Jane Gibson looks across the oval table at Robert, a teenager who has a history of risky behaviour, substance misuse and running away from home. She offers him reassurance.

“It’s your hearing,” Gibson* tells him. “If there are any changes you want to make in your present circumstances, you can let us know. But you’re very smiley and very happy, which is an indication.”

They are sitting in a nondescript room in an office block in central Glasgow, its bland magnolia and lilac walls hung with prints of historic Glaswegian landmarks, for a children’s panel hearing to review Robert’s case. Now 16, and estranged from his mother, he has been in foster care for five years.

Around the beech-veneered table are three panel members, lay volunteers with significant legal powers, with his records spread out before them. He has run away from home, escaping domestic violence, and been involved in substance abuse and risky behaviour, both on the streets and on social media.

Q&A What is the Children in the dock project? Show Children in the dock is an investigation into the youth justice system in England and Wales, which in 2018 saw 26,881 children aged 10-17 cautioned or convicted of crimes ranging from shoplifting and joyriding to rape and robbery. No other EU country puts such young children on trial. Most other nations do not use an adversarial system which can see children separated from their parents and lawyers via bulletproof glass in what is essentially an adult courtroom with a different sign on the door. Officially, the focus in youth courts is on rehabilitation, tackling the underlying causes of youth offending. But although there has been an 88% drop in the number of children cautioned or convicted since 2007, reoffending rates have increased. Just over 40% of children who go to court reoffend within a year; for those sent to youth custody, that figure rises to 71.6%. Children who end up in trouble now are disproportionately likely to be of black, Asian or minority ethnicity. They are vastly more likely to be in care and they are extremely likely to have ADHD, autism spectrum disorders and communication difficulties. This series examines how the court system deals with these vulnerable children and explores whether there is a better way to break the cycle of offending and help them build productive and fulfilling lives.

Robert sits opposite them, flanked by his foster mother and a social worker, his legs tucked under his chair. A children’s reporter, a trained investigator who leads on cases, takes notes from a desk nearby. “You tell us anything you’re feeling; anything at all,” Robert is told by Stephen Black, one of the panel members.

The children’s panel system was introduced across Scotland in 1971, following a seminal report by Lord Kilbrandon, a judge, recommending a wholly different approach to supporting children in crisis focused on welfare and protection.

There are no juvenile courts in Scotland, unless the case involves the most serious crimes such as homicide or rape, which go into the mainstream legal system. There are no prosecutors or police officers sitting in, even though 75% of cases are referred by the police and prosecutors allocate the most serious cases. Nor are the panel members magistrates or judges. They act instead as the child’s guarantors, often directing social work departments and schools to put in place tailored support and services.

Nearly 13,000 children were referred to the children’s hearing system last year, from infants to teenagers of 17, with nearly 3,560 of those going before a children’s panel – cases where measures such as compulsory supervision orders (CSOs) or, in emergency, high-risk cases, child protection orders are considered.

Around 85% of cases are so-called care and protection, dealing with children’s welfare. The remainder, including Robert’s, involve offending behaviour – conduct that in an adult system would be treated as a crime. That can include assaults, vandalism or abusive behaviour.

It is a welfare-driven approach, said Neil Hunter, the chief executive of the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration, which employs the professionals who support children’s panels.

“A young person involved in offending or other harmful behaviours is a manifestation of other issues in their wider life – education, social, psychological or emotional,” Hunter said. “It is a manifestation of something which needs a welfare-based approach; it is about trying to get to the root cause.”

Robert’s panel agreed to extend his CSO for another year, legally requiring Glasgow’s social work department to keep his support in place. Scottish councils are under intense financial pressure, services and schools overstretched, and the CSO protects Robert’s position. In his case that also means a part-time school timetable focusing on a handful of essential subjects, including English.

Robert is a success story. Nurtured by his foster mum, he has become a keen horse rider, an enthusiastic volunteer at a local stables, and plans a career in equestrian sports. “Robert has just thrived with that, and he is daft with the horses,” his social worker tells the panel. “Robert is definitely on the right path and needs time to ensure he continues on the right path,” says Gibson.

There are 36 children’s hearing centres scattered around Scotland, and a committee of children involved in the system have recently begun influencing the design of centres. Hearing rooms are being fitted out with sofas; the Stirling centre now has a sensory garden. Glasgow’s centre, the largest, covers four floors and its ground floor reception area and corridor is decorated with brightly coloured motifs – flowers, branches, butterflies, meadows and songbirds.

Hunter said the panels searched for a root cause to the offence, the truanting or the substance abuse. They looked for trauma, adversity or perhaps abuse. From there they looked for the right remedy.

He described it as a whole-system approach, based on early intervention. Referrals tend to be for children with the most complex needs. The preventative approach appears to be working as the number of children formally entering the hearings system is falling. There were 23,140 referrals last year (some children are referred multiple times), down 2.8% year on year.

“Hearings aren’t interested in innocence or guilt. The children’s hearing is only concerned with the young person’s welfare,” said Hunter. They “listen really hard to the young person, and listen really hard to the family, and to the professionals. They aggregate that to decide whether the young person needs the protection of the law.”

* Some names in this article have been changed for reasons of confidentiality