About this study

The Legal Representation Grant Scheme allows children's hearings to appoint legally qualified safeguarders or curators ad litem to represent children. This is done when required to allow the child to effectively participate at the hearing, or because it may be necessary to make a secure supervision requirement (or a review of such a requirement).

The Scottish Government Education Information and Analytical Services Division, acting on behalf of the Children's Hearings Team, commissioned ScotCen to conduct research to review the operation of the Scheme and to inform its future development.

You can read a summary of the findings here - they were published in July 2009. Or you can read the whole report (in various formats) on the Scottish Government website.

Potential policy impact

This report has policy and practice implications for anyone involved in the Children's Hearing system.

The research has already been used by policy-makers to help inform the thinking about future changes to the scheme.

Methodology

The study involved 51 in-depth telephone interviews with professionals including local authority clerks, reporters, legal representatives and panel members. There were 23 face-to-face interviews with young people in secure units who had experience of attending a hearing with a lawyer or legal representative. The data was systematically analysed using Framework.