Scotland's Redress Scheme: Combined Annual Report 2024

4. Annual Reports on wider redress action

4.1 Aberlour Child Care Trust

Introduction

This report provides information about the activities Aberlour Child Care Trust has carried out to support survivors of abuse from 7 December 2022 until 6 December 2023. It highlights additional measures we have put in place to safeguard children who live with us currently.

This fulfils Aberlour’s requirement to produce a “redress report” under the Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Act 2021 (section 99). It includes information about any support which Aberlour has provided for individuals who were abused as children, including;

• activities relating to the acknowledgement of abuse and providing a meaningful apology to survivors,
• advice and assistance on accessing historical records,
• support for individuals who were abused as children,
• funding for emotional, psychological, or practical support,
• advice and assistance on tracing and reuniting families, or;
• other relevant examples of support provided to survivors.

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

We have issued two formal written apologies to people who experienced care during the period covered by the Inquiry. One of these was received through the survivor relations scheme and the other was from a complaint and records request received directly from the former supported person. The latter had met in person with the Chief Officer – Children and Families, and a Director of Children and Families Services.

Advice and assistance on accessing historical records

Aberlour ensures a thorough and sensitive approach to responding to requests for access to historical records. In all our responses for orphanage and early group home records we acknowledge that historical case files are typically brief and usually focus on the practicalities of admission and discharge rather than progression or experience whilst the child is resident. When we are able to supplement the case file with copies of the orphanage magazine or other records we will do so. The scarcity of identifiable photographs is a particular regret.

We have provided guidance for requesters on making SARs to other bodies and responded to a request to verify an individual to a local authority. Details of activity relating to providing access to records is outlined below.

SAR from data subject/parent	19	(includes two requests from the data subjects sent to us in error)
SAR via agency	06	Birthlink/Wellbeing Scotland (includes one request was sent to us in error)
Family member requests	44	One request was via Wellbeing Scotland
Redress Scotland requests	36	Verification of prior payments/confirmation of identity
Police Scotland requests	1
No service provided	13	Source either data subject or agency
Total requests received	119

One requester specifically thanked us for the care and attention we put into the organisation of her records. It was in contrast to the response she received from another care provider.

Aberlour’s work in the past year builds on the activities indicated in last year’s report and continues to devote staff resources to improving the access to records. The evidence for this investment can be seen through our responses to SAR and participating in creating a comprehensive archive in Stirling University as well as our engagement with the ARCH project (Archiving Residential Children’s Homes) which seeks to improve the quality of records we will collect in the future.

Support for individuals who were abused as children

Our enquiry response process aligns the subject access request and historical records request processes with our trauma-informed way of working with the children and families we currently work alongside.

This means we are open, sensitive, and compassionate in all dealings with people who seek to access information. We provide clear and transparent information to requesters about what information we might hold about their life and why we hold that information. We are honest with requesters that although we have extensive historical records, they are incomplete, and we may not always be able to provide evidence of time in care for requesters.

We ensure that a trauma-trained senior manager or Quality Improvement Partner is available in the process. We make the offer of providing in person or virtual professional and specialist support to requesters to review their records, to help provide some answers and most importantly because some of the content could be re-traumatising for requesters. Requesters may not wish to access the support initially, and we ensure that this offer remains open should the requester wish to come back at a later date.

Funding for emotional, psychological, or practical support

Direct funding for support to individuals has not been provided this annual year. Aberlour continue to invest in staff who are available to offer emotional support to people who are undertaking the process of reading their records, whether over the phone or in person.

Advice and assistance on tracing and reuniting families

Contact information to Birthlink, Future Pathways, and In Care Survivors Scotland are routinely included in our responses. Furthermore, where a requester is seeking to trace or reunite with their family, we will sign post them to appropriate organisations who may be able to assist them with their search for information.

We also have an open dialogue with organisations that are providing direct support to requesters either during a redress application or during their search for information about their past.

Other relevant examples of support provided to survivors

In June 2023 several members of staff (Head of Residential Services, Assistant Director of Highland Residential Services, and Sycamore Services in Elgin as well as the Data Protection Manager) attended a memory keeping workshop run by the ARCH research project (Archiving Residential Children’s Homes) at Stirling University. There was also coverage of the workshop in the Stirling Observer on 26 July 2023.

One of our Sycamore services has been contributing to the ARCH project (phases 2 and 3) which works with young people and staff to explore ways to best capture and store memories of everyday, group life in children’s houses, which can be added to and accessed by young people throughout their lives as their own living archive. This will inform how we capture personal memories both currently and, in the future, as well as complement official recordkeeping.

Additional activities

The Scottish Council on Archives (the independent strategic organisation, funded by the Scottish Government, which supports, develops, and provides advocacy for archives and record services) published its Scottish Archives and Records Year in Review recently. It includes two articles on our work with Stirling University.

In October 2023 our project with the University of Stirling featured as a case study on the National Archives website. The National Archives and the Wolfson Trust funded this project in 2021-22 after a scoping study in 2020 through their Archives Revealed stream. It is also one of three projects highlighted to show the value of the Archives Revealed funding.

Improving record request processes

Aberlour recognises the importance of improving the experience of people receiving their records and want to continually improve our approach. We have begun to track our responses to requests in our case management system, Microsoft Dynamics, so we create a comprehensive digital repository to manage these frequently large-scale requests in an efficient manner.

Claire Johnson
Data Protection and Information Governance Manager

Helen Jones
Quality and Safeguarding Manager

4.2 Barnardo’s

Background

Barnardo’s engaged with the Scottish Government and the Scottish Redress Scheme at the earliest opportunity and agreed to make a contribution to the Scheme. This contribution was to be an initial £1 million, rising to a cap of £1.25 million if determinations from the Redress Board indicated it was required.

In addition, we agreed to provide an annual statement of our wider Redress Activity hence this report.

Scheme Participation

The past year has seen an increase in the number of determinations in respect of Financial Redress and we have engaged with the Redress, Relations and Response Division about how to respond. We have agreed that from April 2025 we will increase our annual contributions with a view to our contribution rising to the level of the £1.25 million cap.

We have not been asked to provide any further letters of apology in the past year, but we have reiterated our offer to provide such letters if recipients of Redress would like us to do so.

Access to Records and “After Care”

Barnardo’s continues to provide a dedicated Access to Records Service for our former residents of Residential Homes and Foster Placements. Along with supporting the Redress Scheme by confirming that applicants were in our care and timescales, we stand ready to provide any applicant or former resident details and records of their time in our care. This sharing is undertaken in a trauma-informed way, with those receiving their records prepared as much as possible for what they may find, and indeed in some instances not find, in their care records.

In addition to providing records, we offer any former residents of our Children’s Homes and other interested parties the opportunity of receiving the Guild Messenger, which is our quarterly newsletter of stories, features, articles about aspects of our history and archive and so on. We also have contact each year with a number of our “Old Boys” and “Old Girls” (as they like to be known) and offer such support and information as we can. This includes maintaining our Family History Service which allows the descendants of our deceased former residents to also receive information, photographs, et of their parents, grandparents and so on who were in our care.

Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry

While we have had no further requests for evidence for the Inquiry in the past year, we stand ready to contribute to any previous, present or future case study. For example, we have indicated our willingness to participate in a Fostering Round Table should the Inquiry feel that was helpful where we would seek to bring our learning, best practice and thoughts around recommendations to improve this area of practice.

Richard Simpson
Head of Safeguarding and Quality

4.3 Children 1st

Introduction

Children 1st’s ambition is for every child in Scotland to be safe, loved and well with their family. The charity offers emotional to help families to put children first and campaigns to uphold the rights of every child.

Children 1st has been a contributor to Scotland’s Redress Scheme since 26 August 2022.

As well as providing a fair and meaningful financial contribution to the scheme, the Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Act 2021 requires contributors to the Redress Scheme to report annually on their wider (i.e., non-financial) redress activities, such as providing emotional, psychological, or practical support for people who were abused as children; providing assistance to survivors to access historical records; providing assistance in tracing and reuniting families; or providing apologies to survivors.

Children 1st (Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children) became a contributor to the Redress scheme on 26 August 2022. This report covers our non-financial redress activities from 7 December 2022 to 6 December 2023.

Non-financial redress activities

Digitisation of our historical archive

In 2023 we have continued to build on the foundational work we had conducted to make our archive more accessible and reduce the time it takes to respond to requests for historical information.

We have prioritised digitising the records we hold for our care settings, the RSSPCC Children’s Shelter in Edinburgh and Dundonald House in Ayrshire. This involved reviewing the admissions registers for the Children’s Shelter from 1920 to 1980 and from 1950 to 1980 for Dundonald House. We now have digitised images of all admission registers and more importantly a digital database of all children in the admission registers for those care settings. This has also allowed us to conduct research on length of stay, referral processes and end-of-stay arrangements, giving us a better understanding of the historical work of the charity.

We have begun work on digitising RSSPCC Inspectors case records from 1920–1995 for all branches of the RSSPCC across Scotland. These records, though limited, provide invaluable information about decisions that were made about children and families who were involved with the RSSPCC.

The work we have undertaken in 2023 continues to reduce the wait times that survivors or other requesters have had to wait for information about their lives.

