Our Stories: Programme 3 – Protect

Practice

In 2024/2025, the Practice Team provided the full range of practice activities to support Reporters in their day to day work. This included giving support and advice to localities throughout the year, developing practice materials, delivering practice training, managing cases in the higher courts, and working with partner agencies at a national level.

The two major areas of new activity in 2024/25 related to the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 (the UNCRC Act) and new practice training on harmful sexual behaviour.

A major part of the work on the UNCRC Act related to our approach to article 12 of the UNCRC – giving children who have been referred the opportunity to provide their views on the decision the Reporter will take, and for those views to be taken into account. This involved amendments to practice direction, a new practice note on the act, the development of practice training and working with other teams on related digital and operational changes.

The new practice training on harmful sexual behaviour was rolled out during the year. This was  mandatory training for all Reporters with the required degree of experience. This 3 day course included sections on messages from research, Reporters’ decision making, criminal evidence, drafting, and support for witnesses in proof proceedings, including protections against certain questioning.

Other practice materials produced during the year included revised practice notes on relevant and collateral evidence and sections 173 – 175 of the 2011 Act, and schedule 1 offences involving physical injury to a child. Both were revised to reflect recent decisions from appeal courts.

Practice Notes provide practical support to Reporters in relation to aspects of their work, for example in explaining the law on a topic or providing style wording to be used in a document.

In addition, the team published revisions of 2 significant practice directions, one on relevant persons and the other on appeals.

As well as the harmful sexual behaviour training, we delivered the full schedule of core practice training and more specialised training through the year. Although some of this training was delivered remotely online, most was in-person. In total during the year, we delivered 53 full days of in-person training and 4 half days of online training to Reporters and assistant Reporters. The Practice Team also supported locality-led training and practice sessions on request.

Ten cases in the higher courts concluded during the year. Significant issues raised in these cases included questions relating to relevant persons and the hearsay evidence of an expert witness.

Of those that concluded, 3 were initiated by us – but we did not proceed with the appeals in any of them.  Of the other 7, one appeal was refused after a full hearing, 2 were allowed after we did not oppose them, and the remainder were abandoned by the appellants. There was one judicial review.

Law Reports were published to support Reporter awareness and knowledge of developments in the case law, including cases involving the Principal Reporter and relevant cases in external proceedings.

We continued to be engaged in improvement work at a national level with partner agencies, including Police Scotland, the Scottish Government, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Children’s Hearings Scotland and social work services. This work involved a wide range of subject matter, including the review of the Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Act 2019, the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024, jointly reported cases, joint investigative interviewing, and restorative justice. We regularly delivered national external training to the police and joint investigative interviewers.

Our Research

The Research Team has conducted three pieces of primary research in the last 12 months. These have focussed upon understanding: the ethics, rights and legalities of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the Children’s Hearings System; the nature of serious offences that are committed by children aged 12-15 years old and how these are addressed by the Children’s Hearings System; perceptions around how the rights of children who harm and those who have been harmed by children should be balanced within the provision of victim information and supports.  Data for each of the studies are currently being analysed.

Findings from all of the studies will be in the public domain by the end of 2025. It is anticipated that findings from these studies will contribute to a number of legislative and policy areas, including: Scotland’s use of ethical, transparent and inclusive AI; the parliamentary review of the age of criminal responsibility in Scotland; the formation of a single point of contact for victims of offences; and the implementation of the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) act 2024.

The Research Team has also provided research and evaluation support for  a number of service improvement activities being undertaken by Programme Protect and the Digital Team.

This programme of work has included: the gathering and analysis of SCRA staff opinions related to the testing of Child Friendly Scheduling, the Keeping the Promise Commitment Standards and the joint operational test; an evaluation and cost-benefit analysis of AI-based transcription tools for the transcription of research materials, including an assessment of equality and bias; gathering and analysis of information from SCRA staff on the Role of the Reporter to inform the process of modernising the Reporter job description; and understanding barriers to effective, timely and appropriate referrals as part of the Referral Patterns and Planning project.

