Gay people should apply to become members of Children's Panels so that they can educate and influence Panel attitudes towards homosexuality. This was one of the points made by David Watson, chairman of the members of one of Glasgow's Children's Panels, when he spoke to SMG Glasgow recently. He said press adverts to recuit Panel mebers appeared in the autumn, and he urged SMG members to apply. Applicant were not asked if they were gay, he said. 

Dr Watson, who lectures in moral philosophy at Glasgow University, accepted an invitation from SMG News to contribute an article on the subject. He writes:

The new system of juvenile justice in Scotland is no longer new and it seems to me that members and friends of SMG should give it more attention. The first reason is simply that a child or young person under 16, or under 18 if already 'on supervision', may be referred to a Children's hearing as 'being in need of compulsory measures of care' for reasons such as that 'he is beyond the control of his parent', 'he is falling into bad associations or is exposed to moral danger' and that 'he has committed an offence'. Of these 'grounds of referral', as they are called, the third mentioned is of obvious reference to homosexualts, fven the present state of Scottish law. The other two are also important because their interpretation depends heavily upon the moral attitudes of members of the Hearing responsible for the decisionin respect of the child appearing before them. If members regard homosexua activity to be reasonable, or such reltationships to manifest bad associations or moral danger, then restrictions on such relationships will be imposed as compultary 'care'.

As  far as I have been able to discover, in Strathclyde at least, homosexual relationships come the the attention to Hearings only as features of cases of prostitution or illicit carnal knowledge, that is, where the fact that the relationship is homosexual is not decisive. But perhaps this needs further investigation. My point here is not that the new system is particularly, harsh on homosexuals. It is rather that because of the phrasbg if sine 'grounds  referral', its operation depends upon the moral attitudes of Hearing members. And from this flows my second reason for saying that the system should receive more of your attention.

Those selected to serve as members of Children's Hearings are laymen chosen partly because they possess suitable skills and personal attributes, and partly to yield a cross-section of the community. Neither criterion favours homosexuals. If homosexuals are prepared to serve the community as members of the Hearings system, they will be better placed to influence and educate the moral attitudes displayed in the ways in which it deals with children. Perhaps most important of all, you may further establish you full citizenship by serving you community yourself.

Note: a useful source of information on the system is F. Martin and K. Murray (eds.), Children's Hearings, Scottish Academic Press, 1976. The relevant Act is the Social Work (Scotland) Act, 1968, part 3, published by H.M.S.O.