Young children's involvement with the Children's Hearings System

The Children’s Hearings System is a unique care and justice tribunal, which makes decisions about the care, protection and welfare of children and young people in Scotland. All children have a legal duty to attend their Hearing, to support their participation with the process, where capable. This small-scale qualitative-exploratory study explored the role and experiences of very young children in foster care (aged zero to five) who attend Children’s Hearings. Children in this age group are under-represented in research, compared with older children.

This paper reports on findings from interviews with panel members and foster carers. Panel members’ responses about the role and experiences of young children tended to be generalised and oriented to an ethic of justice. The responses of foster carers provided depth and specificity, and were strongly aligned to an ethic of care. Core themes identified were frequency of attendance, participation, impact of attendance and immediate risk. It is argued that a re-orientation to an ethic of care, alongside an ethic of justice, is important to acknowledge the complexity of young children’s affective contexts and balance their needs and rights when involved with the system. Implications for young children’s mental health and relationships are considered.