- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what evidence it has to link the number of offence referrals to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration to children living in the 10 most deprived communities, as determined by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-27307 on 2 August 2006 which stated that the Scottish Children’sReporter Administration (SCRA) does not hold information on children referred asdefined by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on possible sales of children’s hearing centre premises by the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration to address a financial shortfall resulting from the decision of Scottish ministers to refuse a request for £20 million of additional funding to support its front-line services.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is unawareof any such proposal.
The SCRA is being resourced bythe Scottish Executive to upgrade and, where necessary, replace hearings centres.
Where a centre is no longer fitfor purpose and has been replaced by new premises, the Executive may agree to thereceipt from the sale of the old building being retained by the SCRA.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many children, who would previously have been dealt with by a children’s hearing panel, it estimates will not now be dealt with as a result of the decision by the Principal Reporter of the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration to prioritise cases by risk, in light of the decision of Scottish ministers to refuse a request for £20 million of additional funding to support its front-line services.
Answer
We are not in a position to providesuch an estimate.
While there has been a steepincrease in the number of referrals in the last year in particular, the percentageof those going to a hearing has remained proportionately similar. At present only10% of referrals to the Children’s Reporter go to a Children’s Hearing.
That is why the multi-agencyMinisterial Task Group was set up in the summer. The new model being developed bythe group will help referring agencies to ensure that children receive the helpthey need when they need it without having to await the outcome of a reporteror hearings decision. It will also help agencies to identify when compulsory measuresmight be needed to ensure appropriate referrals are being made.
The SCRA plans to introduce itscase filtering tool because of the increasing number of referrals where there isno need for compulsory measures of supervision. The tool is intended to help reducethe risk to children by ensuring reporters and hearings can focus on those mostin need of compulsion.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what requests it has received from the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration for additional funding to support front-line services between February and November 2006.
Answer
Scottish Children’s ReporterAdministration submitted four proposals forfunding. All were in response to requests from the Scottish Executive.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any of its external consultants will be used to validate offence ground referral datasets produced by the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration.
Answer
No.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the number of children referred to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration in the last six months on offence grounds has increased compared with the corresponding six months of 2005.
Answer
This information is not yet available.
We expect the SCRA to publishthe second quarterly performance monitoring report in respect of 2006-07 early inDecember, thereafter it will be laid in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre in the normal way.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what additional financial resources it plans to allocate to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration in each of the next three years to address the rising number of referrals on both offence and non-offence grounds.
Answer
The SCRA’s overall annual grant-in-aid has increased by over£10 million since 2001 to over £24 million in 2006-07 and 2007-08. It is not possibleto provide details of grant-in-aid funding beyond 2007-08 until the outcomes of the next Spending Review are known.
Consideration is currently beinggiven to three proposals for additional funding and the SCRA will be informed of the outcome in due course. We monitor resourcing requirements, in close liaisonwith the SCRA management, in order to optimise the administration’s effectiveness.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive when it estimates that the number of referrals to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration on non-offence grounds will peak.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-29846 on 22 November 2006. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has received from the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland in respect of a request from the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration for £20 million of additional funding to support front-line services.
Answer
The Executive has not receivedany representations from the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland in respectof additional funding for the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how regularly it monitors the number of referrals to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration on (a) care and protection and non-offence grounds and (b) offence grounds and how many referrals there were in each category in the last six months, also showing how these figures compare with the corresponding six months in 2005.
Answer
The SCRA publish data quarterlyas well as an annual report which are analysed by the Scottish Executive to informaction.
The information requested onthe number of referrals for the six months in 2005 can be found in the ScottishChildren’s Reporter Administration Annual Report for 2005-06 which was publishedon 16 November. A copy is available in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre (Bib. number 40988).
As regards data for the lastsix months, this information is not yet available. We expect the SCRA to publishthe second quarterly performance monitoring report in respect of 2006-07 early inDecember, thereafter it will be laid in Scottish Parliament Information Centre in the normalway.
