AN Alloa sheriff has questioned the use of multiple panel members in complex family cases that come through the Children’s Hearing system.

Sheriff David Mackie says the lack of continuity in members is “anomalous” when taken with the importance put on ensuring the same sheriff is used.

He made the comments in his conclusion of an appeal made against a decision by the Children’s Hearing for Clackmannanshire last year.

He noted that since 2007 about 50 different panel members and 19 different chairing members have been engaged in hearings involving the same child, and questioned whether it reduced the confidence of parents in the system.

In his conclusion, published at Alloa Sheriff Court in May, he wrote, “I have to presume that each of these individuals required to read and appraise themselves of the very substantive volume of papers, reports and assessments on each occasion...a very few members and even fewer chairing members have sat in more than one hearing, none with any real continuity.” However, Children’s Hearings Scotland, the body that oversees the system, says requests can be made for panel members to be used in consecutive hearings involving the same child or family but there must be “exceptional” circumstances so not to undermine “fairness and impartiality”.

A children’s hearing – otherwise known as the children’s panel – is a legal meeting arranged to consider and make decisions about children and young people who are having problems in their lives. The hearing consists of three members of the local community who act as lay tribunal members, called panel members.

Sheriff Mackie wrote, “At a time when it is increasingly recognised that in proceedings relating to children and families there is importance in ensuring, so far as possible, continuity of decision making by the same sheriff it seems anomalous that similar considerations have not been brought to bear within the Children’s Hearing system if this case is an example.

“This arrangement raises a number of questions. Does it increase the reliance of panel members hearing by hearing upon the input and advice of social workers and other professionals when, without an intimate and continuing acquaintance with the case, the panel members are less well equipped to be critically enquiring?

“Does it undermine the confidence of parents and other relevant persons who either have to re-tell their story every time or trust panel members to have acquainted themselves with the full background from the papers? Does it reduce the accountability of panel members who have no continuing ownership of decision making in relation to the family?” Children’s Hearings Scotland says the issue of panel member continuity was recognised in the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011, which came into force in 2013. Under the rules it states that a hearing may: ‘request that the National Convener select, where practicable, one of the members of that children’s hearing to be a member of the next children’s hearing to be arranged in relation to that child’.

The request would be made to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) which passes it to Children’s Hearings Scotland for consideration.

If approved the SCRA is responsible for scheduling the next hearing and all three panel members can potentially be used again.

Boyd McAdam, National Convener and Interim Chief Executive of Children’s Hearings Scotland said, “Guidance issued to panel members states that requests for panel member continuity should be exceptional. It is essential that a children’s hearing is a fair and impartial tribunal and as National Convener I must ensure a balance between this, the volunteer status of panel members and the ethos of the Children’s Hearings System.

“Both fairness and impartiality may be undermined by excessive or inappropriate use of the panel member continuity provisions. The role of the panel member is not to take ownership of a particular child’s circumstances, but to make decisions in their best interests.”