In addition to these activities, the Research Team has also supported desk research for both programme protect and the practice team to help promote evidence-based practice and decision-making. Evidence gathered from these reviews have been included within the recently introduced children in conflict with the law course for Reporters, as well as a workshop conducted by Programme Protect to explore barriers to children and families understanding statements of grounds.

Digital Enablement

At SCRA, we are committed to designing digital services that enhance the experience of children, young people and families, while also improving the tools and systems our staff rely on. Our digital enablement efforts this year have focused on innovation, collaboration, and efficiency – ensuring that technology supports both service delivery and internal operations.

Enhancing the Hearings Experience
We are developed and delivered and are also testing several digital tools aimed at improving how children and families engage with the Hearings System:

• Electronic Paper Sharing: A proof of concept for securely sharing Hearing papers electronically with children and families has been developed and is ready for testing.
• Texting (SMS): Also, being tested, we have developed the capability to send text messages to children, young people and families, to consider how we offer more ways of communication around the arrangement and attendance at Hearings.
• Digital Evidence Sharing Capability (DESC): Together with our partners we are investing in new ways to store and share different forms of media, to establish richer forms of expressing information and views through video or audio for example.
• Hearings Room Technology: Free WiFi and the use of laptops is available to anyone attending a Hearing. We have upgraded to the latest generation of WiFi devices and continue to roll out the latest Audio Visual (AV) equipment, offering a higher quality and more inclusive experience of Virtual Hearings.
• Chronology of Decisions and Reasons: We have developed a process to extract the key information from historic Records of Proceedings, that we intend to use to reduce the size of Hearing papers and present only the relevant historical decisions and reasons from amongst all the lengthy procedural and administrative information.

Improving Internal Systems
We continue to enhance our internal systems to support staff and streamline operations:

• Artificial Intelligence: As mentioned earlier in this Reporter, several of the new digital capabilities we are testing use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in an ethical and rights-respecting way, focusing on speeding up and reducing the complexity of processes. We are committed to our staff continuing to be the decision makers regarding all the information we receive, but aim to remove the unnecessary steps and labour, that currently extends the time to reach their conclusions.
• Child Concern Reports Integration: We are testing AI technology that can read information received in reports and save staff time from keying data and carrying out unnecessary processing steps, allowing them more quickly to get the relevant information and respond.
• Lean Waste Assessment: ‘Lean’ is a specific way to understand the way processes, people and systems work together to achieve improved efficiency and effectiveness. We completed this analysis, identifying non-disclosure and court work as priority areas for improvement.
• New Redaction Tool: Non-disclosure is an important protection to children, where specific information is legally withheld from identified persons, and we use a ‘redaction’ tool that removes this information from other material we must legally share. We have been evaluating a new tool.
• Calendar App: Hearings are complex with lots to manage and consider in terms of arrangement and attendance. We have developed an application that pulls together all the relevant threads on information into a single view and rolled this out nationally in November 2024, enhancing scheduling and management of Hearings.

Looking Ahead
We have made significant progress in delivering key digital developments during this business plan period. Projects such as electronic paper sharing, redaction, SMS (text) notifications, and DESC are advancing well, with further stages planned for the coming year. Our digital strategy remains focused on improving the experience for children aand families, while also driving internal efficiency. Continued engagement with users and staff ensures that our digital solutions are practical, inclusive, and impactful.

Our Property

Our buildings need to be safe, suitable and appropriate for everyone who uses them.

During 2024/25, we have continued with our programme of investment in our estate to ensure that both our Hearing centres and our offices continue to support our operational requirements. We have taken the experience of previous years, and built on this work to complete further internal reconfiguration work to support physical and hybrid Hearings, as well as improvements to workspaces to support staff flexibility.

We have also continued with our programme of large scale repair and maintenance projects following on from condition surveys completed in previous years.

Hearing facilities are central to the delivery of our services and property is one of our largest areas of expenditure. Over the last decade, we have rolled out a programme of improvements to our Hearing rooms, removing the large tables and introducing much more family-centred furniture and layouts. With the exception of Lerwick, which will be completed in 2025/26, every property on our estate now has at least one modern Hearing room.

