Empty chair

Today, in amongst the Hearings Management Group and a series of other meetings we bade farewell to Lesley Taylor- our communications and engagement officer.

Lesley had been with Children’s Hearings Scotland since December 2011, long before our go- live date in 2013. She was one of the first people I met on my arrival and I’ve valued her advice and support throughout. She had a particular penchant for our work with young people and we are sorry to see her go.

We wished her well as she heads south of the border to take up new challenges - and to be closer to her family. Her successor - Louise - arrives at the start of next month.

Her desk, while colourful, looked empty tonight.

At HMG we discussed a wide range of topics around the system: management of hearings and controlling the number of people present; Panel member continuity; roll out of the new model hearing rooms; practice notes around case law; the better hearings work and a number of other topics.

Good to hear the views directly of representatives of the Panel, the ASTs, reporters. Made for a constructive discussion which threw up a number of challenges.