Children's panel 'needs more funds'

is to be realised, a leading author and broadcaster on crime told a

conference in Glasgow yesterday.

Mr Roger Graef's comments were made as the operation of the children's

panel, which has attracted much negative criticism, is reviewed by the

Government.

Mr Graef, addressing more than 200 children's panel members from

throughout Scotland, argued that the system was ''grossly under-rated''

by Scots, including many panel members.

He said its full potential had not been realised partly because ''it

was too good to be true''.

''It allows children to look for support in a structured way and is a

bridge between the desperation and the resource of society which should

be copied throughout the world,'' said Mr Graef.

A substantial increase in resources and willingness to provide these

was needed from the Government to achieve more positive results, he

said.

A children's panel, consisting of three lay members including one of

either sex, considers the cases of children up to 16, or 18 if they have

been under supervision, who are ''offended against or who offend''.

Mr Graef said that more resources were needed and added: ''We are

letting children, many of whom have attended children's hearings and end

up in care, slip straight into poverty, drugs, and crime.

''It is not enough to say to kids: 'You are now on your own.' The

state must support children beyond 18.''

Mr Graef's latest book, on the experiences of 10 young offenders in

London, will be published in January and serialised on TV and radio. He

said that the Government should ask itself how the #365 spent weekly to

keep someone in prison could be better used to prevent children falling

into the same trap.

Dr Andrew Coyle, governor of Brixton Prison and previously governor of

several Scottish prisons, told the conference: ''One of the underlying

strengths of the Children's Hearing System is that it keeps a large

number of young people out of the criminal justice process. That is a

crucial task.

''If we can prevent young people being sucked into the criminal

justice process, if we can prevent them from getting a criminal record,

there is a greater chance that they will not go on to commit more

serious offences at a later stage.''

Ms Margaret McKay, director of ChildLine in Scotland, which has

provided a free helpline for children in trouble or danger for two

years, said that the children's panel did an excellent job with

individual children.

However, she called on Scotland's 1800 children's panel members to

unite in voicing the problems, such as abject poverty, faced by young

people and their families in Scotland.

Ms Mandy Durlik, 20, who spent three years in care as a teenager, and

is now a development officer with Strathclyde's Who Cares? Scotland,

which supports young people in care, said that the children's panel was

basically a good idea which ''did not work well enough''.

She believed that it should be more informal and that children should

have a bigger say. At present, parents have a right to attend all

hearings but sometimes children are excluded and have no right to be

heard individually and in confidence.