Improvements and changes to Hearing papers

SCRA is committed to making the information we provide more accessible for children, young people, and families. Following on from the improvements to our Hearing notification letters, we are now launching improved Hearing papers.

From April 2026, our Hearing papers are going to start to look more child and family friendly.

This change is being driven by the feedback from children and young people around the volume of papers they receive.  By reducing the size, this will make them easier to read both in paper and digital form.

We have applied new child friendlier naming conventions to documents that form part of the Hearing papers, for example, the previously named ‘Hearing Arrangement Form’ will now be retitled to ‘Details of Hearing’.

We have replaced the ‘Record of Proceedings’ document and introduced a new shorter format that includes a chronology.  The chronology comprises the decisions and reasons from previous Hearings.

This will provide children and relevant persons with more concise and relevant information in a more digestible format. This will allow a significant reduction in the size of Hearing papers children, young people and relevant persons receive, whilst still containing the necessary information required for the Hearing.

This will also benefit our partners as they receive the same version of papers that children, young people and families do.

Maryanne McIntrye, SCRA’s Press and Communications Manager said: “This is a really positive step forward. We have worked with Our Hearings, Our Voice, partners, and our staff to review Hearing papers to do what we can to make them make them more accessible.”

If you have any queries, please get in touch.