Chamber and committees

Statistics relating to theChildren’s Hearings System are the operational responsibility of the ScottishChildren’s Reporter Administration (SCRA). They are published annually inSCRA’s Annual Reports, which are available from the Parliament’s ReferenceCentre.

Figures for the last sixyears for offending cases only are given in the table:

Year	Time taken to Process Offending Cases (days)
2001-02	134
2000-01	134
1999-2000	141
1998-99	140
1997-98	151

 

Funding for local authorityyouth justice services has increased from £5 million to £10 million in 2003-04and will rise to £15 million by 2005-06. This will support the work of localyouth justice teams and enable them to improve the range and quality ofcommunity based services for young offenders that are available. From 2002-03to 2005-06, the Executive is also directly investing £18.4 million in theseservices through the Youth Crime Prevention and Intensive Support Funds and afurther £14 million to implement measures in the Youth Crime Action Plan.Further investment will be forthcoming as part of the £65 million the Executivehas set aside to support implementation of the Antisocial Behaviour strategy.

This funding is in additionto the existing children and families social work grant aided expenditure allocations.

Action to improve theaverage waiting time for court decisions on young people has been taken on anumber of fronts. The Youth Court pilot is operating a fast-track process whereyoung offenders appear in court no more than 14 days from the point of charge.For this category of offender the process reduces to 75 days the period fromcharge to sentence identified in the Audit Scotland report as lasting between167 and 190 days.

The Audit Scotland reportalso recommended the implementation of a series of comprehensive multi-agencytime standards for young offenders in the criminal justice system. Proposals onhow to implement such time standards which will be considered by the newnational Criminal Justice Board which holds its inaugural meeting in December.

The Scottish Executive’sresponse to Audit Scotland’s report Dealing with Offending Among YoungPeople is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 29848).Since last year, ministers have agreed national standards in partnership withagencies, launched fast track hearings pilots to demonstrate best practice inplanning and service delivery, consulted on the re-launching of the timeintervals monitoring process, and taken steps to boost recruitment and trainingof social workers.

The Scottish Executive hasintroduced National Standards for Scotland’s Youth Justice Services. These set out standards, to be achieved by 2006, that everyyoung person referred to a hearing on offence grounds will have a comprehensiveassessment delivered on time to a hearing, with the young person’s case workerin attendance at the hearing and that every comprehensive assessment must becompleted using ASSET/YLS-CMI assessment tools. The Executive allocated anadditional £3 million in 2002-03 to assist with the dissemination and effectiveuse of these tools. In addition, most social workers working with young peoplesubject to court orders are trained in the use both of the LSI-R assessmenttool, which is an adult version of YLS-CMI, and in the use of the ScottishExecutive's Risk Assessment and Guidance Framework. The new social work degreewhich will be in place from 2004 will also require social workers in trainingto demonstrate competence in the assessment and management of risk.

As outlined in APartnership for a Better Scotland the Executive is committed to extendingconcessionary fares schemes on public transport, including a national freeoff-peak bus scheme for older people and people with disabilities;progressively introducing a scheme of national bus, rail and ferryconcessionary travel for young people, initially for all in full-time educationor training; and assessing improved public transport concessions for peoplewith disabilities.

Work is taking place toprogress these commitments, including discussions with key stakeholders. Thiswill be followed by a formal consultation process and substantial research andimplementation work.

The Scottish Executive has a number of policies that tackle aspects of poverty. Efforts aremade in all of these to meet the particular needs and circumstances ofvulnerable groups.

For example, lone parents,who are predominantly women, are now able to access a £1,000 child care grantto allow them to attend higher education courses, thereby increasing not justtheir own, but also their children’s life chances. The Sure Start Scotlandprogramme targets support at families with very young children, ensuring thatevery child has the best possible start in life. Race equality legislation,along with our “One Scotland, Many Cultures” campaign, are helping to alleviatepoverty by breaking down barriers faced by ethnic minority people to enteringthe labour market. More than 10,000 older people are now benefiting from warmerand more efficient homes through free central heating installed under our WarmDeal scheme. Older people and disabled people are benefiting from our policy toprovide free bus travel within their local areas.

Work is the best route outof poverty for families, and the Executive supports individuals into employmentthrough education, training and skills development. For instance, the trainingfor work programme aims to improve the skills and employability of joblessadults with the aim of helping them secure employment. The Executive’s child carestrategy aims to provide good quality affordable child care to enable parentsto take up employment or training opportunities.

The Executive also works inpartnership with the UK Government to tackle poverty. Financial support forfamilies is available through tax credits and benefits as well as initiativeslike the New Deal that promote employment.

In addition, Executive fundingstreams that are designed to address aspects of child poverty include theChanging Children’s Services Fund (CCSF) which aims to support change andimprovement in children’s service delivery at local level for children andtheir families, with an emphasis on vulnerable children and those living inpoverty and Sure Start Scotland, which supports families of very young children(0-3) who are in greatest need. Other examples of Executive funding streamsthat tackle child poverty include social inclusion partnerships, the RoughSleepers Initiative, the Lone Parents Childcare Grant for Further and HigherEducation and the Health Improvement Fund.

No specific funding isallocated under the Arbuthnott formula in respect of child poverty andimproving the health of poor children. The Arbuthnott formula determines eachNHS board’s share of the overall level of funds available. It is for each boardto decide locally how best to utilise these funds to meet the health care needsof its resident population taking account of national and local priorities.

It would be for individualplanning authorities to consider the effect of any court decision relating toplanning matters on their consideration of a planning application. TheExecutive’s policy on this matter remains as stated in National Planning Policy Guideline 19: RadioTelecommunications (NPPG 19):<http://www.scotland.gov.uk/about/Planning/nppg_19_radiotelecom.aspx).It encourages operators to take all reasonable efforts to select sites whichminimise public concern and states that the consideration of options andalternatives is a material consideration in the determination of applicationsfor radio telecommunications equipment.