Congratulations to Elliot Jackson who has been appointed to the role of National Convener for Children’s Hearings Scotland.
The National Convener interviews was the first Project I was asked to be involved in along with two other young people and Jacqui (OHOV development lead) was there if we needed any support.
I travelled down to Edinburgh via train where Jacqui had arranged a rendezvous with the rest of the group. Once we all met, we headed to the hotel to check in – as we needed to stay overnight as we had an early start the next day. Later on, we headed out for dinner and Jacqui gave us a little tour of West end of Edinburgh and all the amazing restaurants. Choosing where to eat was one of the most difficult decisions we had to make throughout the two days. We ended up in Nando’s!
After some amazing food and chat, it was time for coffee and cake so we headed to Starbucks next door. Once there, we started to discuss the possible questions we might ask the candidates while making sure they were balanced and fair.
We wandered back to the hotel (with a couple of wrong turns thanks to Jacqui’s navigation skills!) to finalise the questions, and sort out the running order for the next day. It was a late finish, so by 11:00pm we headed off to our rooms for some zzzs!
After a sleepless night, we were ready for the day ahead. It was a quick breakfast and then we headed to Children’s Hearings Scotland’s new office for a tour. Their new office is accessible as it’s close to Haymarket train station. Once inside it’s a bit like Google Plex – sadly there’s no hammocks for a mid-day nap! During the tour we met some of the Children’s Hearings Scotland staff and found out about what their roles are.
The interviews were held in the COSLA offices and we headed along there to get set up. I obviously can’t say too much about the day, but we did put the candidates through their paces! At the end of the day we met the Head of Human Resources (Susan) to give her our feedback about each of the candidates. It felt like we were really listened to. Susan told us that she would email Jacqui to let us know once the final decision had been made.
I enjoyed the day and after it I was thinking – that’s exactly what it’s like when I’m being interviewed and when people are choosing who they want. Now I know what it feels like to be an interviewer, and that the questions people ask are to find out a skill or a personality trait of the person. I would recommend being involved and would do it again in the future.