Health and Education Chamber

Eligibility

To be eligible for appointment you must:  

• Have previous engagement in practice for a period of not less than 5 years as a solicitor or advocate in Scotland; and 
  Subsequent engagement in any of the activities listed below: 
  (a) exercising judicial functions in any court or Tribunal; 
  (b) practice or employment as a lawyer of any kind; or
  (c) teaching or researching law at or for an educational institution. 

Essential Criteria

Knowledge, Interpretation and Application of the law 

• Able to demonstrate strong skills and competence in your field of law .
• Able to demonstrate knowledge, interpretation and application of substan-tive and procedural law in your field of law.
• Evidence of your willingness and ability to acquire new legal knowledge and skills.

Leadership and Management

• Manage cases and time effectively.
• Able to take responsibility for process and decisions, ensuring they are fair and ethical.
• Manage the hearing process effectively.
• Is able to deliver work at speed and under pressure.

Communicating Effectively

• Establishes authority and inspires respect and confidence.
• Modifies communication style to meet the needs of different tribunal users.
• Listens with patience and respect.
• Produces written work that is clear, concise and well reasoned.

Exercising Judgement

• Remains impartial and open minded and is seen to be fair to all.
• Is able to analyse and assess complex evidence and arguments.
• Is able to reason clearly.
• Is confident in judging and making independent decisions in the face of challenge.

Working with others

• Able to work effectively as part of a team and be active in all communications, de-liberations and decision making.
• Able to confront difficult issues openly and sensitively.
• Understands the importance of collaborative working and collective decision making with other tribunal members.
• Able to respond with care and compassion to those subject to tribunal proceed-ings, in particular where those proceedings involve vulnerable persons.
   

Eligibility

To be eligible for appointment to the Chamber, you must have knowledge and experience of children or young persons with:

(a) additional support needs within the meaning of section 1(1) of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) Act 2004; or

(b) a disability within the meaning of section 6 of the Equality Act 2010. 

Essential Criteria

Specialist Knowledge

• Provide the tribunal with support and guidance on matters in which they hold specialist knowledge, lived experience, understanding and expertise on rele-vant issues which are in dispute.
• Use experience and expertise to assist the tribunal to understand how a child or young person’s additional support needs and/or disability affects their activities of daily living and school education, highlighting any barriers to participation and inclusion in school education.   

Working With Others

• Work collaboratively and effectively as part of a team of judicial office holders and be active in the hearing, deliberations and decision making.
• Take tri-partite responsibility for process and decisions, ensuring they are fair and impartial.
• Manage difficult issues which may arise in hearings in an inclusive and supportive manner, with care and sensitivity.
• Is self-aware and uses feedback and self-reflection to develop self and others. 

Exercising Judgement

• Remains impartial and open minded and is seen to be fair to all.
• Able to absorb and distil complex arguments, summarise issues, and apply specialist knowledge to support well reasoned decisions.
• Able to focus on salient pieces of information and ask probing, focused ques-tions in a way that is sensitive to those being questioned.

Managing Work Effectively

• Is diligent and hard working.
• Is able to deliver work at speed and under pressure within timescales set by the Chamber President.

Communicating Effectively

• Modifies communication style to meet the needs of other tribunal judicial office holders, parties and witnesses, consistent with trauma informed principles.
• Ability to communicate with children and young people in an inclusive and re-spectful manner.
• Listens with care, patience and respect.
• Participate fully in deliberations after the hearing has concluded and convey specialist knowledge clearly.
  
   

Responsibilities

Depending on the type of case, legal judicial office holders may sit alone or as part of a tribunal panel with two specialist judicial officer holders (one from education and the other from health or social work).  Legal judicial office holders will require to:

• Communicate effectively with all parties, which may include children or young people.
• Lead and chair relevant proceedings and provide advice to other judicial office holders on legal issues arising, ensuring proceedings are fair and efficiently managed, consistent with the Tribunal’s overriding objective.
• Actively judicially manage cases and promote the efficient disposal of business.
• Weigh up potentially conflicting evidence and support the other judicial office holders to reach an independent and reasoned decision.
• Work collaboratively with other judicial office holders and facilitate collective decision making, draft the written decision and statement of reasons, ensuring the law is appropriately applied, and all relevant issues are covered in the decision, consistent with the HEC Judicial Decision Writing Toolkit.
• Be courteous and considerate to all Tribunal parties, attendees and staff of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, and sensitive to people from different backgrounds.
• Ensure parties can effectively present their case, and have it considered fairly, including parties who are not represented.
• Ensure that decisions, directions and any other orders of the Tribunal are made efficiently, effectively and fairly, and notified timeously.
• Engage constructively in any involvement with the Head of the Scottish Tribunals (the Lord President), the President of Scottish Tribunals, Chamber Presidents, other judicial office holders of the Scottish Tribunals and all Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service staff supporting the Tribunals.
• Fulfil initial induction and continuing training requirements by attending training days and meetings with other judicial office holders of the HEC as and when required, keeping up to date with current procedures and practices.
• Participate in judicial office holder review at least every five years, as directed by the Chamber President.
• Be IT-literate, have access to a laptop or desktop computer (unless provided with a Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service laptop) and make fullest use of electronic means of communication including working from electronic bundles.
• Travel throughout Scotland, as required.
• Carry out all other tasks that may reasonably be required.
   

The Chamber has three types of non-legal judicial officer holders (these are known as ‘specialist judicial office holder’ in the Health and Education Chamber:

• Education judicial office holders are expected to have experience in the delivery of school education.
• Health judicial office holders are drawn from a wide range of fields, such as GPs, child and adolescent psychiatry, child psychology or allied health professions e.g. speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy.
• Social work judicial office holders  are expected to have experience in the delivery of relevant social worker services.   This may include different fields of social work e.g. children and families and criminal justice.

As a specialist judicial office holder you will be expected to:

• Work collaboratively with other HEC judicial officer holders, participating effectively and impartially in the hearing and the decision-making process.
• Read and become familiar with the papers (‘the bundle’) in preparation for hearings.
• Meet the other judicial officer holders prior to commencement of the hearing to plan and prepare the tribunal’s approach.
• Contribute to the fair, efficient and effective conduct of hearings including ensuring that parties can present their evidence and arguments and have their cases considered fully and fairly, consistent with the Tribunal’s overriding objective.
• Take an active role in hearings including asking relevant questions of witnesses; taking the evidence of the child or young person using a list of agreed questions; and listening to the views of the child or young person.
• Weigh up complex and potentially conflicting evidence and support the other judicial office holders to reach an independent and reasoned decision after considering all oral and written evidence.
• Contribute effectively to the use of the tribunal’s specialist expertise by sharing their specific knowledge, expertise and understanding.
• Work collaboratively with other judicial officer holders and support the legal judicial office holder to draft the written decision to reflect the evidence considered and the collective decision of the tribunal, consistent with the HEC’s Judicial Decision Writing Toolkit.
• Fulfil initial induction and continuing training requirements by attending training days and meetings with other judicial office holders of the HEC as and when required, keeping up to date with current procedures and practices.
• Participate in judicial office holder review at least every five years, as directed by the Chamber President.
• Be IT-literate, have access to a laptop or desktop computer (unless provided with a Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service laptop) and make fullest use of electronic means of communication including working from electronic bundles
• Travel throughout Scotland, as required