The Children's Hearings Automated Rota Manager (CHARM) was developed by Computer Application Services to meet the unique European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) needs of the Scottish Children's Hearing System. CHARM enables ECHR compliant rotas to be produced in a matter of minutes.
Business Issues
The Scottish Children's Hearing System is composed of 32 regional panels. Each panel is made up a panel chair and a number of members who are available to sit at Children's Hearings and make appropriate decisions about Children's issues.
Every Hearing involves three panel members and one of these panel members chairs the proceedings. It is the responsibility of the Regional Chairperson to produce, on a regular basis, a rota of panel members. Typically this rota is produced for a 3 month period and must adhere to a number of rules and constraints, for example:
- Each panel must comprise members of both genders
- Panel member selection must be random to ensure that the hearing is seen to be fair
- Ideally no member should be scheduled for more than 2-3 hearings per month
- There should be a range of experience within the panel with no more than one member having less than 1 years experience.
Producing a schedule which meets the various rules and constraints is complex and time consuming. Previously regional chairpersons had to undertake this task using pencil and paper and had received no formal training.
CAS Solution
The Children's Hearings Automated Rota Manager (CHARM) system has reduced the time to complete the complex task of producing ECHR compliant rotas from 2-3 days to a matter of minutes.