Changes to the Rules of Procedure in Children’s Hearings on giving siblings the opportunity to participate in Hearings will apply from 26 July 2021.

The changes will make sure that brothers and sisters can take part in decisions at Hearings that might affect them seeing each other. 

The new Rules set out the criteria for who can take part and how. A person will be able to take part if: 

(a) they are living or have lived with the child at the centre of the Hearing,

(b) they and the child have an ongoing relationship with the character of a relationship between siblings (whether or not they have a parent in common),

(c) the children’s hearing is likely to make a decision significantly affecting contact or the possibility of contact between the person and the child, and

(d) the person is capable of forming a view on the matter of contact between the individual and the child.

At the moment siblings can ask to take part in their brother or sister’s Hearing, but this doesn’t often happen. 

The changes to the Rules should ensure consistent application of sibling rights across all Hearings. 

These changes follow two Supreme Court cases last year (read more about the ABC and XY cases here) and new law on this issue in the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 (section 25). 

If you would like to hear more about the rule changes, Clan Childlaw is organising a lunchtime webinar on 19 April 2021. For more information, get in touch with janet.cormack@clanchildlaw.org.  

Read the new rules and the policy intention behind them here: 

The Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 (Rules of Procedure in Children’s Hearings) Amendment Rules 2021.

New Regulations creating a duty to place siblings together will take effect on 26 July 2021:

The Looked After Children (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021 make changes to the The Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009.

The new duty was committed to in 2019 in the Scottish Government’s Family Justice Modernisation Strategy. 

Stand Up for Siblings very much welcomes this significant progress on a central issue in our campaign for change.  

What does the new duty say?

Where the local authority is considering placing a child with a kinship carer, with a foster carer, or in a residential establishment, and any sibling of the child is looked after or about to be looked after, the local authority will be required to place the siblings, where appropriate, with the same carer or in the same residential establishment.  Where it is not appropriate for the siblings to be placed together, the Local Authority will be required to place the siblings in homes which are near to one another.

In either situation, to decide that a placement is appropriate, the local authority will have to be satisfied that it safeguards and promotes the welfare of the child which is the paramount consideration. 

As with all the changes to the law on brothers and sisters, who is considered to be a sibling is defined broadly: siblings are anyone with at least one parent in common, or anyone the child has lived with in the past or is living with now with whom the child has an ongoing sibling-like relationship.

The regulations mean brothers and sisters will in the future, where appropriate, live together or near each other when looked after by a local authority. This is a major development for care experienced children and one that is a significant step forward in implementing the recommendations of the Independent Care Review in The Promise. 

Read the new rules here (click on Policy Note for an explanation of the changes).

See also the Scottish Government’s Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment.

“I can’t believe it’s been three years since Stand Up for Siblings officially launched, and even longer since we started to shape our collaborative work. 

Working together across sectors and disciplines has been really effective for raising awareness of hurdles faced by care experienced brothers and sisters and ways to overcome them. 

The message has been all the stronger and had much broader impact for having come from a kaleidoscope of experts, organisations and agencies. It’s also been a professional and personal privilege. 

A key highlight of course has been when in September 2019 the Scottish Government announced a package of legislative reforms to support the sibling relationships of looked after children, and the joint expertise and influence Stand Up for Sibling has been able to contribute to these changes to the law before and after that date.

As lawyers for children and young people Clan Childlaw frequently advises and represents care experienced young people who, through becoming involved in the care system, have become separated and lost touch with brothers and sisters, or are at risk of doing so. We are really hopeful about the changes to the law and the change they will bring. 

Our solicitors can already help in lots of different situations care experienced brothers and sisters find themselves in, and we’ve recently added some new examples to our website where it’s definitively worth getting in touch with a lawyer – take a look at Clan Childlaw’s website here. 

Changing the law won’t change things overnight, but it will force everyone around children to think far more carefully about the importance of their sibling relationships and how they can be supported long-term. 

New legal duties will apply to local authorities and children’s hearings from July, accompanied by new Rules for sibling participation in children’s hearings. These will support and cement the culture change we are already seeing, backed up by the work to implement ‘The Promise’. The work of Stand Up for Siblings is not yet over, but I feel hopeful for lasting change.”

Janet Cormack works as Legal Policy Manager at Clan Childlaw, a specialist law centre for children and young people and co-founder of Stand Up for Siblings.  Clan Childlaw has a Freephone enquiry line for information and advice – to speak to a solicitor call 0808 129 0522 or email info@clanchildlaw.org.

As part of Kinship Care Week next month, tickets are now available for a free webinar on siblings in Kinship care. Taking place on Wednesday 17 March, the session is aimed at practitioners who undertake assessments and support Kinship carers and the children they care for.

With a focus on assessing and supporting older siblings caring for younger siblings in Kinship care, considering the importance of the sibling relationship throughout life, and to explore ways in which processes and procedures ensure that children’s rights to stay connected to family are being promoted and protected in kinship care.

The two hour session includes inputs from Christine Jones and Kate Richardson from Stand Up For Siblings. The webinar will run from 1-3pm. Find out more here.

There’s lots more events taking place during Kinship Care Week which runs from 15 to 20 March. You can view all the events here.

STAR, Siblings Reunited has featured in a new podcast. Karen Morrison from the Fife-based charity appears on the podcast ‘Down the Lane’. In the 12 minute broadcast she talks about the work of the project and the importance of keeping siblings together. You can tune in here.

Stand Up for Siblings is really pleased to see there is now a date for the new laws on brothers and sisters in care that were recently agreed by the Scottish Parliament.

The new measures will apply from 26th July 2021. These are:

• a duty on local authorities to promote contact between looked after children and siblings (section 13 of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020)

• a duty on children’s hearings duty to consider contact when making etc. compulsory supervision orders (section 14 of the Act)

• rights for siblings to participate in children’s hearings (section 25 of the Act)

The Regulations setting the date are here.