Scotland's Redress Scheme: combined annual report 2023

6.5 COSLA

Introduction

Scottish Local Government is committed to providing redress to survivors of historical child abuse. In doing so, local authorities collectively acknowledge and seek to address the wrongs of the past and the harm caused by historical child abuse, in a meaningful and tangible way.

In terms of financial reparation, Local Authorities have committed to contribute £100m to the cost of the Redress Scheme. This sum will be incrementally top sliced from the Local Government Settlement over a period of 10 years; this started with £5m in financial year 2022/23, rising to a £6m contribution in 2023/24. In addition to financial reparation, local authorities are also collectively committed to providing wider non-financial redress for survivors of historical abuse, including acknowledgment, apology and therapeutic support.

As contributors to Scotland’s Redress Scheme during the reporting period which commenced on 8 December 2021, Scottish local authorities are required to provide the Scottish Ministers with a redress report, in accordance with Section 99 of the Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Act 2021.

This document is a collective annual redress report for Local Government, which has been prepared by COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) on behalf of all 32 Scottish local authorities, in collaboration with Local Government partners including Social Work Scotland. In line with the requirements of the Act, it provides information on the non-financial redress activities that have been undertaken by local authorities during the reporting period which ran from 8 December 2021 to 7 December 2022 (referred to hereafter as ‘the reporting period’). The report also provides information on current policy and practice within local authorities, in relation to the care and protection of children and young people, as well as further actions currently underway to improve care and protection.

Support provided by local authorities during reporting period

Local authorities have undertaken a range of wider, non-financial redress activities during the reporting period. Provision varies between local authorities, with councils designing and delivering support in a way that seeks to respond to the specific needs of their communities and individuals living in their area. This section provides a summary of the support that has been provided across Local Government during the reporting period.

Funding for emotional, psychological or practical support

Many local authorities provide, or fund partner organisations to provide, support services for survivors of abuse. Some local authorities provide or fund services specifically for those seeking redress through the Scheme.

In addition, there have been some instances where a local authority has funded access to specialist counselling or other forms of support for individual survivors.

Nationally, support for survivors seeking redress through the Scheme is provided by Future Pathways, funded by Scottish Government.

Advice and assistance on accessing historical records

All 32 local authorities provide survivors with advice and assistance on accessing historical records. The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry and recent related increase in requests for access to records has highlighted this as a significant area for local authorities.

All councils have existing processes in place to support the individual’s right to access their own personal data under the Data Protection Act 2018 (‘DPA 2018’), also known as Subject Access Requests or SARs. Work is ongoing to reduce duplication across existing Local Authority processes and Redress-related information requests.

The right of access is subject to legal provisions under the DPA 2018 and statutory guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office, which limit the information that local authorities can lawfully disclose. For example, local authorities can only provide personal information relating to the individual making the request. Information relating to third parties, including children who are not related and were in the same establishments, cannot be disclosed. Historic recordkeeping practices also differ significantly from today’s. These combined factors mean that providing access to historic records may appear to individuals to be a complex and complicated matter. Local Authorities are keen to simplify processes for survivors to access their personal information and to make these processes as clear and straightforward as possible. The importance of rights-based approaches which balance data protection, confidentiality, privacy and human rights is recognised.

Local Authorities are reviewing their systems and processes to ensure information on how to access records and the support that is available to people is open and transparent. Each Local Authority, dependent on geography, span, reach, and need has individuals or dedicated teams who respond to access requests. Person-centred and trauma-informed approaches to records access is recognised as critical to support the unique journey of each person seeking their records. The significant impact that seeking records can have is recognised across the country, and Local Authorities have and are developing responsive, trauma-informed teams and reviewing resources to support those seeking their records.

Social Work Scotland recently undertook a piece of research into the experience of care-experienced people accessing their records across Scotland, along with other relevant groups. The intention is that this work will inform best practice and improvement and enable the development of a Gold Standard for records access. Stage one of this research will be published imminently. The development of the Gold Standard is supported across the country.

Advice and assistance on tracing and reuniting families

In the specific area of non-financial redress for survivors of historical abuse, we are not aware at this time of any specific cases where local authorities have provided support with tracing and reuniting families. However, some local authorities, to support next of kin redress applications, carry out forensic research to trace family members.

As it relates to adoption and fostering, most local authorities provide a service for adoptive people/birth families seeking information, or to be reunited. Some authorities outsource this service to other organisations.

