinship care, Legislation, Local authority, Looked after at home, Permanence, Residential care, Secure care, Throughcare and aftercare
Author: Robert Porter, Fiona Mitchell, Fern Gillon, Emma Young, Nina Vaswani

The Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020, which came into force in April 2020, altered several procedural requirements for Children’s Hearings in Scotland. This consultation exercise considered the experiences of those involved in Children’s Hearings undertaken using video-conferencing in order to inform consideration of whether virtual hearings can facilitate participation by those who cannot, or prefer not to, attend Hearings in person. It is a companion report to Experiences of virtual Children’s Hearings: A rapid consultation – Report for Young People and also Experiences of virtual Children’s Hearings: A rapid consultation – Report for Parents and carers.