Transcript

CHILD 1: A children's hearing is people who want to make things better for you, who help you with contact, and make a decision at the end of the hearing if you are getting home or if you can have longer contacts and stuff. Lots of other meetings are about you don't really get to go. And that's why it's called a children's hearing because you get to go.

SPEAKER 1: It's to try and make you safe and others safe. They're just trying to do the best for you.

CHILD 2: It's meant to make a difference, and it doesn't make any difference. It just makes everybody worried.

CHILD 3: When the hearing had finished everybody went crying and we all got upset and started crying too, and then we just walked out. I felt sad because they didn't see what was going to happen. They didn't even see if they was going to the judge or not. They just all walked out.

SPEAKER 2: Having a panel, it's really- the child feels quite intimidated as well because they're sitting there basically on spotlight as well. Like it's all about them. So I think they're necessary, but I think we could change the way they do it.

[INAUDIBLE MURMURING]

SPEAKER 3: She's the youngest with three older brothers.

SPEAKER 3: Is that OK?

SPEAKER 4: Yeah.

SPEAKER 3: That makes her.

CHILD 4: I think my first children's hearing was when I was about seven, I think, or eight. It wasn't very nice. I didn't like it. It was just really scary first time. You get a weird feeling in your stomach, and you feel sick. I thought I was going to get taken away.

CHILD 5: I heard about children's hearing by a letter got posted to my house. I felt that it was all right because my social worker told me what would be happening. Who will be there.

CHILD 6: Well, I got a letter in the post and found it lying in my bedroom and opened it. And it said, you are going to a children's hearing.

CHILD 7: I never really got told anything apart from we're all going to see a big building in Glasgow. Felt a bit scared.

CHILD 8: Um, the chairperson, he was kind of in a grumpy mood I think. It was kind of scary when I saw him Kind of like the hulk when he's transforming.

CHILD 9: They didn't look happy to see no one. Um, they looked like they were just wanting the job over and done with. So yeah, you've got to like sit and listen to them more than they listen to you. And they basically tell you what you're doing. They don't ask, they just tell. They make you feel outnumbered in a way. Like they make you feel like you want to cry because they put so many things- just throw them in front of you.

CHILD 10 Well, they stare at you. And then when you say something, that either they think isn't true, or it is true, and they'll just like smile at you. But in a way that- not a nice smile. Like a smile as if we've got you. You feel really down. You feel like actually basically a mouse in a mouse trap because they're bigger than you. They're adults, basically, and you're just a child. And they're deciding your future.