Helping families reunite

In 2023 four requests led to families being reunited after a combined 174 years of estrangement across the four requests. One requester, who was happy for us to share information about their story, was reunited with two siblings they did not know they had. The requester had been searching for information for 60 years and eventually came to request information from Children 1st about their early life in the 1920s. The request was made more in hope than in expectation. One page from a case record indicated that the requester had been given incorrect information about a hospital stay and through our limited records we were able to give the requester the correct information about their past. This led to further requests to the appropriate organisations and eventually the requester

was able to trace their siblings, who had also been searching for any information about their eldest sibling (the requester). A family of three then became a family of forty-three with nieces, nephews and cousins being reunited as well.

Continuing to work alongside redress support organisations

We have continued to respond to requests received from third party support organisations that represent survivors. This has led to an open dialogue with those organisations to ensure we are providing the best possible response for survivors. We have also met with support organisations to present information about the history of Children 1st and provided more detailed information about the records we hold to assist those support organisations when making requests on behalf of survivors.

Commitment to providing trauma-sensitive support to survivors

In our redress report for 2022, we highlighted our trauma-sensitive approach to assist survivors to access their records. We have continued to build on this work and have received positive feedback from survivors, advocates, and support organisations. Children 1st has long been a leading advocate and provider of trauma recovery support to children and their families. Children 1st aligned our subject access request and historical records request processes with our trauma-informed way of working with the children and families we currently work alongside.

This means we are open, sensitive, and compassionate in all dealings with people who seek to access information. We provide clear and transparent information to requesters about what information we might hold about their life and why we hold that information. We are honest with requesters that although we have extensive historical records, they are incomplete, and we may not always be able to provide evidence of time in care for requesters.

We ensure that a trauma-trained Children and Family Services senior manager is involved in the process. We make the offer of providing in person or virtual professional and specialist support to requesters to review their records, to help provide some answers and most importantly because some of the content could be re-traumatising for requesters. Requesters may not wish to access the support initially, and we ensure that this offer remains open should the requester wish to come back later.

Funding for emotional, psychological, or practical support to survivors

During the reporting period, Children 1st has not been in direct contact with survivors of abuse and as such has not directly provided funding for support for individuals. However, as, and when survivors contact us, either directly or through their representative, we will offer a trauma-sensitive, open, and compassionate response. Specifically, we will offer one-to-one initial support and counselling and where appropriate signpost survivors to other specialist organisations who may be able to offer ongoing support.

Provision of apology to survivors

During the reporting period, Children 1st has not been in direct contact with survivors of abuse and has not had the opportunity to provide a direct apology to a survivor of abuse. Within our public statement published in September 2022, we offer our unreserved, whole-hearted apologies to anyone who suffered harm as a child whilst in our care. As and when survivors contact us, we will make a direct apology to survivors and offer survivors the opportunity to discuss their experience.

Conclusion

As the redress scheme matures, Children 1st is fully committed to its responsibilities both financial and otherwise to ensure redress applicants are fully supported and listened to. We will continue to provide a trauma-informed response to support and meet the needs of requesters, develop our historical archive to assist survivors with their search for answers and commit to providing apology and support when we are in contact with survivors. Finally, Children 1st will continue to acknowledge, support, and champion the rights of survivors.

4.4 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 £100 million 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 £5 million in financial year 2022/23, rising to a £6 million 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 7 December 2022, 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 7 December 2022 to 6 December 2023 (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 32 councils have existing processes in place to support the individual’s right to access their own personal data under the Data Protection Act 2018 (“DPA2018”), 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 DPA2018 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, often cannot be disclosed. Historic record-keeping practices also differ significantly from today’s. These combined factors mean that accessing historic records can be a complex and complicated matter. Local authorities are keen to simplify processes for survivors to access their records 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 how to access records to support redress applications and the support that is available to people is open and transparent. Many local authorities have dedicated individuals or teams who respond to access requests, though the nature of the dedicated resource varies dependent on geography, span, reach and need. 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 a paradigm shift, and enable the development of a Gold Standard for records access. Stage One of this research will be published in February 2024. 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, local authorities must provide post adoption support services 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 as an aspect of redress also provide individual apologies. These can be written or face-to-face dependent on the survivor’s needs and circumstances. A range of such apologies have taken place over the 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 submissions and opening and closing 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 continues to be 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, particularly in relation to staffing, within local authorities, timeous engagement and support for care-experienced people seeking support has not always been possible during the reporting period. This is a consequence of severe budgetary pressures; further detail on the budgetary and financial challenges facing councils is provided in the remainder of this section.

Over the reporting period all local authorities have been operating in a climate of staffing vacancies and a national shortage of social workers. Some local authorities have been working with 60% staffing, with this level of vacancy having a significant impact on ability to carry out core functions. While national work is ongoing to seek to improve this picture, this is a longer-term activity.

The budgetary and financial pressures currently facing Local Government remain significant. Over the past decade, Local Government has experienced substantial cuts to revenue funding. Excluding funding associated with COVID-19 and ring-fenced funding for Scottish Government policies, Local Government saw a real-terms revenue funding reduction of 9.6% from 2013/14 to 2020/21. This was followed by further real-terms reductions to the core revenue budget of 1.5% in 2022/23 and 0.2% in 2023/24. The 2024/25 Local Government Settlement also indicates a continuation of the significant funding pressure faced by Local Government.

The pressure on core budgets as a result of these real-terms cuts and increased demand, compounded by inflation, the cost-of-living crisis, the impact of Covid, an ageing population and climate change, has meant that Councils have no alternative than to make difficult choices about service funding levels. This has significant implications for local services, and the staffing capacity and resources at their disposal, which restricts 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.

Councils need fair and sustainable funding and flexibility to make decisions on spend based on local needs and circumstances. As is referenced above, whilst local authorities are fully committed to the provision of wider redress support to survivors, without adequate funding they simply do not have the capacity or resources to provide timeous support to survivors in every case.

In the context of the Verity House Agreement there is an expectation that many of the structural funding issues will start to be worked through jointly. However, the aspirations of the agreement are set against the context of an extremely challenging position for Scotland’s public finances as well as the various other pressures mentioned above.

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 began in 2016 as the focus of the Child Protection Improvement Programme (CPIP). As described in the meeting of the National Child Protection Leadership Group in March 2023 (see minute), a review of the delivery of the CPIP and the Child Protection Systems Review (CPSR) by CELCIS concluded that all actions and recommendations have been adequately addressed.

Since 2007, the Care Inspectorate have led a regular schedule of strategic inspections of children’s services which support improvement in how local multi-agency 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 the level of risk requires that they 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, including progress to incorporate UNCRC into Scottish legislation.

Placement of children and young people who require alternative care in family settings has always been a focus for local authorities but has been given additional emphasis over recent years. This has included a significant increase in the use of formal kinship care as a placement of choice for children, and additional support for permanent kinship placements.

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.

It is worth noting that there are a number of other legislative and policy changes and improvement currently being proposed and/or developed (for example, the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill, and National Care Service (Scotland) Bill, not explored in detail below, which are anticipated to have a significant impact for local authorities and the delivery of services in future.

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 and managers 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 December 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. The lead professional coordinates delivery of the child’s plan and 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 participation within decision-making.

A new GIRFEC Child’s Plan Practice Statement was published by the Scottish Government in October 2023. It aims to provide practitioners with confidence, clarity and practical support to continue to implement GIRFEC.

The non-statutory child’s plan remains a core component of the GIRFEC approach to promoting, supporting and safeguarding the wellbeing of children and young people.

This new practice statement reflects the relationship and alignment between statutory and non-statutory plans, and recent legislative and policy developments. It covers what a child’s plan is within GIRFEC, when a child’s plan should be considered, who should be involved in the development and review of a child’s plan, how a child’s plan supports transitions and chronologies.

You can find the statement here, along with an easy read version here.

National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland

The National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland was updated in 2021, and again in 2023, to ensure that all professionals working with children and families continue to have up-to-date guidance on care and protection. A National Child Protection Guidance Implementation Group was in place between September 2021 and September 2023 to undertake detailed implementation planning as local areas engage with the Guidance and a fuller picture of support needs for practitioners, managers and leaders emerges. Certain workstreams continue.

As part of the national implementation plan for the revised National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland, a National Learning and Development post has been funded by Scottish Government. The National Framework for Child Protection Learning and Development has been revised and central learning materials developed to assist the multi-agency workforce with the skills and knowledge required to effectively protect children and young people.

There are 30 Child or Public Protection Committees across Scotland. These are locally based, multi-agency strategic partnerships who lead on local child protection policy and practice, as well as contributing to national policy and practice. Amongst their responsibilities, which include strategic planning, multi-agency 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.

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 three years, as well as annual progress reports. 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 three-year period. The current cycle of CSPs run from 2023 to 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 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. These include children’s rights officer and services, advocacy services and Champions Boards.

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, and those that come into contact with them, about child abuse and neglect and where to seek help if they have worries.

All local authorities have a children’s rights plan, often designed with children and young people and incorporated into their children’s services plan, which outlines how they include the voice of children in service design and priorities for work.

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 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. Examples of the work taking place includes 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.

Over the reporting period, local authorities alongside others delivering care, have accessed Promise funding for a range of aspects of service improvement and innovations. This includes work to support siblings to remain together and connected, and development of family support provision via the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund.