Activities relating to the acknowledgement of abuse and providing a meaningful apology to survivors

A number of local authorities have given evidence at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, which is investigating the historical abuse of children in care in Scotland. In the process of giving evidence, including through written submissions, oral evidence and opening and closing statements, many local authorities have taken the opportunity to include acknowledgement and acceptance of historical failings and abuse, and issue apologies to survivors. This is a key mechanism by which councils have sought to acknowledge and provide meaningful apology to survivors during the reporting period. Transcripts from the inquiry hearings are accessible online.

As a contributor to the Scheme, a letter of acknowledgement was submitted by COSLA’s Resources Spokesperson on behalf of all Scottish local authorities. This letter confirms Local Government’s commitment to providing redress to survivors, collective acknowledgement of and commitment to address the wrongs of the past, and commitment to provide financial as well as non-financial redress, including acknowledgement, apology, and therapeutic support for survivors.

Local authorities would also plan to provide apologies where applicants who receive payments under the Redress Scheme wish one, though no individual apologies have been requested of local authorities during this reporting period.

Other examples of support

Local authorities have also provided information during the reporting period on new policies and practices which have been put in place to prevent the harms of the past repeating. Information of this kind has been included in statements made by a number of local authorities in their contributions to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

In many cases current local strategies and policies relating to the care and protection of children are publicly accessible online. In addition, relevant legislation, as well as a number of national level policy frameworks and guidance materials which are implemented or applied by local authorities, can be accessed online.

The possibility of providing memorial events is currently being considered and may be planned in future by local authorities.

Reasons for not providing support if none

Local authorities are committed to providing support to survivors and have taken a range of actions to do so during the reporting period.

However, due to high demand and significant resource pressures, including in relation to staffing, within local authority social work departments, timeous engagement and support for care- experienced people seeking support has not always been possible during the reporting period. This is recognised as a deficit in the system, in the context of severe budgetary pressures; further detail on the budgetary and financial challenges facing councils is provided in the remainder of this section.

The budgetary and financial pressures currently facing Local Government are severe. The Scottish Government’s Resource Spending Review presented a flat cash position for Local Government, with no additional core funding for Local Government in the next three years, representing a 7% cut in real terms over that period. The 2023/24 Budget also indicates a continuation of the significant funding pressure faced by Local Government for at least the past decade (Local Government core settlement has seen a real terms reduction of 15.2% since 2013/14).

The pressure on core budgets as a result of these real-terms cuts and increased demand, compounded by inflation, the cost of living crisis and the impact of Covid, is becoming increasingly visible and leaves councils with no alternative than to make difficult choices about service funding levels. This has significant implications for local social work services, and the staffing capacity and resources at their disposal, which impedes the ability of local authorities to deliver on important priorities, including the provision of non- financial redress under the Scheme – for which no additional funding has been made available by Scottish Government.

In this context of extreme budgetary pressure and the associated impact on service delivery, local authorities would welcome the provision of additional funding from Scottish Government to Redress Scheme contributors, to support the provision of wider redress activities. As is referenced above, whilst local authorities are fully committed to the provision of wider redress support to survivors, they simply do not have the capacity or resources to provide timeous support to survivors in every case, and additional resourcing would help to ease these pressures.

Developments in Policy and Practice – care and protection of children and young people

The landscape of legislation, policy, and practice around the care and protection of looked after/care-experienced children and young people has developed significantly over recent decades, with many important changes being made to the way that national and local systems and services are designed and delivered. This includes changes to legislation; national policy frameworks and guidance; local planning and partnership working; as well as developments in specific areas of policy and practice at both national and local levels.

In 2002 the first Child Protection Reform Programme was launched, resulting in key achievements such as the Children’s Charter, the Framework for Standards and guidance for Child Protection Committees (latterly incorporated into the National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland). A further programme of reform within care and protection services has been underway since 2016 as the focus of the Child Protection Improvement Programme.

Since 2007, the Care Inspectorate have led a regular schedule of strategic inspections of children’s services which support improvement in how local multiagency children’s planning partnerships design, develop, deliver, and evaluate services for children.

Growing networks to share emerging learning from the myriad of quality assurance and evaluation activity now routinely underway within and across services, assist in ensuring lessons learned are shared in order to maximise their value. This includes improved use of technology such as Knowledge Hub which facilitate online communities of practice.

Development of care and protection services has reflected new understandings of the nature and extent of child abuse and neglect, advances in policy and practice in caring for children when they must be removed from their family home, broader changes in relation to the place of children in society and an increasing focus on children’s rights.

Over the years, there has been an increased emphasis on placing children and young people in family settings, and more recently there has been a large increase in the use of kinship care.

