Children's Hearings Scotland

At Children's Hearings Scotland, volunteers take on different roles - but they are united by one shared 'why'.

A belief in fairness.

A commitment to children's voices.

A willingness to give time, care and attention when it matters most.

This Volunteers' Week, we're celebrating every volunteer who helps make the hearings system stronger for children and young people across Scotland.

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Our Summer series of Information Sessions about becoming a volunteer PM are starting soon, register your interest to be the first to hear and to book your place! https://bit.ly/CHSExpressInterest ⬅️

Could you be our next Business Analyst? Children’s Hearings Scotland is hiring - apply by midnight on Friday 5 June. We’re looking for you if you can:

Use evidence to improve services and how they work for children and young people, and those who support them. ✅
Build your skills through learning and work on large transformation programmes. ℹ️

Apply or learn more on our website. https://www.chscotland.gov.uk/what-we-do/working-with-us/staff-vacancies/business-analyst

Today we look at another one of our plans for 2026-27: bringing our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy to life.

Children’s Hearings Scotland is built on a simple but powerful belief: children, young people and families should be listened to, respected and supported.

Our EDI work helps make sure this happens by:
- supporting diverse volunteers
- recognising different needs
- keeping lived experience at the centre of hearings

Brittany Williamson, our National Wellbeing Manager, says: 'This year, we want to update how we think and talk about inclusion of our community, our team, and of families in hearings, by looking at ‘inclusion-by-design’ in all that we do at CHS.'

By working in different ways with our national team and volunteers, we aim to:
- value diversity
- respond to the needs of the people we serve
- build an inclusive culture in our work for children’s hearings

Join us again tomorrow for our final day of this series.

Can’t wait? Read the full report on our website now. https://www.chscotland.gov.uk/resources/reports-and-planning/business-and-corporate-parenting-plan-2026-27 🤝🏽

CHS welcomes the news that the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) Act 2026 has received Royal Assent. These changes will help deliver the Promise, introducing significant changes to the hearings system for Scotland’s children. 🙌🏻

Today we look at strengthening the voice of the child in all that we do.

We will shape our organisation through the voice of lived experience, by placing our Experts by Experience at the heart of organisational decision-making.

'For every step of introducing the new laws CHS will involve children and young people from our Experts by Experience Group.

'We do this because it is their right to be involved, they are the people that know what it feels like to be a child in a children’s hearing.' - Stephen Bermingham, Senior Policy and Standards Manager

Join us again tomorrow as we lay out more of our plans for 2026-27.

Can’t wait? Read the full report on our website now. https://www.chscotland.gov.uk/resources/reports-and-planning/business-and-corporate-parenting-plan-2026-27 📍

Take a peek inside our Business and Corporate Parenting Plan 2026-27.

'Our plan for 2026-27 is partly a ‘plan to plan’ as we digest the detail of the reforms that we need to prepare for, and the work that lies ahead to enable them.' - Elliot Jackson, National Convener and Chief Executive

This year, strategic planning and planning for reform will be balanced alongside the delivery of our key statutory functions to recruit, train and support volunteers, whose job it is to make decisions in the best interests of Scotland’s infants, children and young people.

This has driven us to put forward a tightly focused set of objectives for the year that fit into four priority areas:
- Planning for Reform
- Strengthening Leadership
- Driving Digital
- Learning Transformation

Join us this week as we lay out more of our plans for 2026-27.

Can’t wait? Read the full report on our website now. https://www.chscotland.gov.uk/resources/reports-and-planning/business-and-corporate-parenting-plan-2026-27 📰

Nine Tribunal Delivery teams support 2,300 volunteers every day. On National Children’s Day, Laura shares how this help makes hearings better for children. 👋

We believe that secure care should remain a last resort for children and young people in Scotland. Investment in services supporting children can ensure this. 🤝 https://www.chscotland.gov.uk/what-we-do/latest-news/consultation-response-the-future-of-secure-care

We support Panel Members to keep Scotland's children safe. Could you volunteer? Find out more at https://bit.ly/BecomeAPanelMember. 🤝