Our Stories: Aim 2 – Connect
Our People
In 2025, SCRA focused on Year 2 of our 2024-27 People Strategy, which sets out four key aims: to recruit and retain talent, support and engage staf, and foster continuous development across the organisation. This strategy underpins our commitment to building a resilient, inclusive, and skilled workforce.
Recruitment
Following the conclusion of the review of the Children’s Reporter job description, we commenced work to develop a values-based recruitment approach to capture the skills, experiences and values that a postholder is required to have to undertake this core statutory role. This will be expanded to other roles as we embed our new approach.
We commissioned an independent audit and review of SCRA’s current recruitment attraction strategies that will provide clear guidance and recommendations on actions we can take to increase applications from under-represented groups such as the global majority, male applicants and applicants with a disability so that we can more properly refect the population of Scotland.
We worked with Close the Gap, Scotland’s expert body on gender pay gaps, to fully understand the implications of SCRA’s gender pay gap and the development of an appropriate action plan to take positive action that will seek to reduce the gap over time.
As we prepare for the implementation of the Children (Care and Justice) Act, with a focus on service provision, and supporting our workforce, we recruited additional Children’s Reporters, Assistant Reporters and Senior Practitioners.
SCRA refreshed the 2024/27 Learning Plan for the fnal 18 months of the plan and this was launched to staff in November 2025. This plan was developed and is owned by SCRA’s Learning Network. Some examples of the focus of the plan are as follows:
- Trauma informed training for all staff
- Mandatory equalities and diversity training for all staff
- Practice Training
- Information Governance
- Operational Development and Digital Skills
- Management Development
- Wellbeing and health awareness training
- Train the Trainer course for those staf who deliver internal training within SCRA
- Additional e-learning packages to cover dignity at work and staf code of conduct
SCRA continues to invest in the learning and development of its workforce and exceeded the current learning events KPI of 4 by 1.3 to achieve a KPI of 5.3 for 25/26.
We developed a specific learning programme for our Locality Support Assistant cohort that covers a broad range of learning, and we launched our management development programme that offers three levels of training for prospective, new and experienced managers/leaders.
Inclusive Culture and Engagement
The Principal Reporter (PR) continues to have regular drop in sessions available to all staf so that they can hear directly from the PR about relevant updates but to also give staf a space with the PR and the Senior Team to raise any contemporary issues that are around.
SCRA ran its 17th all staff survey which has been fully analysed by the Principal Reporter and an action plan has been developed to address any gaps that have been highlighted.
We launched a guidance framework on communicating the benefits of meaningful and consistently applied appreciation to enhance the employee experience and genuinely appreciate the added value our staf bring to the Children’s Hearings System.
We have agreed a three year timetable of job description review for all core roles in SCRA, fully engaging and consulting with postholders, line managers and other staf across the organisation.
We also reviewed and updated key policies in line with legislative changes such as maternity, paternity and adoption policies.
Health, Wellbeing and Mental Health
SCRA launched its Menstrual Health Toolkit which provides advice for staff and managers. To support the launch, we offered staff awareness sessions on Endometriosis and Adenomyosis, with others planned.
SCRA’s Wellbeing Strategy was developed and approved by the Board. The Strategy aims to embed wellbeing at the heart of SCRA’s culture, leadership and everyday practice, promoting an inclusive and psychologically safe ‘one team’ environment. This will be fully launched in 2026/27.
We have developed our adaptive resilience framework that will be delivered to all managers and staf throughout 2026/27 supporting their individual resilience, and support that of their teams.
National wellbeing activities have included our annual walking challenge launched in May which saw just under a third of staff participate, promoting physical and mental wellbeing including connection. We supported Time to Talk Day in February to encourage staf to come together to focus on the topic of “Making Spaces Stigma Free for Everyone”, and Men’s Health Week in June. A further cohort of Mental Health First Aiders will be trained to widen our network of supports across our workforce.
Supporting wellbeing, retention and attraction, we enhanced our benefits package for staf by launching a new salary sacrifice scheme for e-cars to support financial wellbeing and sustainability, as well as a discounted gym membership scheme, access to mortgage advice and dental insurance.
In addition, we offered staff fu vaccination vouchers, with 85 taken up, as part of our ongoing commitment to staff.
Working in Partnership
Staff across SCRA work every day with a variety of partners in the public, private and third sector. Collaborative working for the benefit of children and families in Scotland is something we will always prioritise and celebrate.
We always champion Scotland’s Children’s Hearings System and we continue to believe in its founding principles and the non-punitive, welfare approach we take to children who require additional support from the state. As we prepare for the implementation of the Children (Care and Justice) Scotland Act 2024 and the Children (Care, Care Experience and Service Planning) (Scotland) Act 2026, we will actively continue to promote the enduring principles, philosophy and culture that makes the Children’s Hearings System.
Across Scotland our staff are actively working with local Children’s Hearing Improvement Partnerships (CHIPs) – and we are actively involved with the National CHIP as well. When we can, we will continue to make improvements in our work and across the system. We engage with our partners in a variety of forums across the full range of children in conflict with the law and child protection.
Children’s Rights
Following the incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scots Law, SCRA continues to look curiously and critically at the ways we work – making improvements where there are gaps in our practice.
We are now thinking about other improvements we could make to ensure children’s rights are fully realised across our work – and are seeking the support of partners and stakeholders with this. If you are interested in being part of this work, please contact us.
Bairns’ Hoose and Child Protection
Bairns’ Hooses across Scotland continue to develop, with incremental national roll out still planned from 2027.
