Scots children held ‘hostage to fortune’

Children are being “held hostages to fortune” as a result of a
failure to implement decisions made at children’s panel hearings,
members of the Scottish Howard League of Penal Reform heard this
week.

Malcolm Schaffer, reporter manager for the east of Scotland, told
an Edinburgh conference that compulsory supervision orders were not
being carried out due to inconsistencies and a shortage of social
workers.

Schaffer said: “Legal decisions are not being implemented. If this
was translated into the adult system, there would be an outcry.”