Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee 25 June 2025
The collaboration between our two organisations is absolutely comprehensive. In every situation in which there is a joint report, information is exchanged and very often a discussion takes place, and that approach will be proportionate to the significance of the incident that has been reported.
I would just make a distinction between diversion and referral to the children’s reporter. Referral to the reporter is specifically for children, and currently there are parameters on that: referral can be only for a child under 16—or up to the age of 18, if they are already on a compulsory supervision order. That will change when the provisions in the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024 are implemented; however, they have not yet been implemented, so that is the current position.
With regard to referral to the children’s reporter, your specific question was about the supports that are in place for children on a compulsory supervision order. That would happen after an investigation by the children’s reporter that considered all of the child’s circumstances, and I can go into lots of detail about how we do that. We have a very clear and comprehensive decision-making framework in that respect. First of all, a conclusion will be reached on whether there is sufficient evidence of a ground of referral—any ground of referral—for a children’s hearing, and most of those grounds are based not on the child’s behaviour, but on concerns about their welfare. If there are such concerns, if there is sufficient evidence and if there is need for compulsion, the children’s reporter will refer the matter to a children’s hearing, at which the children’s panel members will make the decision.
If a compulsory supervision order is put in place, a statutory duty is placed on what is called the implementation authority—usually the local authority where the child resides—to provide supports and interventions as directed by the care plan, which the children’s hearing will have had sight of. A compulsory supervision order can contain certain conditions, but they must relate to the child and can be anything that is considered to be in the child’s best interests. Sometimes they can take the form of pretty significant interventions in a child’s life—for example, they must live somewhere away from home—and there can be conditions that restrict the child’s movements, if that is considered to be in their best interests. Ultimately, there are measures such as authorising that the child reside in secure accommodation, but only for so long as it is considered necessary and with the agreement of the chief social work officer and the manager of the secure accommodation establishment.
Conditions can be attached to the order, and the local authority has the duty to ensure that those services are provided. Whether they are always provided is a much wider question that relates to current capacity within children’s services around Scotland, but that is perhaps a different issue to explore.