Kilbrandon - again

Listening to the radio this morning I heard Richard Holloway advocating the raising of the age of criminal responsibility from its current level in Scotland of 8 and go beyond the Government’s proposal for 12 and raise it to 16.

That would match the aim of the UNCRC and we can have a discussion on how best society can both investigate behaviour which would otherwise be criminal and how best we tackle any such behaviour.

The comments were based in recommendations of the Kilbrandon Again report published today. It also proposed a new youth justice system for 16 to 21 year olds.

In Scotland we have the children’s hearings system which seeks to address both offending and care and protection issues in a welfare context. So already any young person up to 16 may be - and in the vast majority of cases is - seen in the hearings system where there is considered to be a need for compulsion.

I could not attend the launch which also made some recommendations about changes to the hearings system itself. I was disappointed that the report did not recognise the work already underway with our partners to effect reform and change. I also understand that a video - which I have yet to see - portrayed the conduct of a hearing in a manner which does not reflect what we advise and train as best practice.

So a few issues to work through. We’ve set out what we are doing on our website and we will explore further how we might improve.

The reassuring message from the day is that the values and principles of Kilbrandon still resonate strongly in Scotland and that alternatives to the current system have yet to show how rights and wellbeing of children and young people might be bette protected. So our focus is on effectng improvement and building on what we have as best we can with the resources we have and within gthe legislative boundaries we have to work within.

That still leaves a lot of scope for improvement !