This year, we took a decision to review what we have achieved, and how we would want to go forward in the future. In anticipation of undertaking a major project to the Glasgow Hearing centre, a firm of designers were appointed following a procurement exercise, to carry out a comprehensive consultation exercise with stakeholders in the Children’s Hearings System, and to produce a new design blueprint for not only the Hearing room, but the whole of the Hearing suite including waiting rooms and receptions. Following the receipt of several hundred responses, and a number of focus group meetings, the outcome was the production of a new set of Hearing centre design standards which will be used as the basis for a new programme of improvements over the next few years.

Using the principles in the new design standards, the designers have completed a comprehensive redesign of the Hearing centre in Glasgow, and work commenced in March 2025 to completely remodel the ground and first floor Hearing centre. This will provide four new Hearing rooms along with new waiting, reception and toilet facilities. The Glasgow Hearings centre was created over 20 years ago and the majority of the mechanical and electrical installations that provide heating and ventilation are life expired. Replacement of this equipment with a modern energy efficient system increased the overall cost of the project but is entirely in line with the requirement to work towards net zero objectives.

We have also continued our focus of improving our working environments for staff, continuing the themes that we have developed, from previous schemes in locations such as Hamilton and Edinburgh. Building on our agile working policy, we have sought to reimagine space by providing different work settings for staff, and improved facilities for virtual Hearings and meetings.

In our Aberdeen office, a smart working project has created a modern flexible workspace by removing the bulk filing system, reducing the number of workstations and reconfiguring the available floor space. Improvements include the creation of new meeting spaces, virtual Hearing booths, wellbeing spaces and the provision of new furniture including a number of sit/stand desks.

In our Greenock and Inverness properties, we have initiated smart working projects involve works to create modern flexible workspaces that includes the creation of new meeting spaces, virtual Hearing booths, wellbeing spaces and the provision of new office furniture. The design proposal brings staff together within the workspace and through the adoption of smart working and agile principles it allows additional facilities to be created by reducing desk numbers and sharing use of resources. Design work completed in 2024/25 and physical work on both projects was completed in the first quarter of 2025/26.

Following on from the works in 2023/24 to the operational offices in Glenrothes, the second phase of the project continued on the first floor to upgrade the poor quality vacant space and create four new separately lettable offices. These units are now on the market to let through our appointed agent.

We continue to review the use of our estate, and wherever possible seek to find tenants for our surplus space. We have this year created additional good quality lettable space in Glenrothes, and we continue to look for opportunities share with other public sector bodies, or to generate income from our surplus property.

The next planned project is Dundee. The building was constructed by SCRA in 2005 and was configured to meet the workplace requirements of that time.

A number of building components have reached end of life and the space is significantly underutilised.

During 2024/25 a procurement exercise was completed to appoint architects and interior designers to develop a project to upgrade the workspaces and key building systems. The initial design work is now complete and detailed design and tendering will commence to progress comprehensive works to the building.

This includes reconfiguring how SCRA uses the office spaces to free up a floor of the building for leasing. Along with this the ground floor entrance and reception are being redesigned to accommodate shared use with a tenant of the lettable space. All staff will be accommodated on one floor following the smart working approach successfully adopted in SCRA’s other offices.

Modern, flexible workspaces will be provided with sufficient meeting, breakout and shared spaces. The first floor of the building will provide additional flexible space for training, meetings and extra Hearing space capacity. The existing windows are approaching end of life and perform poorly compared with modern replacements. Complete replacement of windows will improve the thermal and environmental performance of the building. Upgrading of heating and air handling systems are similarly planned to improve energy efficiency.

We have continued our programme of producing condition surveys to inform major repair and maintenance projects. We completed works to the fabric of our buildings in Fraserburgh, Selkirk and Bellshill, and our building surveyors have carried out surveys of Dumbarton, Greenock and Paisley with a view to completing projects in 2025/26.