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8/10/2019 Chilren Panel

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Is justice for the community, justice

by the community?The Childrens Panel

Professor Stephen PhillipsWest Dunbartonshire Childrens

Panel


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Is justice for the community, justice by

the community?

The short answer should be yes for theChildrens Panel if the aspirations of theKilbrandon committee have been realised.

The Panel is made up of trained volunteers fromthe community, drawn from the whole of thecommunity, and administer justice on behalf ofthe community.

The Childrens Hearing System has been goingsince April 1971 largely unchanged which mightbe a good indicator that it works.

Families view a common reality.


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Community JusticeWhat is Justice?

Fairness, rightness, just conduct, reward for virtue and punishment forwrong doing, balancing the nature of wrong doing with the punishmentchosen.

Justice concerns the proper ordering of things and persons within a society.

Justice requires according individuals or groups what they actually deserve,merit, or are entitled to.

What is right is what has the best consequences (usually measured by thetotal or average welfare caused). So, the proper principles of justice arethose which tend to have the best consequences.

Justice is created by public, enforceable, authoritative, rules and injustice iswhatever those rules forbid.

Justice is derived from the mutual agreement of everyoneconcernedincluding equality and absence of bias.

Justice is a form of fairness. What is the proper/fair distribution? Equal,meritocratic, according to social status, according to need?

Justice demands equality of opportunity and for equality of outcome.


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Juvenile justice system

The Panel frequently referred to as Scotlands Juvenile Justice System(and Welfare System)justice for whom and what do we understand byjustice in this context?

Justice for the child and family?

Justice for the Community?

Justice for the victim in the event of a crime? Accepting that Byres Road man/woman for the most part have never heard

of the Panel (a major concern) justice as in juvenile justice would meanreceiving just deserts and inevitably in the context of punishment for anoffence. (If by chance they have heard of the Panel then it is the softoption).

Kilbrandon used the term children in trouble and Byres Road man wouldagain think of children who have broken the rules. If we asked Byres Roadman to consider a ship in trouble then his circle of reference widens andthinks of ships which has lost direction, lost power, foundering etc. muchmore a metaphor to describe the families and young people coming beforethe Panel. And of course as we will see soon this latter category is thelargest.


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Juvenile justice system continued

BUT an unfortunate truism is that children cannot choose

their parents and many young people come before the

Panel, where by any criterion, their parents can be

judged as failing them and are not doing them justice.

Justice for children is when they have equality of

opportunity to fulfil their potential in a safe and loving

environment.

My nightmare scenario.


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From Scottish Childrens Reporter Administration (SCRA) the

steps in a young person coming to the Panel and the process.


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A note on the procedure

The Panel has tremendous power and sometimes a frightening levelof responsibilitye.g. a child can be taken out of the family home orfrom a mother within hours of being borne.

But the family and the child (when old enough) are central in thediscussions leading to a decision.

The family can appeal the decision and ask for a review after 3months.

Panels can appoint a Safeguarder as one of the communitysguardian of the family and childs rights (and justice) to provideadvice and comment before a decision is taken.

Legal representation is mandatory under certain circumstances andlegal aid may be available for an appeal.

Although the Scottish public has little knowledge of the Panel thereis much useful explanatory information on the web, both at ScottishGovernment level, SCRA, and some local authorities.


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Some history


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Some facts and figures from SCRA Annual

Report 2006/7how many children are in

trouble?


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Numbers of children referred to the Reporter over

10 yearsnumbers continue to rise. In 2005/6

6% of all children referred.


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Where do referrals come from?


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West Dunbartonshire


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Family situation of children referredwhere

do the children come from in the

community?.


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Grounds of referral


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Kilbrandonthe beginning

Committee first met under Lord Kilbrandon in 1961, recommendations madein 1964 and embodied in legislation in 1968. Childrens Hearing System(The Panel) started on April 15th, 1971.

Radical proposal was to remove children under 16 years from adult criminalprocedures.

Primary concern was with children in trouble children with delinquent

behaviour, those in need of care and protection, those beyond parentalcontrol, those who persistently truant.

All these children shared a common experiencea failure in normal lifeexperiences of upbringing and parenting.

A paramount consideration in the proposed measures of care andassessment was the welfare of the child, the concept of caring for thewhole child.

Where compulsory measures of care were thought necessary, childrento be brought before a lay panel of three members, the Childrens Hearing,in an atmosphere conducive to the child and familys participation.

Kilbrandon principle was that most cases were a failure of upbringingand of social education.

Treatment agency/authority would be Social Services.


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Kilbrandonthe beginning

continued

The Panel has no role in determining if the grounds of referral are

true. Only proceed if these are accepted or have been found true by

the sheriff.

The Panel would be recruited locally with a background and work

experience representative of the localityonly partially achieved

(see later).

