Profiles

Further catching up this morning then off to Glasgow for a meeting of the Digital Delivery Board, overseeing progress on the development of the new digital platform for the Children’s Hearings Service.

The meeting was held in the offices in Glasgow of the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) which, amongst many other things, is responsible for the locations where children’s hearings are held.

Our meeting was in one of the newer designed rooms which are intended to be less formal ( ie not big tables and chairs). The extra shows part of the decor.

Outside the hearing rooms we saw evidence of the move to help young people coming to the hearings know whom they are going to meet. These folders are for slotting in pictures of the people they will see in the hearing ( or as it is colloquially known, “The Panel”j. Technically, the panel is the grouping of the 2,500 or so volunteers who are available to sit on the hearing (which is the term for the meeting to discuss the future of a vulnerable child). But it’s has for decades been known as the panel and I suspect that no matter what efforts are made to change the language “the Panel” is how it will be known.

It is a small step towards helping young people feel slightly more relaxed - being able to know in advance who may they will see and a very little bit about them. The panel members who take decisions about their future know lots about them from the papers they receive. So a small effort is the least we can do.

We are testing this in various parts of Scotland and are encouraging the practice more widely. Where it is not done or where a picture has not been provided some children are beginning to ask why not! Good,

Back home for hospital radio and presenting the programme then wound down with Guardians of the Galaxy. Good fun and makes more sense revisiting it now that we’ve had Avengers Infinity.