Young people from across Scotland have submitted their application to become a Board Member for Our Hearings, Our Voice. The campaign ran from 3 September to 1 October to recruit children and young people to join the young people’s board for the Hearings System. Young...

SCRA has announced that we are backing the campaign to treat care experience as a protected characteristic for children and young people. The campaign, which is being led by the charity Who Cares? Scotland, aims to eliminate discrimination and prejudice towards care...

  Young people in Edinburgh are piloting a new pack aimed at providing them with information about court. SCRA has put together a pack of information materials to help support young people who have go to Edinburgh Sheriff Court as part of Children’s Hearings...

SCRA has published statistics today about children and young people referred to the Reporter. The figures show that 13,240  children and young people in Scotland were referred to the Children’s Reporter in 2017/18. Some children and young people are referred to the...

SCRA’s Going to Court flyer for young people has been revamped and reprinted. The A5 flyer is aimed at young people who have to go to court as part of Children’s Hearings proceedings. It contains information about who will be a court, what might happen and where to...

Hi there, I thought it would be good to give you a quick update on how we are getting on with developing Our Hearings, Our Voice (let’s call it OHOV for short!)  We’ve been busy over the last couple of months getting everything in place for getting started to create a...

SCRA has produced a new short film aimed at young people. The film shows a Pre-Hearing visit in the hope of encouraging more children and young people to request one before their actual Hearing. The film, which is set in our Hearings centre in Stirling, shows a...

SCRA has launched a new Communications Commitment and Participation Pledge aimed at children and young people. You can view it here. This is part of SCRA’s Corporate Parenting Plan and it sets out how we will communicate with children and young people. We aim to...

A number of Hearing rooms have recently undergone a revamp. Five new-look rooms have been introduced across the country with input from Hearings-experienced young people. SCRA secured an interior design company to work with the young people and staff to create a more...

SCRA has published its Corporate Parenting Plan for 2018-19. The plan is aimed at young people and outlines our Corporate Parenting activities for the year ahead. The plan is broken into six commitments:  Commitment 1 We will do our best to meet your needs and promote...

Art work by children and young people has recently gone on display in one of SCRA’s Hearings centres. The Hearings centre in Paisley has a variety of art work on display created by local children and young people. The art work was initially on display at the Paisley...

Young people from Jersey visited Scotland on a fact finding mission about the Children’s Hearings System. Three young people from the Channel Islands, along with the Jersey Chief Minister, spent a morning at SCRA’s Hearings Centre in Edinburgh to find out more about...

  We understand that children and young people can feel anxious about going to their Hearing. We want you to feel at ease and ready to participate, so we have asked our Participation Officer Jennifer Orren to give advice on some of the areas which children and...

If you want to know more about getting contact with your brothers and sisters, then there is a new resource available. Stand Up For Siblings is a new website which provides information for young people and professionals like social workers and panel members about...

As we celebrate Scottish Apprenticeship week, we talk to one of our Modern Apprentices Sophie Henderson about her experiences working with SCRA… So Sophie what made you apply for the Modern Apprenticeship post? “My Social Worker told my foster carer about it, and I...

SCRA is making a new film aimed at young people. The short film will show a Pre-Hearing visit at one of our Hearing centres. The aim of the film is to highlight to young people the benefit of going to a Pre-Hearing visit. The film, which will be launched later this...

Hi there, my name is Jacqui Dunbar and I started my new job as the Development Worker for Our Hearings, Our Voice on the 29th of January 2018.  I’m looking forward to supporting children and young people who are Hearing and care experienced to develop the very first...

For just over a year I have been a Modern Apprentice with SCRA. Before working for them I had been through the Hearings System myself, so I knew a little bit about the Children’s Reporter. I still stay with my foster carers who I’ve lived with for almost 5 years, and...

SCRA regularly reviews its information materials so that they remain relevant to young people, appealing and easy to understand. Our ‘Your Rights’ flyer is the latest leaflet to have a revamp. Aimed specifically at providing rights based information to children and...

To mark the start of the Year of Young People 2018, SCRA has published an Annual Report aimed at young people. The Annual Report – which you can read here - looks at some of the progress following the first year of SCRA’s Corporate Parenting Plan which was launched in...

Have you heard about Pre-Hearing visits? Do you know they can help you prepare for your Children’s Hearing? We asked one young person to write about their experience of a Pre-Hearing visit. Here’s Jordan’s story… “I didn’t really know what a Pre-Hearing visit was...

The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) has joined Instagram.  You can follow our account scotchildreporter for all our latest news and updates. SCRA’s Press and Communications Manager Maryanne McIntyre said: “We are committed to continually improving...

To encourage more children and young people to fill in their All About Me forms before their Hearing, SCRA is trialling the use of eye-catching, bright green, speech bubble stickie notes. Printed inside the speech bubble are the words ‘Remember to fill in your All...

The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) has published its Annual Report for 2016/17. The Annual Report provides statistical information about the numbers of children and young people referred to the Reporter in 2016/17. The statistics show that in...

We are looking for someone to take forward the development of a young people’s board for the Children’s Hearings System. The aim of the board – Our Hearings, Our Voice - is to provide children and young people with experience of the Hearings System the opportunity to...

Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS) is looking for 500 new Children’s Panel members to sit on children’s hearings and to help children and young people in their local area. There are around 2,500 volunteer panel members across Scotland. We need new volunteers from lots...

Most people would say going into foster care was a bad thing and they had a bad experience, but for me I had a good experience. At first going into foster care was hard for me and my two sisters, we were placed with a foster family miles away from where we lived...

We ask Gwendoline Tracey, a Children’s Hearings advocate with Barnardo’s. Gwendoline, what is advocacy? Advocacy is the name given to the process of supporting children and young people to speak up, express their views and defend their rights. An advocate is the...

Corporate Parent, SCRA has published statistics today about children and young people referred to the Reporter. The figures show that 15,118  children and young people in Scotland were referred to the Children’s Reporter in 2016/17. Some children and young people are...

Young people helped make improvements to Hearing rooms across Scotland. A number of Hearing rooms have recently been given a makeover to try and increase the participation of children and young people in their Hearings. Nine of SCRA’s Hearing rooms have been given a...

A Modern Apprentice working in the Children’s Hearings System has starred in a new film which was recently launched. Sophie Henderson, age 18, scripted, starred in and co-directed the short film called “Give me a chance” which was made by the Fostering Network....

Participation Officer, Jennifer Orren writes a blog about how important it is that children and young people are prepared for their Hearing… Attending a Children’s Hearing is an important process, where decisions are made that are in your best interests and to help...

Resources have been produced to help young people in care. The information, has been developed by the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland & Who Cares? Scotland, is also aimed at care leavers and the adults who support them. They can help you...

A plan to give young people a real say in the Children’s Hearings System is one step closer to becoming a reality. Key agencies involved in Scotland’s Hearings System want to create a Board for Hearings and care-experienced children and young people. The aim of the...

Hello, I am Neil Hunter, I am Principal Reporter and Chief Executive Officer at SCRA. In April 2015 SCRA became proud Corporate Parents of Scottish children and young people in the Children’s Hearings System who are on Compulsory Supervision Orders.   SCRA’s Corporate...

Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS) and the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) wanted to provide you with a more interactive experience to explain about our corporate parenting commitments. You can of course read our plans, but hopefully our website...

Hello I’m Boyd McAdam, the National Convener and Chief Executive of Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS). Since April 2015 when the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 was introduced, CHS and the 22 Area Support Teams, who support the national Children’s Panel...