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The Scottish Children's Hearings System, established in 1971, has survived largely unchanged for almost thirty years. Despite wide-ranging reform of child welfare in the Children (Scotland) Act, 1995, the key features of the Children's Hearings System were preserved largely intact. This stability and continuity contrasts sharply with major changes in systems of juvenile justice and child welfare across the world in recent decades. This article reviews the main contours of these developments, including the shifting balance between justice and welfare; the separation of children and young people in need of care and protection from 'young offenders'; diversion, restructuring and neo-conservative crime control strategies and considers their significance for the Scottish Children's Hearings System. It draws on two recently published studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on young people and participation, drawing on a study of the Scottish Children's Hearings system, titled Deciding in Children's Interests, which was conducted at the University of Stirling between 1994 and 1997. It notes the surprising paucity of recent research on the hearings system, given that it was one of the earliest examples of young people systematically participating in decisions affecting them in a child welfare context. The authors consider several dimensions of participation in relation to the hearings system and other decision-making arenas. They suggest that participation rights may have become a reality more for young people involved in welfare systems than for other young people in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]