The ‘pathfinder’ phase is now in its final year and 20 partnerships are at different stages – with 8 Bairns’ Hooses now operational (Dumfries and Galloway started operating in June 2026). SCRA staff continue to be involved in the pathfinder work and in the successful start up and operation of each Hoose, and we work daily with information from children which has been gathered using the Scottish Child Interview Model (SCIM).
Contextual Safeguarding and Exploitation
Child Criminal Exploitation Prevention Orders (CCEPOs) and interim orders are planned for commencement in Scotland in Autumn 2026 – following Scottish Government agreement that these provisions from the Crime and Policing Act 2026, (Westminster legislation), should also apply in Scotland. SCRA is actively considering this.
SCRA staff are engaging with the statutory Inquiry into group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation, chaired by Professor Alexis Jay; we continue to be part of the National Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group and are members of the Data short life working group as well.
Family Group Decision Making (FGDM)
SCRA continues to champion Family Group Decision Making (FGDM), nationally and locally. We are working with the FGDM Steering Group and with Children 1st and other partners to ensure that the provisions in the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) Act 2026 that relate to FGDM are implemented successfully, and for the benefit of children and families.
Becoming Trauma-Informed
Like many in the public sector, SCRA has made a long-term commitment to introducing a trauma-lens across the work we do. We have come a long way with this – having established a core group of trainers in 2024 who have delivered one day trauma-skilled training across our entire staff group. All new employees also attend the one-day trauma-skilled transforming connections training. In addition, we have created a new Corporate Parenting Manager role, with specific responsibility for our work with trauma. We are starting to recognise the importance of the little things – and together, are carefully putting what we know into our practice.
Training and Knowledge Sharing
Our Learning Leads work is going from strength to strength and our Learning Hub now includes learning packages across four different key areas of work – with more to come.
SCRA staff regularly host partners interested in the work of the Children’s Hearings System online, at our Learning Events and we also continue to provide training and learning inputs more locally. We are also happy to speak to researchers, politicians or other stakeholders who are interested in the work of the Children’s Reporter and the Children’s Hearings System. Please get in touch.
Looking Ahead
SCRA continues to develop new ways of working through discovery, piloting and local testing. At the moment we are testing an approach which starts to look at the early engagement of the Children’s Reporter with a child and family about their grounds for referral and their frst Children’s Hearing. We will be doing more of this work moving forwards – as we have the Children (Care and Justice) Scotland Act 2024 and the Children (Care, Care Experience and Service Planning) (Scotland) Act 2026 to implement across Scotland. Both of these new Acts of the Scottish Parliament make some big changes across the work of Children’s Reporters and the Children’s Hearings System, and we are focused on working with our partners to implement these changes well.
Our Programmes
2025/2026 was another busy year for our Programme Team as they progressed the next stages in the delivery of SCRA’s Target Operating Model …
Target Operating Model
Over the past two years, SCRA has developed a Target Operating Model (TOM) for the organisation – setting out our vision for the future. This has been developed using staff engagement, project outputs, external drivers for change and feedback. The vision outlines how the organisation will improve the service to children and families, develop internal skills and confidence and, Keep The Promise – through creating internal capacity. We are creating this capacity by looking at how we can do things differently – more efficiently – to allow for less transactional work and more relational work in future.
The TOM is being delivered in three phases or ’Horizons’. The first horizon which was at the end of 2024 was to stabilise the current process and working, a second horizon by 2027 to embed identified improvement within the current legislative context and then finally, a third horizon by 2030.
Child-friendly scheduling and Keeping the Promise Commitment Standards
This is an approach to scheduling and preparing for Hearings that involves liaising with children and trusted professionals in advance to ascertain preferences for day, date and mode of Hearing; and speaking directly to families ahead of their Hearing to ensure they are fully informed, supported and understand the process.
Some of the benefits of this approach are:
- Promotion of better participation of parents and family members within Hearings by offering support to attend in a trauma-informed way by recognising the central importance of relationships.
- To support their preparation, children and young people were also sent their own scrapbook or magazine (depending on age) designed for and by young people from Our Hearings, Our Voice.
- To support their preparation, children and young people were also sent their own scrapbook or magazine (depending on age) designed for and by young people from Our Hearings, Our Voice to allow them to take notes ahead, or during their hearing, put forward preferences for seating arrangements etc.
- Providing practical support to overcome participation barriers such as technology, travel, communications.
These projects have now been fully evaluated and approved for national roll-out as part of a suite of improvements now known as ‘Family Centred Scheduling’.
Learning Leads
There is significant demand for learning and development across the sector – about the Children’s Hearings System – the elements within it, how professionals interact with it, and how professionals support others to interact with it.
A multi-agency project was set up to develop an online training resource to provide national consistency , prevent duplication of effort, produce instant access materials and support the current high demands for training input on core topics. Turn to page 26 to find out more detail about this work.
Referral Project – Police Champions
A new collaboration got underway between Police Scotland and SCRA in September 2025. The project focuses on a shared ambition to ensure that the right children and young people are referred to the Children’s Reporter, and at the right time in their own unique journey.
The pilot saw three Children’s Reporters being co-located in the Police Division Hubs of L, Q and U Division. The Reporters worked with Police Scotland to better understand the referral test and appropriateness of referrals.
The aim was to establish a Children’s Hearing champion model – training, enabling and supporting Champions made up of Police Scotland staff in each of the three Divisions.
By the end of March 2026 and after initial training of all shift police officers in the 3 Divisions, a cohort of over 100 (self-nominated) police champions are now fully trained.
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