“The qualifications and experience required to be a Child Welfare Reporter will be set by secondary legislation. … We would expect that these criteria would not exclude lawyers …“

Government Response to Stage 1 Report para 105

Ash Denham is Minister for Community Safety. This article examines the development of section 8 of the Children (Scotland) Bill, including what training and qualifications she envisages will be required to become a Child Welfare Reporter. Objections to Liam McArthur’s amendment raised at stage 2 are also examined in light of information now available.

The Minister’s starting point is that: “We would expect that these criteria would not exclude lawyers …”. This seems curious given that she intends the qualifications and experience required to become a Child Welfare Reporter to be set by secondary legislation. Despite most of them starting off with little or no qualifications or training in the central…