Children’s Hearings Advocacy Support Service
This service is for advocacy workers who support children and young people in the children’s hearings system in Scotland.
Our lawyers are here to help if you:
- Have a question about the procedures in the children’s hearings system
- Have a question about the law and its application
- Are supporting a young person who feels that a decision made about them isn’t fair, or their voice was not heard or properly considered
- Think the young person you are supporting might need legal advice and/or representation.
What to expect
When you call our helpline you will be in touch with our project coordinator, Agota, who will take some core details about your enquiry and forward the information you give to an experienced, child-centred lawyer.
The lawyer will assess the information, call you back to have a chat with you and then advise how best to proceed. This can take the form of the lawyer providing you with the necessary information and options available so that you can advise the young person, or they may advise that the young person will benefit from instructing a lawyer to represent them
What practitioners have said about working with us
Very helpful for my own knowledge and learning; very supportive for my young person.
This is the first time I have used Clan Childlaw and the whole experience has been excellent. Jenna, and initially Louise, have been a pleasure to work with. A very professional service with great expertise and knowledge, while still being approachable for the young person. The team around this young person have been trying to get better outcomes for him for over a year with no success. I do not think he would be in this tenancy without the legal representation and hard work that Jenna provided.
This was an excellent service. Having the legal representation made a huge difference for the young person and made him feel more confident. Claire explained the different terminology to him so he had a good understanding and he felt very supported.
The referral was dealt with professionally and sensitively and the young person has reported to me that her solicitor is lovely and very understanding of the complex situation the young person currently finds herself in.
The young person I support faces significant challenges and experiences considerable distress impacting his ability to engage with services and get the right support. Daniel, his solicitor at Clan Childlaw, has worked successfully on two occasions with this young person to resolve difficulties in his accommodation placement. I have been very worried about the young person and I believe that the outcome for the young person would have been worse without Clan Childlaw's involvement. Daniel has been very positive to work with and in appointments I've attended I've been extremely impressed by his child-friendly approach and how he communicates complex legal issues to young people.
