Contact Decisions in the Children's Hearings System

When and how, if at all, do decisions relating to contact by Children’s Panels differ from social work/multi-agency report recommendations?
This research will look at a range of issues associated with this primary question, dependent on the availability of evidence, such as;
• Are there systematic differences based on case type, location, participation of professionals, residence of child, etc?
• To what extent do these decisions accord with children & young people’s, or relevant others’, stated wishes (where recorded)?
• Do different reasons for contact decisions provided by social work/multi-agency reports influence the decisions of children’s hearings?

Children & young people's views on contact are often not recorded in Hearings’
documentation
The majority of Hearings’ contact decisions reflect social work recommendations
Hearing decisions and social work recommendations are justified using similar reasons
Reasons for Hearings’ decisions and social work recommendations are often not well recorded
Reasoning for both Hearings’ decisions and social work recommendations is variable