Many of the inquiry reports on the abuse of children in care have highlighted issues in relation to the recruitment and selection of carers, their education and training, and the levels of support they receive when caring for children and young people. Legislative, policy and practice changes have been made based on this.

Against this background of significant development and improvement, local authorities take a wide range of actions to ensure that in the discharge of their statutory duties, and through the services they provide, they satisfy the required standards of care and meet the wellbeing, development and safety needs of children and vulnerable people. This section provides a non-exhaustive overview of policy and practice changes over this reporting period (including changes still currently being developed or implemented), which local authorities adhere to in the course of their work with looked after/ care-experienced children and young people.

It should be noted that the pieces of work highlighted below do not sit in isolation from each other or other areas of policy and practice (including, for example, education, child poverty, and children and young people’s mental health); Local Government is committed to ensuring that the work being taken forward, as outlined below, is not siloed and that every effort is made to ensure that joined-up approaches are taken.

National developments - Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC)

With the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as its foundation, GIRFEC provides Scotland with a consistent framework and shared language for promoting, supporting, and safeguarding the wellbeing of all children and young people. GIRFEC is based on evidence, is internationally recognised and is an example of a child rights-based approach. It is locally embedded and positively embraced by practitioners across children’s services, changing cultures, systems and practice for the benefit of children, young people and their families.

Scottish Government published refreshed GIRFEC guidance in 2022, which reassures leaders, managers and practitioners about how GIRFEC should be delivered within the current legislative and policy framework of rights, information sharing, and delivery of supports and services to children, young people and their families.

Amongst the refreshed guidance is Getting it right for every child Practice Guidance 3 Role of the lead professional 2022. Which provides updated guidance for those in the role of Lead Professional. For children who are looked after, the Lead Professional is usually the local authority social worker. They coordinate delivery of the child’s plan and provide key support for the child and their family. The refreshed guidance has an increased emphasis on the voice of the child or young person, including enabling full participation within decision-making.

National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland

The National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland was updated in 2021 to ensure that all professionals working with children and families continue to have up to date guidance on care and protection.

Local partnership activity - Children’s Services Planning

Under Part 3 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, local authorities and health boards hold joint statutory responsibility for developing, publishing, implementing and reporting on local Children’s Services Plans (CSPs). Local authorities and health boards work collaboratively with other members of their Community Planning Partnerships, as well as children, young people and their families, as part of this process. Each local authority and its relevant health board jointly prepare a Children’s Services Plan every 3 years, as well as annual progress reports. The current Plans are for the period 2020-2023 and can be accessed online. CSPs set the strategic direction for the planning and delivery of children’s services in each area, and highlight priorities and key areas of focus for the 3-year period. The next cycle of CSPs will run from 2023-2026.

This process is in place to ensure that local planning and delivery of children’s services is integrated, focused on securing quality and value through preventative approaches, and dedicated to safeguarding, supporting and promoting child wellbeing. It aims to ensure that any action to meet need is taken at the earliest appropriate time and that, where appropriate, this is taken to prevent need arising.

Participation and voice of children, young people and families

Inquiries and reviews, including those related to child abuse and neglect in care settings, have consistently highlighted missed opportunities to respond to early concerns about children due to failure to hear children or notice and respond to indicators of distress. Most children and young people who experience abuse and neglect do not disclose their experiences at the time. This is due to several factors but, critically, children fear that they will not be believed, or their experience is that they have tried to tell someone what has happened, and they have not been believed.

Cultural changes in our society mean that we are, collectively, more willing to recognise that abuse and neglect of children does occur and that it can occur in a variety of places, including being perpetrated by those charged with caring for children. This shift is helping us begin to create more opportunities for children to be heard: in policy-making, in service design and in their own lives. With the range of national level frameworks noted above – all of which promote an explicit focus on the voice of the child – local children’s services partnerships have a range of mechanisms in place to ensure children’s voices are heard.

In addition, much more attention is being paid to ensuring children are aware of their rights, including their right to protection from abuse, and to providing education and awareness to children and families about child abuse and neglect and where to seek help if they have worries.

There are 30 Child or Public Protection Committees across Scotland. These are locally based, multiagency strategic partnerships who lead on local child protection policy and practice, as well as contribute to national policy and practice. Amongst their responsibilities, which include strategic planning, multiagency learning and development and continuous improvement, these Committees also lead local programmes of awareness raising about child abuse and neglect and they actively promote routes for children and families to seek support as well as guidance for adults on how to identify early indicators of concern about children.