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 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 was delayed following the Supreme Court legal challenge, local authorities have remained committed and engaged in this work. Extensive work is underway across local authorities to take forward and embed the UNCRC, 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 and practitioners on the ground.

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. Based on UNICEF figures, 75% 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 Scottish Child Interview Model is forensic interviewing model which can be used as evidence in chief in court proceedings.

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.

Capturing high-quality evidence such as this also assists in criminal justice processes, as the child’s pre-recorded evidence in the form of an audio and visually recorded interview can be utilised in court settings, further contributing to improved protection of children and young people as those who perpetrate harm to children are brought to justice.

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.

Bairns’ Hoose is Scottish Government’s approach to bringing Barnahus to Scotland. Barnahus is internationally recognised as an evidence-based model of excellence for children and families. The Barnahus model was established in Iceland in 1998. It seeks to provide a trauma-informed response to child victims and witnesses of serious and traumatic crimes in a familiar and non-threatening setting.

Bringing “Barnahus” to Scotland has been a long standing and crosscutting policy ambition. The 2022/23 Programme for Government made a commitment to: “Set out the next steps in ensuring access to Bairns’ Hoose services for all children referred for support.” This was reaffirmed in the 2023/24 Programme for Government with a commitment to: “Launch Bairns’ Hoose Pathfinders in autumn 2023, a key action in our keeping The Promise Implementation Plan and Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, enabling a whole-system approach for child victims and witnesses of abuse and harm.”

Ministers have approved a delivery timeline which will adopt a three-phased approach for the development of Bairns’ Hoose. This allows time to build in the learning and evaluation needed to ensure that the Bairns’ Hoose model is achieving the correct outcomes ahead of national roll-out. The first phase will be the Pathfinder phase from 2023-25, followed by the pilot phase from 2025-27 and then national roll-out from the end 2027/early 2028.

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.

The Scottish Child Interview Model, as set out above, is one example of the application of trauma-informed principles in the delivery of services to children and families. The trauma content in the new National Joint Investigative Interviewing Training Programme sits at enhanced level.

4.5 Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul

The Daughters of Charity continue to support survivors of abuse, work closely with the Redress Team and ensure that all safeguarding policies and procedures within the Congregation are of the highest standard and adhered to by all members of the Congregation and employees.

During the course of 2023, we responded to 253 requests for verification regarding residence in our establishments in Scotland. These requests came from Wellbeing Scotland, Birthlink, solicitors and individuals. Subsequently we also verified these requests for the Redress Team and confirmed any previous payment given to individuals.

The Congregation’s archivist was readily available to assist the safeguarding team when, on a few occasions, verification was problematic.

As with last year, all requests were dealt with swiftly, in order to minimise any anxiety arising for survivors in undertaking the process for redress.

Six letters of apology were written by the Provincial, and it is hoped that this helped in the healing process for individuals. Included in these letters is always a willingness to meet with and listen to the person concerned, if they so wish.

Pastoral support has been given to several people who have engaged with the Congregation and practical assistance was given to one person. No requests for funding for professional help were received throughout the course of the year.

Likewise, no requests were received throughout the course of the year, to assist in tracing or reuniting families. This, we assume, is due to the fact that today, the average age of those who resided in our Care Establishments is approximately 60 years of age.

The Safeguarding Team, along with the Archivist and legal representatives, are open to assisting anyone from our Care Establishments, who requests support of any kind.

The annual Memorial Service in Lanark, organised by the Chair of INCAS and the Provincial of the Daughters of Charity, took place in August. This was very well attended and all were invited back to the parish hall for refreshments, giving everyone the opportunity to chat together over a cup of tea.

With regard to governance, there is a named Safeguarding Trustee, who meets regularly with the Safeguarding Team. Safeguarding is an item on the agenda at the monthly Trustee meeting and the Policy is reviewed annually and distributed to all the members of the Congregation to read and adhere to.

Also, all active members of the Congregation undertook Safeguarding Training during the course of the year, as well as each member of the Board of Trustees. The Safeguarding Administrator ensures that all PVGs/ DBSs are current.

As the Daughters of Charity reside in both Scotland and England they are actively involved in the Scottish Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (SCSSA) as well as the Religious Life Safeguarding Service (RLSS) and the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (SCSSA) in England.

We continue to work tirelessly, to ensure that all aspects of governance regarding safeguarding are adhered to, that all members of the Congregation understand safeguarding as integral to their lives and the lives of those with whom they have contact, and that we respond to all survivors with openness and respect.

4.6 East Park School

Introduction

East Park shares the Scottish Government’s ambition for children and young people, that they grow up loved, safe and respected so that they can realise their full potential. Sadly, however, we are also aware that, for many of Scotland’s most vulnerable children who experienced the care system in the past, the reality was quite different. Many of these children and young people were not treated with love or with respect and, rather than being kept safe, they were exposed to danger and abused by those responsible for their care, often leaving them with lifelong consequences.

While nothing can compensate for the hurt and suffering which survivors of abuse have endured, East Park acknowledged its collective and individual responsibility to ensure that care-experienced individuals who have been abused whilst in care in Scotland have access to fair and appropriate redress and support.

During the reporting period up until 7 December 2023, East Park was not made aware of any claims specifically naming East Park. (Although we have had enquiries, I am not aware of any official claims via the Redress Scheme to date.)

Despite this, in acknowledgement of the likelihood that there may have been times, during the period covered by the Redress Scheme, when practice at East Park fell short of the high standards and lacked the scrutiny we would expect today, we addressed this by implementing a variety of redress activitie.

Access to historical records

In accordance with Data Protection legislation, GDPR procedures and our own internal Data Protection Policy, we respond swiftly and appropriately to all Subject Access Requests. Although some of our more historical records can be inconsistent and or unavailable, we do whatever we can

to provide at least some concrete acknowledgement to enquirers that some part of their life has been spent living at East Park, where there is evidence of this. To facilitate this we invested services in 2019 to ensure fuller knowledge of what documents we did indeed hold, and also ensured a more streamlined access point to this information.

Further actions

East Park continues to encourage through its social media formats participation and interest in events held regularly on the main site.

East Park launches its historical book that covers the 150th Anniversary of its founding in 1874, on the 21 March 2024. The book is titled ‘East Park, 150 Years Of Compassion’. It shines a light on every aspect of its history highlighting both great moments and moments that perhaps were not as good. East Park also continues to investigate gravesites in the Glasgow area to restore and or refurbish gravestones at the sites where it is believed some of the children and staff are buried so that they can be suitably remembered.

Information about any support which, the relevant organisation has provided for individuals who were abused as children during the reporting period

We have no individuals who were abused to report for the period 8th December 2022 to 7 December 2023.

Promoting visits from former residents

East Park occasionally receives enquiries from individuals who have previously been resident in East Park and or families trying to ascertain whether their family member was indeed a resident at East Park. When we receive such enquiries, we offer opportunities for them to visit East Park, to meet with senior staff and to have a tour of the premises. Although our premises have been largely demolished and rebuilt in recent years, it has been helpful and for some, even cathartic, for former residents to witness for themselves the degree to which accommodation and practice has changed in residential care for children with complex additional support needs.

During these visits we will also sensitively acknowledge that for many children and young people their experiences of residential childcare were not as we would have hoped, and, where the individual is not already aware, we will provide information about the Scottish Government apology in October 2018, the Historical Abuse Enquiry, and the Redress Scheme.

Below is an extract from an email sent following a recent historical enquiry from a former resident who was accommodated in East Park from birth until 13 months in the 1960s.

“It is so good to read a little more about the great contribution East Park have made to the care and rehabilitation of children and young people and it is very warming to know that you and your dedicated colleagues are continuing that work to this day.”

Kieron O’Brien Executive
Director East Park School

4.7 NHS Boards

This report sets out examples of wider (i.e., in addition to the redress scheme including non-financial) redress activities undertaken by NHS Scotland Health Boards from 7 December 2022 to 7 December 2023 as indicated in the Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Act 2021: Statutory Guidance.

Individual Support

All 22 NHS Boards confirmed that their corporate websites were updated in May 2022 to include the Public Statement to confirm their participation in the scheme created by The Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Act 2021. In addition, NHS Health Boards confirmed that individuals who have been in contact regarding the Redress Scheme have been made aware of the support available to them by both the Health Board and through the Scottish Government Redress Scheme.

Territorial NHS Boards provide a range of mental health services for individuals which includes support to survivors of abuse. In addition to these core services some specific examples of support offered to individuals by NHS Boards are as follows.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran (A&A) provide support, albeit not bespoke, to survivors of historical child abuse in care. The NHS A&A Spiritual Care Team provides holistic support for residents and staff that cover a range of adverse childhood events and, where appropriate, onward referral or signposting to relevant therapies including those offered psychology and psychiatry services.

NHS Borders have now opened the forensic examination suite (the Oakleaf Centre) for professional, police and self-referral which ensures that survivors of sexual assault can receive the support they need without having to travel out of area. The suite supports the national Sexual Assault Response Coordination Service (SARCS) allowing survivors to access a forensic medical examination, with or without police involvement, and provides local access to forensic examinations in a purpose-built suite to meet the needs of victims. The Oakleaf Centre is available for anyone who has suffered historical abuse to self-identify.

