RADFORD – Scotland is an ideal destination for the traveler, rife with rolling green hills, the ghostly remnants of former monasteries and shrouded in all the mysteries of folklore. But for one Radford University student, a trip to Scotland meant an opportunity to work firsthand in a foreign child welfare system.

Beverly Robinette, a RU student earning her master’s degree in social work at the Abingdon extension campus, recently spent eight weeks in Edinburgh, Scotland, for a required field placement. RU generally requires students to spend 10 weeks in a field placement but Robinette, a mother of two and pastor of the chapel at Emory & Henry College, was able to opt for an eight-week block placement. To compensate for the remaining two weeks, she completed a research paper and worked at the Children’s Advocacy Center in Washington County, Va.

While she had no previous experience with child welfare, Robinette said she felt a need to “work with men, women and children who live on the margins of our communities” as an integral part of her profession in pastoral ministry with the United Methodist Church. During her time in Edinburgh, Robinette interacted with eight to 10 children per week at the Multi-Cultural Family Base (MCFB). Established in 1988, MCFB is a service-learning center that provides learning opportunities for students undertaking social work education.

Robinette’s goal during her time in Scotland was to compare child welfare policies in Washington County to those in Scotland. She discovered one major difference: a child’s voice in Scotland is paramount to any issue involving the welfare and future of the child. “Every agency I visited, every policy I studied had as one of its primary tenets the statement that children’s rights should be honored, and their voices should be heard when the decisions under consideration have direct impact on their lives,” she said.

In 1971, Scotland initiated a process known as the Children’s Hearing System, a procedure that essentially removes children under the age of 16 charged with misdemeanors or lesser crimes out of the courtroom and places them with a panel consisting of three trained volunteer community members. These community members meet with the child, family and social worker or counselor involved in the case. During each case, children are encouraged to speak to what they think best for their future. “The child may not get what he or she wants, but their voice is heard,” said Robinette. “It is all done in the best interest of the child.”

The Children’s Hearing System is based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a treaty established in 1989 that provides children under the age of 18 with a unique convention that addresses the special care and protection they need. According to the official website of UNICEF, the document was the “first legally binding international instrument to incorporate the full range of human rights—civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights.”

Each member nation of the United Nations has ratified the treaty, excluding two: the U.S. and Somalia. According to Robinette, the U.S. has failed to ratify the document because of a fear that children’s rights will ultimately undermine the rights of the parent, a fear that Robinette deems unjustifiable.

While courts in the U.S. may assign what is known as a guardian ad litem to act on behalf of children unable to represent themselves, Robinette said this American system does not always mean the guardian will speak directly on behalf of the child.

“I saw the system work better for the children in Scotland,” she said. “Both Scotland and Washington County share a commitment to keep the child as safe as possible in her or his home environment. [But] I have listened to the frustrated voices of [child advocates] as they have shared with me the heartache of having a judge dismiss a sexual abuse case because the voice of the child was not enough to continue with the investigation.”

Robinette hopes she may influence other students to take any opportunity to work in a foreign field placement so they can learn about other policy models and experience how others live. She hopes that maybe one day, one of those students will be in a position to affect policy change and will be prepared to consider foreign models as a feasible solution. “We have a lot going for us here, but we still have a long way to go,” she concludes.