Children's hearings response

Shelter Scotland welcomes the opportunity to comment on the proposed reforms to the Children’s Hearings system.

Our response focuses on proposals under the theme of housing. Housing is fundamental to the quality of children’s lives and the fulfilment of their statutory rights. Children need a home to feel safe, keep warm, stay healthy, and to play and learn. Too often bad housing and homelessness have a profound impact on their physical, social and educational wellbeing. Shelter is working hard to make lasting changes to policy and practice which will protect children from homelessness, as well as mitigate the impact of homelessness and bad housing on children.

Our comments draw upon Shelter’s experience of working with families and children through our innovative and tested housing support services, the Families Projects, which are run in Edinburgh, Glasgow, South Lanarkshire and Dumfries. The Families Projects offer intensive practical and emotional support to families coping with homelessness to help them settle in and sustain a stable home. Given the complex problems families may face, we have child support workers who focus on the particular needs of children. They use art, drama and play therapies to help address children’s concerns and needs and work to ensure children’s wellbeing is at the centre of decisions made by housing and homelessness departments and children’s services. On regular occasions our family and child support workers make referrals to Reporters and support children and parents who are in contact with the Children’s Hearings system.