SARCS is the result of close partnership working between Scottish Government, Police Scotland and survivor support organisations including Borders Rape Crisis Centre and the NHS. Staff from the Oakleaf Centre will refer onwards to Scottish Borders Rape Crisis Centre who provide a number of services including the services, “Sunrise”, to support self-identifying female survivors who have experienced sexual violence or abuse at any time in their lives, and “Unity”, which supports all young people aged 12-18 who have experienced sexual harm.

NHS Borders in partnership with those with lived experience, Scottish Borders Council, and relevant third sector organisations also have an established integrated psychological trauma steering group. The agenda of this group is to de-stigmatise psychological trauma and provide governance and leadership in offering trauma training to NHS Borders and Scottish Borders Council workforce to ensure staff are trauma-informed and able to provide compassionate support to those who have experienced psychological trauma. Psychological services in NHS Borders are able to offer evidence-based psychological therapy for historic or current survivors of sexual abuse through referral pathways via GP practices. Referrals can also be received from local people who have been affected by sexual abuse in care home settings outside NHS Borders.

In NHS Fife adults are signposted to Kingdom Abuse Survivors Project (KASP) or secondary care psychology services. Clinicians in the psychology service work with survivors of childhood abuse as a core element of the psychology service provision, which includes therapy for individuals who experienced abuse in care settings and is part of the routine service provision. The NHS Fife Spiritual Care Team provides a non-clinical listening Community Chaplaincy Listening (CCL) Service. CCL receives referrals from GP Practices and offers one-to-one support to individuals.

In addition, NHS Fife advised that many of their staff (e.g.those working in addictions services) have undertaken trauma-informed training and that individuals may be referred to KASP, psychology and/or third sector counselling services depending on their need and choice.

NHS Fife also host the Transforming Psychological Trauma Implementation Coordinator role which supports the development of trauma-informed practice across Fife. This role links with the cross-agency Fife Trauma-informed Practice Group, providing support to the NHS Fife and Fife Council.

NHS Forth Valley confirmed that advice and assistance is given to survivors in accessing historical records, and tracing and reuniting families should this be required. They also offer Single Therapy (therapeutic interventions such as cognitive behavioural therapy, Trauma-Focused CBT and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and Multi-Modal Therapy (which include compassion-focused therapy, schema therapy, ‘acceptance and commitment’ Therapy, and interpersonal therapy).

NHS Grampian endeavour to ensure that individuals will have access to the clinical support that best meets their needs and are reviewing access routes for services.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) have identified a number of services in place to support survivors through a variety of different mechanisms, as noted below.

NHS GGC Bairns Hoose Development

The Bairns Hoose development in Scotland has allowed a child-friendly and safe space for children to give evidence, take part in decisions about their protection and get support to recover from the trauma they have experienced. NHSGGC works in partnership with six local authority partners and three children’s houses are in various stages of development. The North Strathclyde Partnership (Inverclyde, East Renfrewshire, Renfrewshire, and East Dunbartonshire, HSCPs, G and K Divisions Police Scotland, NHSGGC, Children 1st, SCRA and COPFS) have recently celebrated the opening of their Bairns Hoose and children and young people are already benefitting from this approach. One site within Glasgow City is under development, and also, within West Dunbartonshire who will also collaborate with NHS Highland and respective partner agencies.

The North Strathclyde Partnership includes the North Strathclyde Child Interview Team which aims to ensure that if a child is to be jointly interviewed by Police and Social Work that they are supported by highly skilled interviewers using proven techniques to achieve best evidence. In addition, the child / young person and appropriate care giver will have access to trauma-informed support and advice throughout the Joint Investigate Interview (JII) process in the form of Children 1st recovery and participation workers who provide the child / young person and their families an opportunity to express their views, needs and concerns.

The North Strathclyde Partnership including NHSGGC were successful in winning the award for Excellence in Children’s Services at the Scottish Social Services Awards Ceremony in November 2022.

NHS GGC Sexual Health Services

NHSGGC advised that their health professionals within sexual health services use a trauma-informed approach with all patients. If a patient discloses child sexual abuse a referral to Sandyford Counselling and Support Services (SCASS) is offered. This is available is for all patients regardless of the environment in which it occurred and is intended for survivors of sexual trauma or sexual abuse, including childhood sexual abuse, who may be experiencing issues with their current sexual and emotional functioning. Talking therapies and trauma focused interventions are also offered.

NHS GGC Alcohol and Drug Recovery Services (ADRS)

NHSGGC patients have access to a stepped approach for psychological therapies in ADRS, access to specialist psychiatric support and links to community / third sector support. This support is complimented by staff and manager training on trauma-informed care and includes an identified pathway to highly specialist psychological interventions, such as Trauma-Focused CBT amongst others and treatments to help manage emotional dysregulation in survivors of childhood abuse. This group will also have access to group psychological interventions, in particular, one aimed at supporting service users to develop coping skills to manage difficult emotions.

ADRS have introduced “Safety and Stabilisation” training to the ADRS staff team across NHSGGC. In the last year in excess of 150 staff completed this training with more due to complete their training this year. The training ensures that health and social care staff can deliver trauma-informed care and low intensity psychological interventions to the service users that they support.

NHS GGC Mental Health Services

Services can refer to the Glasgow Psychological Trauma Service (“The Anchor”) which is a specialist mental health service which offers multidisciplinary psychological interventions and treatment to patients who have complex post-traumatic stress disorder following complex trauma experiences.

NHS GGC Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services

Specialist Children’s Services (SCS) works with children and young people up until their 18th birthday both within child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and community paediatric services. CAMHS services, at a specialist level, have developed a trauma-informed action plan to support roll out of the National Trauma Training Programme which has been developed by NHS Education for Scotland. The overall vision is to support recovery for children and young people who have experienced trauma ensuring that the SCS workforce is both aware of and can recognise trauma and then are able to deliver evidence-based interventions recognised within the national matrix which guides the delivery of psychological therapies and interventions in Scotland. Additionally, a specialist CAMHS team, supports young care-experienced people who may have experienced trauma. This team supports children and young people who have already disclosed or who disclose abuse and may be asked to collaborate with the justice system as part of supporting court hearings.

CAMHS have a forensic service who work with young people who may have experienced trauma placed in secure settings in NHSGGC. This service works with a range of agencies to assess and plan care. This will include work with third sector organisations and projects supporting young people.

NHS Lothian CAMHS Meadows Team provide care and support to children, young people and adults who have experienced. The focus of the team is working with a range of partners in social care, schools, and other partner organisations, while providing psychological treatment, care, and support to the young person.

NHS Lothian also provide Adult Mental Health (AMH) services through the Rivers Service, General Adult AMH and other Psychology Services, including psychological treatment for adults who have experienced abuse, many of whom have complex PTSD. Some individuals may have disclosed abuse and may be working with the police and legal representatives to bring a case to court. There are also times when individuals disclose abuse in psychological treatment and the clinicians work with them to help them to report this to the police.

NHS Tayside recognise their statutory responsibility to safeguard all children (including unborn babies), young people and adults, and requires all their employees to have the necessary knowledge and skills to conduct their roles effectively. A suite of training across e-learning and face to face is available to ensure their workforce have the required knowledge and skills to fulfil their responsibilities and includes a mandatory Child Protection LearnPro module.

Further developments to improve care and protection include the implementation of the Scottish Child Interview Model for joint investigative interviewing (SCIM) and the development of the Bairns Hoose (Barnhaus). NHS Tayside is also supporting work to develop a reporting toolkit to support the implementation of the NHS Public Protection Accountability and Assurance Framework (2022).

NHS Tayside Subject Access Requests are processed in accordance with the Redress Scheme for historical records. NHS Tayside have revised their Child Protection Policy in line with the national Child Protection guidance and is supported by a range of policy and guidance to inform and support staff.

In addition, NHS Tayside Child Protection Advisors provide a daily telephone advice line and provide links to all clinical areas and offer Child Protection case supervision. Community health and care services will support adults experiencing the long-term impact of childhood abuse in care settings. To ensure services are more attuned to their needs NHS Tayside are signposting redress applicants to Future Pathways and to local counselling and support organisations funded via Council / HSCP such as Mindspace.

Medical examinations and forensic medical examinations are provided within a purpose-built suite at Seymour House, Dundee and are supported by Consultant Paediatricians and aim to provide a person-centred and trauma-informed service which is in line with the national indicators within Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS): ‘Healthcare and forensic medical services for people who have experienced rape, sexual assault or child sexual abuse Indicators’ (March 2020).

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) have introduced several mandatory organisational wide training courses and policies to ensure that all staff are appropriately trained to identify and escalate safeguarding concern, which may include child sexual abuse. Examples of the courses / policies introduced by HIS are:

• ‘Child Protection, Adult, Support and Protection and Gender-Based Violence (which includes Child Sexual Abuse) Level One.
• Gender-Based Violence Policy which informs and supports staff with any concerns or disclosures of gender-based violence which may include child sexual abuse.
• Level 2 Gender-Based Violence training to inform and support managers.

In 2022, Healthcare Improvement Scotland mandated NES Level One Trauma-Informed Practice for all staff. This should increase HIS staff’s knowledge and confidence in recognising and responding to trauma.

Collective support

NHS Boards advised that they provide a number of group therapies, including to individuals who have experienced trauma. All NHS territorial Health Boards were able to advise that they do provide overall therapy which would include individuals who are survivors of historical child abuse and can be amended to specific cases as required.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran, for example, confirmed that their spiritual care teams offer rituals and ceremonies for a range of issues around, death, birth, hope, remembrance, letting go and that these ceremonies can be specified to historical child abuse.