Fred Stone reminds us that big changes in Scottish Family Life since

1971rising rate of divorce, many children borne to parents with no

formality of attachment, multiple relationships, change in sexual

mores such no stigma attached to illegitimacy and earlier sexual

experiences, single parent families more common, most frequently a

single mother, alcohol and drug abuse. Although child neglect, child

abuse, truancy, delinquency, family break up and difficulties of youth

employment found in all social groups poverty can be a common

underlying factor.


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Kilbrandon proposed abolition of the Juvenile

Courts and establishment of a juvenile panel.


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Who should serve on the Panel as

representative of the Community?

Kilbrandonpersons who by knowledge or experiencewere considered to be especially qualified to considerchildrens problems

Developed by Scottish Office that panel members shouldbe representative of the community and they shouldhave knowledge and experience in dealing with childrenand families and should be drawn from a wide range ofneighbourhood, age group and income group, withpersonal qualities including the ability to get through to

children and their parents (Lockyer 1992). Is the community Scotland or the local neighbourhood?

Does representative equal mirror the community? InWest Dunbartonshire how many of my colleagues comefrom disadvantaged areas of the community?


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Who are the volunteer Panel Members,

selected by the local Childrens Panel

Advisory Committee ?

Kilbrandon wanted a panelrepresentative of thecommunity - the best we canprobably hope for is a cross-section of the community witha wide range of backgrounds.

Diversity in background,culture and social groupsallows panel members to learnfrom each other. Can webetter representtheCommunity than berepresentative?

Age of Panel members from 18yearsnow no upper limit onage and no limit on how longcan serve on the Panel (?Edinburgh)


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Who are Panel Members continued?

People should be judged by their peers, not by their

social superiors, but does this require that recruitment

should only come from the ranks of those that come to

the Hearings?

At any Hearing the 3 panel members are very unlikely to

be representative or a reflection of the families coming

before them that day.

Does this prevent community justice being administered

or can years of experience on the Panel provide insightand judgement into a section of the community outwith

normal experience?


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Results of 1992 for Childrens Panel

Chairmans Group Survey

Early days of the system Panels made up of predominantly middleaged, middle class professionals. In 1992 approximately equalrepresentation of professional and non-professional classes (from2:1).

Tend to be better educated than the average citizen and thereforehave views on the value of education which might be different from

the families and children. (Equally might help in taking the detailedtraining for panel members in their stride).

Average age around 43 years with 40% in the 30-50 years bracket.Only 6% under 30 years.

Most are married but now more are divorced or separated. Most areparents and ~80% in some form of paid employment.

In West Dunbartonshire the panel is 60% female, 40% male. Lockyer makes the point that although the Panel may not mirror the

make up of the communities from which the children and familiescome any onecan apply to join.


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Does it workphilosophy of

the system against outcomes?

A personal view.

From the point of view of whomthe families, the Panel

members, the Community, the professional agencies?

Stood the test of time with few changes - the Children(Scotland) Act 1995

Research is sparsee.g. Lockyer and Wilkinson 1992,

Hallett 2000.


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Perceived Strengths

Ethos of the systemneeds and deeds, the holistic approach, notseparating offenders from non-offenders (very high proportion ofpersistent offenders first seen as care and protection cases).

Child-centred and focuses on welfare.

Informality of the hearing system encourages family participation.

Attributes of (some) panel members and capacity of the system to

involve and represent the community. Keeps children and young people out of the criminal justice system.

Protects young people and children.

Families have right of appeal and system for reviews.

Makes good decisions.

Brings agencies together.

Deals well with Care and Protection cases.


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Perceived weaknesses

Lack of resources to have the decision implemented.

Lack of social workers.

Reluctance sometimes for Panel to hold LA to account for failure to

implement decisions.

Families lack knowledge of the system. Panel lack understanding of familiesthem and us.

Families given too little opportunity to take part and to influence the

decisionyou have already made up your mind!

Formality of the proceedings can intimidate the young people and

family.

Some rotten and poorly trained Panel members.

Lack of accurate public awareness of the system.


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Perceived weaknesses continued

Deals well with minor/first time offenders but not with

persistent offenders (a soft option)some persistent

offenders said to hold the system in utter contempt.

Fails with school related problems such as truancy and

school refusal.


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Turn over in the Panel membership is too

high and benefit which accrues from

experience is lostapproximately 14-15%

per year of the 2500 panel members.

Kilbrandon suggested that Chairman in LAs

might be paid an honorarium - would this

lose the Panel some moral authority.


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Gaius Petronius Pontius Nigrinus, consul 37 AD

and governor of Aegyptus We trained very hard, but it

seemed that every time we

were beginning to form into

teams, we would be

reorganised. I was to learn

later in life that we tend tomeet any new situation by

reorganising - and a wonderful

method it can be for creating

the illusion of progress while

producing confusion,inefficiency and

demoralisation.

The future?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Petronius_Pontius_Nigrinushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Petronius_Pontius_Nigrinus


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The End

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