In 1996 the Scottish Office commissioned a complete revision of the existing guidance manual for Children's Panel members in order to bring it up to date, in particular for the new legislation. The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 was implemented in April 1997 and the Human Rights Act 1998 has since been introduced. Experience of working with the new legislation has brought about best practice guidelines.
In view of the changes in practice the Scottish Executive decided that there should be another revision of the manual which can be used not only as a resource for the training of panel members but also Children’s Panel Advisory Committee members and safeguarders.