Children’s Hearings Scotland seeking 700 volunteer panel members in biggest ever national campaign
Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS) has launched its biggest ever national campaign to recruit new volunteer children’s panel members to work with children in their local communities.
Panel Members are volunteers from local communities who take part in children's hearings. Their role is to listen and make legal decisions with and for infants, children and young people.
They are there to ensure that the young person is at the heart of every decision made – because every decision, no matter how big or small, has a huge impact.
Elliot Jackson, CHS national convener and chief executive, said: “The Children’s Panel is a really essential service in Scotland, and couldn’t operate without volunteer panel members.
“Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, we were lucky to have truly committed volunteers who made sure we could continue to support children and families in need of care and protection.
"They embraced different ways of volunteering, including online hearings, and I am really proud of everything they were able to achieve in what has been a really tough year for Scotland.”
The campaign aims to attract a diverse group of volunteers, to ensure panel members reflect the communities they live in, and who have the right qualities.
Elaine, a panel member in Fife, said: “It is so important that panel members are representative of Scotland’s communities. Having a wide variety of gender, age, ethnicity and backgrounds is vital to allow different mindsets, points of view and opinions be heard and considered when making those decisions.”
Mr Jackson adds that anyone can volunteer no matter what their background is.
“We asked young people with lived experience of the hearings system what specific traits they wanted to see in their panel members. They were crystal clear and told us that it doesn’t matter what your background, your profession, or your age is,” he added. “What matters are the qualities that you can bring to the room, such as compassion and empathy, being a good listener, someone you can trust.
“If you want to make a difference in your local community, I ask you to consider applying to volunteer as a panel member. You would be joining a vibrant community at an important time.”