INTRODUCTION

We will see elsewhere in this book that the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 was less radical in its effects than is often assumed, but it would be wrong to deny that it marked a significant milestone. 1968 was a watershed year, before which our law was based on Acts from the 1930s; since then our law has developed the contemporary structures it maintains to this day. We remember the 1968 Act primarily for giving effect to the recommendation of the Kilbrandon Report, discussed immediately below, to establish a new tribunal for dealing with children who previously would be dealt with through the juvenile court. But the Act did far more than that. In particular, it restructured the way that social services, and not only for children, were delivered. The substantive legal changes since 1968 have all built upon the framework established in the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968.

THE KILBRANDON COMMITTEE, 1961–1964

In May 1961, John Maclay, the Secretary of State for Scotland, appointed a Committee whose remit was “to consider the provisions of the law of Scotland relating to the treatment of juvenile delinquents and juveniles in need of care or protection or beyond parental control”. Its chairman was CJD Shaw who, as a Senator of the College of Justice (and later Lord of Appeal in Ordinary), was known by the judicial title of Lord Kilbrandon. Kilbrandon himself described the makeup of the Committee as follows: