Education and Skills Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Official Report 589KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 (Children’s Advocacy Services) Regulations 2020 [Draft]

Agenda item 3 is consideration of draft subordinate legislation that is subject to affirmative procedure. The consideration has two parts; first, the committee will have the opportunity to ask questions of the minister, then we will turn to the formal debate on the motion.

I welcome Maree Todd, the Minister for Children and Young People, and Tom McNamara, who is head of youth justice and children’s hearings at the Scottish Government. I invite the minister to make an opening statement.

Thank you for the opportunity to introduce the draft instrument. The Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 (Children’s Advocacy Services) Regulations 2020 make provision concerning children’s advocacy services under section 122 of the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011. Section 122(2) includes a requirement on the

“chairing member of a children’s hearing to inform the child of the availability of children’s advocacy services”

unless

“the chairing member considers that it would not be appropriate to do so.”

Section 122(7) defines children’s advocacy services as

“services of support and representation provided for the purposes of assisting a child in relation to the child’s involvement in a children’s hearing”,

so, it is specifically about advocacy for children who are referred to hearings.

Section 122(4) contains a regulation-making power allowing the

“Scottish Ministers to make regulations for or in connection with—

(a) the provision of children’s advocacy services.”

The objective of the draft regulations is to ensure that the right support is available for children and young people, and that the arrangements for providing children’s advocacy are effective. The draft regulations set out the qualifications that are to be held by persons who provide children’s advocacy services and the training that they are required to undertake.

The regulations also make provision regarding payment of expenses, fees and allowances by the Scottish ministers.

The primary role of children’s advocacy is to support children and young people to express their own needs and views and to make sure that their rights are respected. That will support decision makers to make informed decisions on issues that influence children’s lives, when those issues are considered in children’s hearings.

If they are passed, the regulations will apply where the Scottish ministers have entered into arrangements with a service provider, under section 122(5) of the 2011 act, for provision of children’s advocacy services.

Persons will be qualified to act as advocacy workers in children’s hearings under the scheme only when they have completed training and qualifications in accordance with the regulations. Under regulation 4(2), the Scottish ministers must provide or arrange that training and qualification for current and potential child advocacy workers.

Regulation 5 specifies the matters on which training must be provided, including the legislation that is relevant to children’s hearings, possible outcomes of hearings, rights of children and young people, and the roles and functions of the child advocacy worker and other key children’s hearings actors.

Section 122(5) of the 2011 act enables the Scottish ministers to enter into agreements—contractual or otherwise—with any person other than a local authority, Children’s Hearings Scotland or the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration for children’s advocacy services.

Following careful evaluation of expressions of interest last year, grant funding was offered to 10 third sector providers. In combination, they will offer Scotland-wide coverage to children. The use of third sector providers ensures the independence of new services from the named public bodies. That allows grant funding to be made to providers, and one-off payments for expenses, fees and allowances to child advocacy workers, where appropriate.

Provisions under regulation 7 mean that the Scottish ministers can consent to continuation of pre-existing advocacy relationships at the point of commencement of the regulations. That will offer an element of choice to children and young people as to who may provide advocacy in their hearings.

We will consider all evidence that emerges from the new services and we will explore how best to support children and young people who come to hearings.

Working collaboratively with stakeholders, our efforts have ensured that the services are ready—they are already operating informally—to support children and young people.

Does anyone have any questions for the minister?

I have read through the documents and have a few questions, the first of which is about consultation and engagement on the regulations. The committee papers say that no formal consultation was carried out, but that there was engagement with relevant stakeholders. Why was it decided not to have a formal consultation for the affirmative procedure? Who was consulted, how were they consulted and what was the feedback?

We have an expert reference group that consists of stakeholders who helped us to develop the regulations and who have connections with a variety of organisations in the sector. We felt that that covered appropriately what was required.

One of the criticisms of the situation that we are in is how long it has taken to develop the advocacy service. The service has been robustly scrutinised all the way through development. There have been a number of pilots and opportunities for people to raise questions. Although that has taken time, it has enabled us to hit the ground running with a system that we know will work, and with which the vast majority of people are comfortable.

That is very reassuring.

The policy note for the regulations states that their purpose is to

“set out, amongst other things, the qualifications to be held by persons providing children’s advocacy services and the training they require to undertake.”

The obvious question is whether the regulations will prohibit anyone who currently provides advocacy, either because they are not qualified or because they have not received the necessary training. What will they have to do to qualify? What support will the Government give individuals or organisations that currently provide advocacy, but might not be able to continue to do so because of the prescriptive list of qualifications and training that they must now undertake as a consequence of the regulations?

A bespoke course on making advocacy real in modernised hearings goes along with the regulations. The bulk of people who are operating will achieve the qualifications easily. About 60 to 90 people already offer advocacy in the system and about the same number—more than 70—completed the course over the summer. The qualifications will not be a barrier to people who are operating in the system, and the evidence is that over the summer we vastly increased—almost doubled—the number of people who can work in the system.

That is equally reassuring.

Ms Wishart is the last member who wants to ask a question.

My question was about consultation, and the minister answered it in responding to Jamie Greene.

That concludes questions from members.

Agenda item 4 is the formal debate on motion S5M-22706.

Motion moved,

That the Education and Skills Committee recommends that the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 (Children’s Advocacy Services) Regulations 2020 [draft] be approved.—[Maree Todd]

No members have indicated that they want to speak. I apologise for my phone ringing—I do not know whether people heard it.

The question is, that motion S5M-22706 be agreed to.

Motion agreed to.

I thank the minister and her official for attending the meeting.