You can read the full versions of our latest Annual Report and Evaluation Report; highlights are below. You can also read some case studies.

Representation

In 2015-16, our Representation service worked directly with 245 children and young people. 58% of the cases we worked on involved representation at children’s hearings. 13% involved contact and residence disputes. Around 5% involved adoption and permanence. We also worked on cases involving sibling contact, children’s rights and responsibilities and children’s rights.

Most of the children and young people who used our services were between 12 and 18. Outwith this core age range, we provided direct representation to 14 children aged 9-11, and to 31 young people with previous care experience, aged 18-22. 

82% of the children and young people we represented during 2015-2016 were looked after at the time, or had been at some point in the past.

Information

In 2015-2016 we answered 454 enquiries. 22% were asking about contact and residence disputes, 10% were asking about children’s hearings, 6% were questions about children’s rights and responsibilities, 7% were asking about permanence and adoption. We were also asked about criminal proceedings, education and child protection, passports and immigration and a wide range of other concerns.

Training

346 delegates from across Scotland attended one of our training sessions. Of those who completed an evaluation, 100% said the training would help with their job.

Policy

We coordinate the Children's Rights Strategic Litigation Group bringing together voluntary sector organisations, lawyers and other professionals working in the field of children’s rights to identify ways to use the law more effectively to achieve policy aims.  

Our intervention in Judicial Review proceedings against Scottish Ministers was successful. The Supreme Court found the information sharing provisions of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act to be incompatible with children’s human right to privacy. We are now working with the Scottish Government as they revise the provisions to ensure the right to privacy is respected.  

Clan Childlaw also successfully intervened in the Supreme Court case of AB v Her Majesty's Advocate in which the Appellant argued that denying him access to a statutory criminal defence as an adult on the grounds he had previously used it as a child was a breach of his rights under articles 6, 14 and 8 ECHR. Our intervention centred around the rights of children not be prejudiced later in life for their actions in childhood.