NHS Boards are committed to providing ongoing support to all survivors and to ensure that advice and assistance is provided to any request from survivors in relation to access to historical records or tracing and reuniting families. NHS Boards acknowledge the harm caused and offer a full and sincere apology to survivors.

Wider Services

The NHS Boards reported on a range of wider activities that have been initiated to provide meaningful ongoing support and acknowledgement to survivors.

Throughout 2022 as part of its statutory duty to deliver on “The Promise Scotland; Plan 21-24” NHS Tayside has refreshed and reinvigorated its Corporate Parenting Group (retitled Promise Oversight Group from Feb 2023) to oversee and ensure delivery of the priority actions set out in NHS Tayside “Our Promise: Corporate Parenting Action Plan 2021-24”. NHS Tayside plays an active role in each of the three Community Planning Partnership (CPP) Promise Delivery Groups, all of which are focused on improving the health and wellbeing outcomes and care experience of infants, children, and young people.

The NHS Tayside School Nursing Service and Care-experienced Young People Service (CEYPS) have expanded efforts to carry out home visiting, in order to better address the needs of young people and understand their lived experience. The School Nursing and Care-experienced Young People Services have re-evaluated transitional pathways between services to enhance support and foster better relationships with young people from S4 so as to encompass the 16-18 years age bracket of care-experienced young people who are known to leave home. This commitment aligns with the organisation’s corporate parenting responsibilities, ensuring sustained support and access to health care service throughout early adulthood for this potentially more vulnerable population.

NHS Tayside leaders are more informed on the increased focus on children’s rights in line with the UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) Bill passed by Scottish Parliament in December 2023, recognising the critical overlap between article 12 of the Bill (the right to express a view and to be heard) and The Promise Plan 21-24; and are building Trauma-Informed Practice Training through the Perth & Kinross Trauma-informed Practice Coordinator role.

NHS Fife have established a group including staff from Legal Services, Mental Health Services (including Psychology Services and Addiction Services), Spiritual Care Service, Children’s Services, Medical Records, and Information Services to ensure that information in relation to redress of historical child abuse in care settings is collated, analysed, and monitored, and that the process is as supportive as possible.

NHS Forth Valley host the Transforming Psychological Trauma Implementation Coordinator role which supports the roll-out of trauma-informed practice across the Forth Valley region. This service provides a range of activities, such as providing support to local authority and NHS trauma champions to influence change in their organisations, support the inclusion of lived experience expertise across service planning, provide specialist consultation to leaders and managers, and deliver “Safety and Stabilisation” training to staff across the sectors (i.e., mental health, physical healthcare, social work, justice, third sector and community organisations). This training encourages staff to use safety planning tools, provide basic psychoeducation and skills training to support emotional regulation.

Further to this, NHS Forth Valley are developing a community of practice for staff operating at this enhanced level to reflect on their work and wellbeing and build cross-sector links with others who support individuals who have experienced trauma. The aim is that trauma will become “everybody’s business”, and any individual, at any stage of their recovery, will be able to access the services they need in a safe way.

NHSGGC confirmed that all staff are encouraged and supported to raise concerns about anyone who is experiencing harm, including reports of non-recent harm. Complaints made by a child, young person or adult are fully explored, shared with partner agencies and appropriate interventions are undertaken. The GP Child Protection Pathway Guidance in NHSGGC, identifies it is not uncommon in general practice for adults to disclose previous sexual and other forms of childhood abuse. In such circumstances GP practices and other professionals are required to consider if any child may be at risk of harm and whether it is necessary to share relevant information with Police Scotland and Social Work.

NHS Lothian have strengthened child protection services through close inter-agency working between the NHS, local authorities, and Police Scotland. Currently if concerns are raised relating to the abuse of a child (under 18 years old) NHS Lothian staff follow Interagency Child Protection Procedures and make a referral to either the Child Protection Hub, social work, or police. An Interagency Referral Discussion (IRD) is undertaken with the three key agencies (Police Scotland, Social Work, and Health Boards) and an interim safety plan is put in place including relevant supports, medical examinations, onward referral, and a decision to progress to a Child Protection Case Conference if required. Complaints made by adults in relation to allegations of historical child abuse are supported in making a complaint to the police and, if required, appropriate referrals are made to other services.

NHS State Hospital outlined their steps to fulfil their duty as Corporate Parent to individuals who are care-experienced. For survivors of childhood sexual abuse there are several interventions provided:

• development of a trauma-informed approach to practice within The State Hospital;
• direct support to survivors by way of supporting contact with Police Scotland (and PSNI) in order to report historic crimes and provision of Appropriate Adult services to promote meaningful engagement in these processes, and;
• advice and guidance are provided to family members of patients who have been affected by these issues and signposting to relevant community-based resources.

Public Protection

In their responses, several NHS Boards referred to their Public Protection Guidance arrangements and their contribution to the cross-cutting Public Protection agendas affirming NHS Boards’ commitment to improve their capacity and capability to manage Public Protection risk.

Further investment within NHS Tayside led to the development of a Public Protection Service and NHS Tayside work collaboratively with key partners across social work, education, and Police Scotland in order to promote children and young people’s wellbeing, welfare, and safety.

NHS Forth Valley work in partnership with three local authority areas to follow National Child Protection guidelines, and universally identify and respond to child adversity as early as possible to prevent long term, persistent harm. Learning Reviews are commissioned as a mechanism for all partners (health, police, and social care) to review and learn from. The NHS Forth Valley Chief Executive Officer has represented NHS Boards on national work, notably the NHS Public Protection Accountability and Assurance Framework guidance.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway Public Protection Team, provides all areas of Child and Adult Public Protection. They have established several processes for wider safeguarding of vulnerable individuals, including both children and adults.

NHS Borders provides Public Protection services in conjunction with other key public sector partners, including Scottish Borders Council, Police Scotland, and the Scottish Reporter. This service includes support for survivors, regardless of the location of the abuse. The Public protection services, for both Vulnerable Adults and Children, are provided via a co-located Public Protection unit and are overseen through the Critical Services Oversight group and Public Protection Committee. Within this structure there is specific work on Child Protection and improvement and quality assurance for these services.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Public Protection Strategy “Safeguarding – It Matters to Us” is committed to reducing the risk of harm to babies including the unborn, children, young people, and adult. NHSGGC’s “Our Public Protection Strategy” identifies six strategic aims underpinned by eight public protection principles and was developed following engagement with a wide range of individuals. The strategy sets the direction over the next three years, defines roles and priorities, and determines that every member of staff, including those commissioned to provide services, have a pivotal role in safeguarding and protecting the population from harm.

NHSGGC’s dedicated Public Protection Service support all organisational responsibilities and requirements in Child and Adult Protection, including advice and support for staff, contribution to Interagency Referral Discussions (IRDs), learning and education opportunities, child protection supervision and child protection medicals.

In 2023 NHSGGC Public Protection Nurse Advisors were nominated for the RCN Nurse of the Year Awards and were highly commended for the work they do in supporting the organisation keeping children and adults safe.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s Public Protection Guidance underpins and reflects current national Child Protection Guidance (SG 2021). This also includes how historical or current safeguarding concerns or disclosures should be formally raised to the statutory agencies i.e. local authorities and Police Scotland.

Summary

NHS Boards continue their commitment to delivering the principles and intended outcomes of the redress scheme and continue to develop and refine services to support those who have been subject to past trauma.

4.8 Rossie Young People Trust

Introduction

Rossie signed up to Scotland’s Redress Scheme in December 2021 as part of the national endeavour to address the harms of historical child abuse. The Scheme provides financial and non-financial redress. We have made a total contribution of £120,000 to date. The official letter of apology issued by the Chair remains on our website. We have not been asked for a direct apology, assistance on tracing families or any other type of support by former residents.

We are a trauma-informed organisation and deliver all services in line with GIRFEC, The Promise, UNCRC, Secure Care Pathway and Standards Scotland, and our legislative and regulatory requirements. This evidences our commitment to providing the highest standards of care / protection, education, health and psychological support to all young people who live with us. This report provides information about the non-financial arrangements we have developed, and continue to develop, to prevent any forms of abuse occurring.

Culture

Our culture is informed by our values of Respect, Integrity, Delivery, Accountability, and Collaboration. Our Board has endorsed these, and all staff are introduced to our values at induction stage. Young people are also aware of our values, and how these relate to expectations of positive behaviours by them, and what they can expect of all staff. Our services are therapeutic and delivered by multidisciplinary teams. The CEO and all members of the senior team have high visibility across the organisation, and operate an “open door” policy for staff and young people. We have a well-publicised Whistleblowing Policy.

Governance

Our Board of Governors (volunteers) provides strong governance – at least eight formal Board meetings are held per annum. Governors set our strategic direction and are sighted on all strategic developments, financial and operational aspects of our charitable business. They receive regular reports on operational performance, and proposals for projects, and have ample opportunities for scrutiny / challenge / support and approval. Our Governors carry out unannounced visits, and take the opportunity to meet with young people and staff. One Governor is designated to do this each month.

Staff Recruitment

Robust staff recruitment processes / clear job descriptions/person specifications and pre-employment checks are in place. Our young people are involved in the selection process of all staff.

