Controversial recruitment adverts for Scotland's children's panel system are to be withdrawn or reworded after a backlash against their content.
The head of Children's Hearings Scotland (CHS), Boyd McAdam, confirmed the language used would "evolve" after criticism from charities and young people with experience of children's panels and the care system.
Read more - Agenda: How you can be a force for good for the young
The adverts, designed to encourage people to volunteer to sit on lay tribunals making decisions about the welfare of children, showed such panel members with halos. One was shown claiming "I saved mummy's little punchbag from another beating".
Leading figures in children's charities expressed concern at the images and the wording, while young people from the charity Who Cares? Scotland said the language used would stigmatise them and their families.
Read more: Children's Hearings Scotland's 'dehumanising' recruitment posters slammed
Yesterday a further body, Scotland's independent Care Review, also expressed alarm at the tone of the recruitment drive.
Alastair Redpath and Denisha Killoh, who chair the Review's Stigma group issued a statement saying many care-experienced young had responded with dismay to the campaign. "The imagery and language has been described as distressing and stigmatising, and there are concerns that it misrepresents their experiences of hearings, reaffirms stereotypes of care experienced individuals, and reinforces stigma," they said.
Childrens panel training is one of the most best pieces of training you can ever do. The first thing the trainers will need to do with this is tell the new recruits to ignore and forget everything about this campaign. https://t.co/nzygLIyHAw
— 𝔻𝕣𝕖𝕨𝕊𝕞𝟙𝕥𝕙 (@DrewSm1th) August 16, 2018
"This has led to doubts about the likelihood of it attracting candidates equipped and willing to work in partnership with others to safeguard the welfare, and promote the wellbeing of infants, children and young people who require the support of the Children’s Hearing System."
The language and visuals used by CHS had caused concern they added. "We have been in contact with the Children’s Hearing System directly to make them aware of the views that have been heard".
Now CHS has said it has listened and is taking action.
CHS National Convener and Chief Executive, Boyd McAdam said, “We have listened and reflected upon feedback in relation to our current recruitment campaign. It was never our intention to cause upset with this campaign.
It's been a tough day. We've heard your concerns. We are listening and reflecting. It was never our intention to upset. #WordsMatter
— Children's Hearings Scotland (@CHScotland) August 16, 2018
“The Children’s Hearings System plays a vital role in supporting, listening and taking decisions with and on behalf of children and young people in Scotland.
“Our recruitment campaign ensures that there are sufficient volunteer Panel Members across Scotland to support this unique system.
"We recognise that some of the language in our recruitment campaign needs to evolve and we are working hard to make this happen."
Read more: Children's Hearings Scotland's 'dehumanising' recruitment posters slammed
Mr McAdam did not say what changes would be made to the advertisements or the campaign, but appealed for the organisation to be given space to make improvements. “As we have said, words matter. We have listened and we are taking action," he said.
Critics of the campaign welcomed the decisions. Martin Crew, chief executive of Barnardo's in Scotland described it as a "Respectful & appropriate response".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel