Communication and complexity: layperson decision-making in the Scottish Children’s Hearings system

Abstract

The Children’s Hearings system is a unitary, non-court-based legal tribunal system responding to child protection and youth justice concerns in Scotland. Decision-making is undertaken by three lay volunteers called panel members, and the participation of children and young people is viewed to be central to the process. Despite the importance of the decisions being made, there has been little examination of how panel members experience the decision-making process or how it can be theorised.

An ethnographic research methodology was employed to explore how panel members make decisions and what helps or hinders the process. Observations of 67 children’s hearings and pre-hearing panels, and qualitative interviews with 20 panel members, were undertaken. Panel member decision-making involves two key processes; making sense of and forming judgements based on information presented in advance of a hearing, and exploration of this information in the context of a face-to-face meeting with the child, parents, social worker and other relevant people. Findings highlight the crucial role of written reports in preparing panel members for a hearing and the barriers to effective communication, the centrality of emotion and the need for panel members to manage their own and others’ emotional responses, and the importance of language use and interactional competence in managing hearings skilfully. These features affect how children’s views are heard and considered in hearings.

This study addresses a gap in the literature by providing a detailed examination of the communicative and interactional processes central to panel member decision-making and locating these findings within wider judgement and decision-making frameworks. Recommendations aimed at supporting the decision-making process are proposed. The findings make a contribution to current knowledge and understanding of decision-making in child welfare proceedings and how lay decision-makers make sense of and reach decisions regarding the care of a child.