The Promise

In February 2020, The Promise, a landmark report which presented the findings of the Independent Care Review, was published. The Promise identifies the transformative changes that need to take place within Scotland’s ‘care system’ by 2030 to ensure that all children in Scotland can grow up loved, safe and respected. All 32 local authorities in Scotland are fully committed to Keeping The Promise and are determined to deliver on the changes required throughout Plan 21–24, and beyond.

Implementing The Promise is a key priority area for Local Government and a wide range of work is currently taking place across Scotland’s councils to implement the changes it requires, and significant progress is being made in a challenging landscape. Local Government’s Promise Annual Report 2022, prepared by COSLA, highlights work that is taking place across the country, both at a national and local level, including examples of service redesign and transformation; increased and innovative participation and engagement with children and families; new models of family support; examples of workforce development, recruitment, and training; and multi-agency and multi-disciplinary partnership approaches. Further details of working taking place in each local authority can be found here.

UNCRC incorporation and implementation

Local Government has from the outset been fully supportive of the intentions of the incorporation of the UNCRC into Scots Law, sharing the vision of a Scotland where children’s human rights are embedded in all aspects of society and public services, including services and support delivered for looked after/care-experienced children and young people.

Whilst the enactment of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill has been delayed following the Supreme Court legal challenge, with work currently ongoing by Scottish Government to reintroduce the Bill via the Reconsideration Stage, local authorities remain committed and engaged in this work. Extensive work is underway across local authorities to take forward and embed the commitment to the UNCRC in advance of incorporation, and excellent progress has been made in a challenging landscape.

Nationally, Local Government, through COSLA and a range of professional associations (including the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives, Association of Directors of Education in Scotland, Social Work Scotland, and Society of Local Authority Lawyers and Administrators in Scotland), is continuing to engage closely in the work on legal incorporation and implementation of the UNCRC, led by Scottish Government. This includes work to ensure that the right support, guidance, information and resources are in place to support meaningful implementation of the UNCRC by local authorities.

Local authorities are also working with the Improvement Service to prepare for incorporation and implementation of UNCRC. This project, which launched in 2022, aims to support local authorities to prepare for their new duties under the UNCRC legislation, and embed and implement effective children’s rights based approaches across services. Key elements of the support available from the Improvement Service’s dedicated team include: webinars and briefing materials for Elected Members; a facilitated Peer Support Network constituted of officers from every local authority; high- quality learning materials (shared through a designated Knowledge Hub); and help with identifying practical action councils can take to further embed and improve the realisation of children’s rights.

One example of local work taking place is the Rights Respecting Schools Award project, through which UNICEF UK works with primary and secondary schools to embed children’s rights in the schools’ ethos, raise awareness of the UNCRC and increase understanding of children’s rights. In May 2022, Scottish Government announced funding for UNICEF UK to offer this programme to all local authority schools in Scotland. UNICEF UK has and continues to develop strong partnerships with local authorities to support schools and embed the work. As of Autumn 2022, 67% of Scotland’s local authority schools were engaged with the programme.

Scottish Child Interview Model and Bairns’ Hoose

The Scottish Child Interview Model is a new approach to joint investigative interviewing in Scotland. Joint investigative interviews are interviews conducted by specially trained social workers and police officers where a child may be a victim of, or witness to, criminal conduct and there is a concern that they may be at risk of significant harm.

The new approach is trauma-informed, places the needs and rights of children at the centre, and aims to achieve best evidence through enhanced planning and interviewing techniques.

Evidence to date highlights that children who are interviewed using The Scottish Child Interview Model are likely to tell the interviewers what has happened to them. This is a key development in services to protect children and ensures that where there is a concern that a child may have been abused or neglected, they are supported to participate in an interview that provides the conditions necessary to help the child provide detail of what has happened.

The Scottish Child Interview Model is currently being rolled out and will be introduced to every part of Scotland by 2024.

The Scottish Child Interview Model is a key element of Bairns’ Hoose, which is a child-centred response for children who are victims or witnesses of serious crime and abuse. Work is ongoing to develop Scotland’s approach to implementing Bairns’ Hoose, which Scottish Government aims will be accessible to all children who are victims or witness of serious crime and abuse by 2025.

National Trauma Transformation Programme

NHS Education Scotland led the development of The National Trauma Training Programme in partnership with the Scottish Government with the ambition of a trauma-informed and responsive workforce, that is capable of recognising where people are affected by trauma and adversity, that is able to respond in ways that prevent further harm and support recovery, and can address inequalities and improve life chances.

Local Government and Scottish Government share a vision for trauma-informed workforce, systems and services and all councils have committed to work to achieve this vision.