Staff receive a comprehensive induction / mentoring programme / annual appraisal and supervision. Our culture empowers staff to make suggestions to improve the organisation. Our long service financial award scheme recognises / values staff for their commitment to Rossie and work with our young people. These processes ensure we recruit and retain the best talent. Clear career pathways are in place for staff. We have an on-site accredited SQA Centre delivering core operational qualifications to ensure best practice. All front line staff must register with the SSSC and abide by their Code of

Conduct – annual re-registration is required to enable social care practice. We have very strong links with universities at local, regional national and international levels. We engage in relevant research projects and provide student placements across a range of disciplines. All of these actions ensure our knowledge is current, delivering services which are evidenced based and to the highest standard.

Safeguarding

Rossie is an active member of the Angus Child Protection Committee, which is the local strategic planning partnership responsible for developing and implementing child protection policy and strategy across and between agencies. The committee is responsible for:

• the co-ordination of training for professional and other staff;
• the development of policies, procedures and protocols;
• ensuring the effectiveness and quality of local child protection services through continuous improvement, and;
• the provision of public information about child protection.

We have a comprehensive safeguarding policy, which has been signed off by the Committee. All staff attend safeguarding training and receive ongoing refresher training. There is an annual review of joint protocols. The DCEO has lead responsibility for this work.

UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

Rossie is committed to delivering all services in line with the UNCRC. Article 12 states that every child has the right to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting them, and to have their views considered and taken seriously. Our young people are extensively involved in the day-to-day decision-making across the organisation. We have a contract with Who Cares? Scotland, to ensure young people receive independent advocacy and are enabled to participate in a wide range of activities and developments.

In July 2021 Rossie purchased an airport scanner to get rid of the need to physically search young people on admission. We were the first secure and residential care centre in Scotland to purchase a scanner. Our sector leading approach evidences commitment to deliver Article 37 and treat young people with dignity and respect. It also ensures the relationship between young people and staff starts on a positive footing.

Article 25 states if a child has been placed away from home for the purpose of care or protection they have the right to a regular review of their treatment, the way they are cared for and their wider circumstances. Rossie ensures young people are supported in attending their Children’s Hearing and that accurate and current reports are prepared in a timely manner. Procedures related to making complaints are communicated to all young people and their families/carers at the time of admission–these procedures are published on our website. As a care provider, we are highly regulated and receive unannounced annual inspections from the Care Inspectorate. Our recent secure care inspection (Dec 2023) graded the care of young people as “very good”, and leadership / management as “excellent”.

In January 2024 we installed a new state of the art technical system across the organisation, which monitors, records and retains all staff whereabouts at all times. We use CCTV to ensure the safety and protection of all young people and staff.

Also in line with Article 37, Rossie facilitates family visits on our campus. We have made significant investments in digital technology so young people, their families and other key people in their lives can maintain positive and regular contact. We have recently (December 2023) been awarded a grant by the Corra Foundation to further develop our family services.

Article 39 states children who have experienced neglect, abuse, exploitation must receive special support to help them recover their health, dignity, self-respect and social life. We have specialists who provide psychological assessments and interventions to aid recovery from trauma and support reintegration back into their family and community (as appropriate). As a multidisciplinary organisation, we ensure a holistic approach to the needs of all young people, delivering individualised interventions. We have excellent partnerships with NHS Tayside, CAMHS and a multitude of specialist organisations.

The Secure Care Pathway and Standards Scotland

Rossie has been actively involved in the design of the Secure Care Pathway and Standards Scotland. They have been co-produced with care-experienced children, young people and adults. They follow a child’s journey before, during and after their time in secure care. The standards provide a framework to ensure rights are respected, and positive outcomes achieved.

The Promise – Physical Restraint Reduction

Rossie is a member of two national working groups (Restraint Reduction Network and the Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group) committed to the reduction of physical restraint. All relevant staff are trained and accredited in CALM physical restraint methodology. Annual accreditation is required for staff to safely, and legally use physical restraint on young people.

We have 17 instructors, fully trained in debrief methodology delivering robust support to staff and young people. This approach provides staff with the necessary skills and support to de-escalate violent or harmful behaviours, reducing the need for physical interventions or restraints. Our specialist debriefing supports staff and young people, post-incident, to re-establish positive relationships.

Our regulatory body, the Care Inspectorate, requires us to report all incidents to them and carry out reviews as appropriate. As a learning organisation, we ensure we learn from all incidents and improve practice and / or send staff on refresher programmes. All inspection reports are published and available on the Care Inspectorate website.

We prepare reports for our Board on incidents of physical restraints, and monitor, review and analyse trend data. Rossie is committed to using physical restraints only as a last resort to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all.

Historical Records/Former Residents

A small number of requests have been made to us seeking access to historical records. We have responded speedily to all such requests and will continue to do so. There is additional work and costs associated with these requests, evidencing Rossie’s ongoing commitment to both the principles of redress and the Redress Scheme.

We have offered former residents the opportunity to visit Rossie, to demonstrate the range of protective measures, systems and procedures we have in place to ensure the highest standards of care. To date this invitation has not been taken up. Rossie would warmly welcome former residents, and / or their families, to visit us.

Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry

Rossie has been identified as a provider in Phase 8 of the Inquiry. We have already sent all relevant documentation to the Inquiry, again at additional costs to the organisation. We will fully comply with all requirements to give evidence at a future date.

Conclusion

Rossie is the only secure care provider to have signed up to the Redress Scheme. This report provides information on the culture, governance, systems and procedures we have in place, which provide protections to all young people placed in our care.

As a charity, Rossie is committed to providing the highest quality of services to the most vulnerable children across Scotland and the UK. We remain both committed and determined to achieve our vision of being a centre of excellence that changes lives.

4.9 Salesians of Don Bosco

The Salesians of Don Bosco were the providers of the following historical residential care provision in Scotland. All were for boys of secondary school age:

1. St Teresa’s (residential care home for boys), Hillside House, Aberdour, Fife, KY3 0RH (1950–1960).

2. St John Bosco School (Approved School and then List D School for boys), Hillside House, Aberdour, Fife, KY3 0RH (1960–1983).

3. Bosco House (residential care home for boys), 7 Hamilton Road, Mount Vernon, Glasgow, G32 9QD (1972–1984).

The Salesians of Don Bosco have not been a provider of any childcare provision in Scotland since the closure of Bosco House in 1984 but resolved to be a contributor to Redress Scotland from its establishment in December 2021. As part of joining the Scheme we submitted an acknowledgement of non-recent abuse in our care and committed ourselves to providing an annual statement of our redress activity provided in addition to our financial contribution to the Scheme.

Not being a childcare provider in Scotland for 40 years, our current safeguarding policies and practices have been developed in relation to our work in England. This has involved compliance with and adoption of the polices and guidelines of the Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service (CSAS) and more recently its replacement the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA), along with the Religious Life Safeguarding Service (RLSS). There has been a renewed emphasis on care and support for abuse victims and survivors with the establishment of “Safe Spaces’” to provide free independent counselling and support to anyone who has been abused in a Catholic or Anglican church context.

Anyone in England who now approaches us about past abusive experiences is offered a formal apology and the Safe Spaces support, in addition to the offer of meeting with us in person. We consider these policies are largely transferrable and will inform our practice in relation to anyone approaching us in connection with abuse experienced during residence at the childcare provision we provided in Scotland.

During the period 7 December 2022 to 6 December 2023 we have assisted past residents of our care provision in Scotland by promptly confirming dates of attendance and by providing any personal records that we might hold in response to Subject Access Requests (SARs). We have also responded, usually within a day or two, to requests from Redress Scotland as to whether or not past residents have received any compensation payments from the Salesians.

For St Teresa’s, St John Bosco School and Bosco House the total number of Subject Access Requests during the twelve-month period was fourteen.

During 2023 we received one request from a recipient of a redress settlement for a written apology. This was sent without delay by the Salesian Provincial with “a heartfelt and unreserved apology” for any abuse that he had experienced during his time in Salesian care provision. We have not received any other requests for contact, apologies, or support.

4.10 Sisters of Nazareth

The Congregation of the Sisters of Nazareth recognises that financial redress is only one aspect of acknowledging the harm that past child abuse has caused to survivors. Nothing can ever compensate for any suffering endured whilst in the care of the Sisters of Nazareth. Making redress payments for survivors of historical child abuse in Nazareth House Children’s Homes in Scotland is an important part of dealing with the past.

In recent years there has been much discussion and effort to engage with survivors to understand and address the harm caused by historical child abuse. The Sisters of Nazareth welcomed all children who were referred to us and in many cases we made a positive contribution to their lives but we recognise that we did not get it right in all cases. Survivors of historical abuse have the option of seeking justice through the criminal and civil courts. The financial redress scheme provides an alternative to the current criminal and civil court process because it is sensitive to the needs of survivors.

Advice and assistance on accessing historical records

Care records are a vital link for an individual to understand their identity and childhood. Access to records and information can be challenging due to the records kept at the time and those that have survived. Our archivists work hard to maintain the records and to provide timely, accurate and complete access to records in support of an applicants’ claim for redress or to gain a better understanding of their care experience, and to Redress Scotland for the administration of the scheme. The archivists work tirelessly to identify the requested records, including when names and dates do not match.

