Following a 20-month review of the children’s hearings system, “Hearings for
Children: The report of the Hearings System Working Group” was published on 25
May 2023. It sets out an ambitious package of recommendations. The report
identifies significant potential reforms aiming to ensure that the system; its leaders;
policymakers; managers, and practitioners can better support children in need of
care and protection.
While approaching the redesign challenge with resolve and ambition to do better, we
must take care to preserve what is good about the hearings system, and to
safeguard those strengths for the benefit of the children it exists to serve, and for
those working with and for them. Improvements must be made with care and be
informed by consultation and solid evidence. Change must be introduced at the right
pace, with respect to wider policy and legislative change commitments. We want to
ensure that those working within the system have the requisite capacity and
confidence to give of their very best to children and families. Our children’s hearings
system must continue to deliver for children in the here and now, and throughout the
months and years during which any change is implemented. We must maintain a
resolute focus on serving children, whose needs must remain at the heart of the
process.