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Supervision Requirements

If a Supervision Requirement has been made by the Children’s Hearing to help your child’s situation, the Hearing will have discussed with you and your child, the reasons for making a Supervision Requirement. However, you may still have some questions…

What happens now?

Polaroid picture of a young boy sitting on the floor playing with a toy
Your local authority has a duty to put the Supervision Requirement into effect.

After the Requirement has been made, the social worker who has been allocated by the local authority to your child, will speak to you and your child, and discuss a plan for the future.

The social worker will also consult with others, such as your child’s school, and prepare a care plan to help improve your child’s situation.

The Hearing expects that the local authority will provide the supervision that a child requires.

The plan helps to identify what needs to be done and what part everyone will play in the work with the child or young person and with yourself.

Is it compulsory?

By law, children and young people have to comply with the terms of the Supervision Requirement.

How long will it last?

A Supervision Requirement lasts for as long as the Hearing feels it to be necessary. There is no specific period, but your child’s case must be considered again by a Hearing within a year of the making of the Requirement. This kind of Hearing is called a Review.

When a Supervision Requirement is no longer necessary, it will be terminated at a Review Hearing. Supervision ends automatically when a young person reaches 18 years old.

Can a review take place before a year has passed?

Yes. You or your child can ask for the Hearing to review your child’s case at any time, once three months has passed since the last Hearing. Your child’s social worker can ask for a Review at any time. In addition, the Hearing can specify a date for a future Review when considering your child’s case.

At a Review Hearing, the Panel Members will discuss with you and your child, progress made during the period of the Supervision Requirement. They will also consider any reports provided.

At a review, the Hearing may decide that:

Your child no longer needs compulsory supervision. The Hearing will then end the Supervision Requirement. This is commonly referred to as termination of the Supervision Requirement.

The Supervision Requirement should remain in place for a further period of time. The Hearing will then continue the Requirement.

Different measures of supervision may now be more helpful for your child. For example, if your child has been living away from home, it may now be decided that he/she should return home under the supervision of a social worker. The Hearing will then vary the Supervision Requirement.

Can I appeal?

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You, and your child, have the right to appeal to the Sheriff against the decision of the Children’s Hearing.

You or your child may wish to consult a lawyer about an appeal.

In appealing, you have to satisfy the Sheriff that the Children’s Hearing was not justified in making the Supervision Requirement.

A Safeguarder who may be appointed to your child’s case also has the right to appeal against the decision, and does so on behalf of the child.

Any appeal should be in writing to the Sheriff at the relevant Sheriff Court, and must be made within three weeks of the Hearing’s decision.

At the appeal, the Sheriff will hear what you have to say and he/she will also hear from the Reporter, and possibly your child. The Sheriff may speak to the people who prepared the reports about your child for the Hearing if he/she thinks that would be useful.

If the Sheriff allows your appeal, there are a number of options:

  • He/She can discharge your child’s case altogether.
  • Send it back to a Hearing for reconsideration.
  • Make a Supervision Requirement which is different from the one which the Hearing had decided upon.
  • If your appeal fails, the Supervision Requirement made by the Hearing will continue unchanged.

 

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