During the year to 6 December 2023, 116 requests for individual in-care records were verified and 77 requests for in-care records were provided to support a redress application. In addition, Redress Scotland sought and received verification of previous payments made to 166 applicants to the scheme.

Advice and assistance on tracing and reuniting families

In addition to the provision of records and verifications above, we have not specifically provided advice and assistance on tracing and reuniting families. However, there have been cases where records have been requested but the individual has not resided in a Nazareth House, in which case we have provided advice on where else they may make enquiries. These may be related to redress claimants or others who approach the Congregation looking for their care records or family connections.

Funding for emotional, psychological or practical support

There have not been any specific requests for funding for emotional, psychological or practical support during the last year relating to children cared for in Scotland. We have funded such requests in other parts of the UK and would consider similar requests in Scotland should they be received.

Apology Framework

The Sisters of Nazareth have engaged in the Apology Framework for Scotland’s Redress Scheme. Whenever an individual asked for a written apology we welcomed the opportunity to provide survivors with a sincere, unreserved and heartfelt apology. In each of the four requests for an individual apology, in three cases the survivor gave consent to share their personal statement, thus making the apology more personal and meaningful. With the assistance of Redress Scotland staff, a telephone conversation was arranged with one survivor which allowed this person to verbalise and reflect on their time in care in one of our Homes. The survivor was advised that they could contact us again if they would find this helpful.

The Sisters warmly welcome former children, survivors and their families to visit a Nazareth House. Many lessons have been learnt as we engage with survivors and our prayer is that a healing process may commence and lead to reconciliation. Every day we remember in our prayers all survivors whose childhood memories were contrary to the love, care and nurturing they should have received.

We do not intend to publish this report on the Sisters of Nazareth website.

Sr Brenda McCall, Superior General

4.11 Scottish Prison Service

As required under Section 99 of the Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Act 2021, please see below our annual report for the reporting period 7 December 2022 to 6 December 2023, on the wider actions SPS has taken to redress the historical abuse of children.

Acknowledgement of abuse and provision of an apology

On 8 December 2021, the SPS published on its external website a letter acknowledging the harm that children experienced whilst in our custody and apologised for the suffering that each child endured.

As with the previous reporting period, SPS has not received any requests from individual survivors of historic child abuse seeking an apology for any harm they experienced or endured whilst in our custody. Should we receive any future requests, we will engage with the Survivor Relations Team within the Scottish Government to facilitate the redress between the SPS and the survivor.

Whilst we have not received any requests from individual survivors during this reporting period, we have received an increase in the correspondence from the Redress Team enquiring if any compensation has been paid out to survivors by SPS. The level of this correspondence has more than doubled since the previous reporting period and a staff resource has been allocated to this to ensure that these requests are responded to timeously.

Engagement with those responsible for the management of the Redress Scheme

We have continued to provide advice and assistance to those seeking to access their historical records through engagement with those responsible for the Redress Scheme. We have maintained a secure means of communication to verify information and respond in a timely manner to provide the scheme administrators to support survivor’s claims for compensation.

Following several enquiries from legal teams, letters have been issued to various solicitor firms confirming how redress should be sought for survivors who are in our custody that they are representing. Work has also begun to provide further information to survivors through the SPS external website. This remains in the development stage at the time of writing this report, but the information will direct survivors on how to seek redress under this scheme.

Subject Access Requests (SAR)

Through SPS’s established SAR process, survivors remain able to obtain access to information held by SPS to support their claims for compensation. They have been able to do this by writing directly to SPS or downloading a SAR from our external website. SPS is currently experiencing difficulties accessing their historic records held by National Records Scotland (NRS) which is impacting on SPS’s ability to process SAR applications. SPS continues to explore with NRS ways to improve SPS’s access to records that NRS hold.

Where a person making a SAR has some form of disability and finds it is unreasonably difficult or not possible to make a SAR request in writing, SPS will consider a verbal request.

Assistance in tracing and reuniting families

SPS recognises the importance of family support for those in our custody and provides prisoners with a variety of means to reintroduce and maintain contact with family. This includes through correspondence, physical and virtual visits, by telephone, the email-a-prisoner and prisoner voicemail schemes.

In relation to means of contacting family, SPS completed an estate wide project of installing in-cell telephony during this reporting period. This system allows those in our custody increased access to means of communication with their families and friends who are often their personal support system in the community.

SPS continues to have in place processes to assist families in tracing relatives who may be in our custody. It should again be noted that this was not introduced specifically to support the Redress Scheme but does support this. Under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998, SPS are prohibited from confirming whether a person is in SPS custody as this information is considered personal data. To assist families who may wish to trace those in our custody, we have arrangements in place which allow families to write to individuals c/o SPS Legal Services who will, if the individual is in our custody, pass the letter on to them. This is done without confirming to the sender whether the individual is in custody in line with Data Protection legislation. This provides those in our custody the ability to reunite with family members they may have lost contact with if they choose.

Funding for emotional, psychological, or practical support

Those in our custody are able to access a variety of emotional, psychological, or practical support that is either funded by SPS or provided by local NHS boards. This includes access to Samaritans services either via the SPS Listener Scheme or via SPS phones (the Samaritans telephone number is pre-programmed in all SPS in-cell and communal phones and is free to contact), self-referral processes to NHS Mental Health Services and on-site Chaplaincy support. In addition to this, several other free support services are available via in-cell and communal phones to support those in our custody including Woman’s Aid and Child Line.

SPS is not able to fund services that that would provide emotional or psychological support services for those not in SPS custody. The SPS is an operational branch of the Scottish Government and is funded directly by Scottish Ministers to provide prison services. The budget allocated to SPS is

intended to cover expenditure associated with operating the prison system and the provision of the Court Custody and Prison Escorting Service (CCPES) on behalf of Scottish Courts, Police Scotland and the wider justice system. The SPS budget does not cover the costs of funding the provision of services to individuals in the community.

In terms of practical support, as detailed above in relation to SARs, SPS have processes in place to enable survivors, or those representing them, to obtain access to information held by SPS to support their claims for redress compensation.

Safeguarding policy and procedures

SPS has several policies and procedures that have been implemented to safeguard children who are either in our custody or who visit or contact a prison or people in our custody. Below an overview is provided of some of the key policies and strategies that relate to this.

Vision for young people in custody

The aim of this policy is to use the time a young person spends in custody to enable them to prepare for a positive future. This means providing the care and experiences which will support the young person’s mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing in addition to a safe and secure environment. The purpose of this is to build the young person’s knowledge, skills, and employability, and therefore promoting their successful reintegration into our communities.

Think Twice – SPS’s approach to encouraging respectful behaviour in prison

This strategy focuses on identifying and recognising when bullying occurs with an objective to appropriately address the behaviour of the person bullying whilst also supporting the person experiencing the bullying behaviour. The policy aims to reduce the level of bullying within prisons, ensuring that any incidents of bullying are thoroughly investigated and managed appropriately to prevent future occurrence. The fundamental purpose of this strategy is to create a safe and supportive community within our prisons where people take responsibility for their own actions whilst allowing them to gain an understanding of the impact that their actions could have on other people.

SPS Child Protection Policy

The objective of this policy is for SPS staff to take reasonable steps to protect children and young people from any form of harm and abuse whilst in our custody, visiting our establishments or contacting a prison or people in our custody. The policy provides guidance to SPS staff on appropriate actions to take if they become concerned about the welfare of a child of young person while undertaking their duties. All SPS staff have a responsibility to act on any concerns they may have, and this policy provides the support to SPS staff on how to exercise this responsibility. SPS staff are provided with guidance in relation to what the signs of potential abuse are; their obligations to protect children and young people from harm and abuse; and details of the correct reporting procedures they should follow when required.

Any other support

Where a survivor who is currently seeking redress sadly passes away, their family may be able to take their claim forward. This would follow the same procedures SPS currently use for any other claims where the original claimant has sadly passed away.

We note this redress report will be reviewed and published as part of a combined report as required by Section 99 of the Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Act 2021.

4.12 Quarriers

Background

The Scottish Parliament has enacted legislation to provide survivors of abuse with the opportunity to seek financial reparation through the National Redress Scheme. The Act places an obligation on participating organisations to submit a report to Scottish Ministers on work undertaken to support survivors, with particular regard to:

• emotional, psychological or practical support provided;
• advice and assistance on accessing historical records;
• advice and assistance on tracing and reuniting families, and;
• activity relating to the provision of an apology to such individuals.

While Quarriers is not a contributor to the scheme, we acknowledge it is nonetheless good practice to publish an account of the work we undertake to support survivors of abuse, and this report follows on from Quarriers’ initial report of 2022-23.

Investment

The full year financial commitment to the Aftercare Service as set out in 2022-23 remains at £200,000 as a protected investment and commitment despite a challenging financial and social care landscape.

The service is operating at full capacity with five members of staff. The team consists of a Head of Service, two full-time Aftercare Support Workers, a Trauma-Informed Coordinator, and an Information Officer to support the work relating to records management and data protection. Our Aftercare Support Workers assist survivors to access records, provide advocacy support as required, and signpost to other places of support or professional advice in circumstances where that is preferred to in-house support. The role of our Trauma-Informed Coordinator has grown exponentially and includes strategic planning relating to the trauma-informed practice across the organisation, the creation and facilitation of learning materials, and wellbeing planning for both staff and former Quarriers residents.

Inclusion

The Aftercare Committee has continued to progress alongside former Quarriers residents and our external partners. Chaired by the Chief Executive and involving representatives of Former Boys and Girls Abused in Quarriers (FBGA), Birthlink Scotland, Future Pathways and Wellbeing Scotland. The role of the sub-committee remains to advise on the development of our Aftercare Service and to explore its performance. It meets quarterly, and a Terms of Reference and associated minutes continue to be published on Quarriers’ website.

Access to records

Across 2023-24, Quarriers had a total of 103 enquiries from people looking to access information about relatives formerly supported by Quarriers (these are referred to as historical / genealogical enquiries). We have observed a particular increase in historical enquiries in the last six-month period. We also supported a total of 106 individuals to access their own records via subject access requests. At present, the majority of requests relate to people who were resident in Quarriers Village; however, we are continuing to receive more enquiries relating to services outwith the Village setting

(e.g. the former Seafield School in North Ayrshire). Work is ongoing to digitise and catalogue all of those records; we acknowledge this is a long-term process that requires our ongoing commitment to ensure we achieve equity in record provision.

Across 2023-24, Quarriers has received a total of 164 enquiries from Redress Scotland in support of applicants’ redress claims (again, this is an increase from previous years). The enquiries relate to the verification of in-care documentation and the provision of any civil claim information. The team prioritises such enquiries and continues to provide a response to Redress Scotland within a 48-hour period.

All record access enquiries continue to be completed within the target four-week period.

Apology

As an organisation, Quarriers continues to offer an unreserved apology to people who were abused in our care.

Across 2023-24, the organisation received three requests from individuals asking for an apology, and Quarriers remains committed to providing detailed consideration to each individual request.

Reuniting families

Quarriers continues to work with a range of overseas organisations whose primary interest is in the tracing of family connections back to Quarriers.

Schemes operating between the 1870s and 1960s led to thousands of children being migrated to Canada and Australia. We have offered an unreserved apology to the children who were migrated by Quarriers, and we acknowledge the impact migration had on children’s lives and those of their descendants.

Over the last 20 years, Quarriers has been engaging with the descendants of migrated children who wish to access records and share their experiences of how child migration has affected them and their extended families.

We have taken steps to publicise our apology in an effort to reach other former migrants with whom we are not in direct contact, and we continue to offer an aftercare service to those affected. We continue to engage regularly with citizens from overseas in relation to genealogical enquiries and have also had recent contact with Home Children Canada in relation to providing an update about their on-going work.

Commemoration

During 2022/23, Quarriers initiated plans to develop a memorial garden that will speak to the contribution of survivors, children migrated to the new world, and people who had a positive experience of growing up in Quarriers Village. This work is advancing during the current year.

4.13 Save The Children UK

Introduction

This report provides information about the activities Save the Children UK has taken to support survivors and meet its obligations as members of the Scottish Government’s Redress Scheme for Survivors of Historic Abuse. The reporting period covered in the report is the second year of the scheme – from 7 December 2022 to 6 December 2023.

The report includes information on the steps we have taken to ensure that we provide assistance to survivors. The report covers activities on the non-financial elements of scheme membership. These are:

• funding for emotional, psychological, or practical support;
• advice and assistance on accessing historical records;
• advice and assistance on tracing and reuniting families;
• activities relating to the acknowledgement of abuse and providing a meaningful apology to survivors, and;
• other relevant examples of support provided to survivors including our approach to safeguarding.

Governance

Our approach to supporting survivors and our membership of the scheme is led by an oversight group. The oversight group is responsible for monitoring and implementing our membership of the scheme. This group includes senior staff responsible for our work in Scotland, as well as representatives from our Safeguarding, People and Wellbeing, and Legal Teams. This group reports directly to our Trustees, through the Audit and Risk Committee of our Board and through our Safeguarding Committee.

In addition, we have an agreement with Harmeny Education Trust Ltd (HETL) on how we work together as members of the scheme to support former pupils to access records and provide emotional and practical support.

Providing emotional, psychological or practical support

Our Safeguarding and Wellbeing teams follow a values-based, people-centred approach to providing emotional, psychological and practical support to survivors.

Support to survivors of historical abuse is included in our case management standard operating procedures and survivor-centred protocol. Our Director of Safeguarding is the named lead for these policies and these policies are subject to periodic review and update.

We have developed a therapeutic pathway for survivors of all historical abuse relating to the organisation, including any survivors contacting us through the auspices of the scheme. The pathway sets out how the organisation follows a person-centred approach and provides support that is tailored to an individual’s needs. Our Safeguarding and Wellbeing Teams work closely together to ensure the best possible support is available to survivors, and this includes an initial screening with a trained TRiM (trauma risk incident management) practitioner. Following this initial screening and discussion with individuals, we can offer counselling or a referral to a clinical psychologist. These services are provided through third-party, accredited providers depending on where the survivor is based. Our approach is flexible and continually monitored.

We would be happy to provide more information on our pathway and providers.

During this reporting period, we have not had any contact or referrals from case workers relating to cases arising under the scheme with requests to provide emotional, psychological or practical support. We aim to refine our approach based on feedback from survivors on how it works in practice.

Providing assistance to survivors to access historical records

Our cooperation with HETL (the organisation that took over management of Harmeny School from SCUK) continues to be frequent and strong, particularly with regard to the provision of historical records to survivors.

In order to govern our relationship in this regard we have an existing contractual agreement in place to ensure our obligations to make historical records relating to Harmeny School available to applicants under the scheme are met. This agreement sets out the basis for the control, protection and sharing of personal data between HETL and SCUK in line with data protection legislation, as well as forming the basis on which HETL and SCUK will co-operate with one another in relation to access to and use of the historical records relating to the school. Under our agreement, and in practice, SCUK and HETL work together closely to handle subject access requests by former pupils of Harmeny School. In practice, such requests are generally received by the management at HETL, whereafter HETL and SCUK will jointly prepare the response to survivors to ensure that all appropriate records relating to a survivor’s request can be provided. HETL maintains contact with the individual making a request, or their representative, by telephone or email, and offer the opportunity to visit the school, if acceptable to survivors.

Given requests for records can look back some decades there may be instances where we do not hold detailed records for survivors to access. We work with HETL to provide as much information as we can from our records relating to our period of ownership of the school.

As an organisation, senior staff in our Safeguarding, Wellbeing and Legal Teams are able to assist survivors to access their records directly in the event that they contact us directly, or through the Scheme. Over the course of the reporting period, all requests for records have reached us through HETL.

In the reporting year we provided financial support and assistance to HETL to support access to historical records and to support any former pupils who wish to visit the School.

During this reporting period we:

• supported one individual to access their records, and;
• assisted a second individual to access their records, with records shared with the relevant individual following the end of the reporting period.
• Individually and in partnership with HETL we provided responses to verification requests to the Scottish government in respect of five individuals. These requests related to confirmation of placement at the School or to previous relevant payments made in respect of the individuals concerned.

Providing assistance in tracing and reuniting families

We have had no requests to provide assistance in tracing and reuniting families during this reporting period. We are able to offer advice and assistance if required in future. As an organisation, we recognise that abuse can have both immediate and longer-lasting emotional, psychological and social effects, and that the trauma of abuse can impact survivors in a variety of different ways. This means that we will ensure that any assistance offered places the survivor’s needs and wishes at the centre. Our “Survivor-Centred Protocol’” encapsulates this approach, directly references non-recent/historical abuse and is available on our website.

Providing apologies to survivors

Apology is an important element of non-financial redress. We have made a statement of apology for past abuse and this available on our website. We are committed to providing individual apologies based on any requests received. During this reporting period we have not been requested to provide an apology to any individual survivors of abuse.

As set out in our response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the apology framework, and in line with our own survivor-centred approach, we will tailor an apology to an individual, ensuring that the language we use towards the individual is dignified, respectful, compassionate and contrite.

In terms of the mode of apology, we aim to follow the wishes of the survivor and to support their recovery. Where circumstances allow, we can offer either a face-to-face apology from our CEO or suitable alternative (for example, our Chair of the Board), or a written apology, or both.

The key obstacle to providing the most meaningful form of individual apology is the availability of accurate and relevant information relating to the individual and the period in which they attended the institution at which they suffered abuse. The information available to the organisation from our historical records, if any, can often be basic – limiting what we can ascertain to basic facts such as the dates during which a student attended the relevant institution. This may mean that we lack, or are unable to provide, meaningful context to explain the situation at the institution in question at the time a victim attended, which we understand would be frustrating for victims, and which hampers our ability to expand more meaningfully on the content of any apology we provide. We are committed to sharing as much accurate and relevant information as possible within these constraints, and where we cannot, we are committed to sharing the reasons why.

Support for former pupils to visit HETL

Through our agreement with HETL we offer a joined-up approach to supporting former pupils of the school during Save the Children’s period of management.

We support HETL to facilitate visits to the school from former pupils, principally through providing financial assistance to HETL to host former pupils on School premises. HETL have committed to supporting any visitors who disclose historical abuse on those visits.

A copy of the book, ‘Recollections of Harmeny: The First Fifty Years’ is also available free of charge from HETL for any former pupil, should they wish a copy. The book covers a history of the school and can support former pupils to make sense of their time at the school.

Our approach to safeguarding

Keeping the children and adults we work with safe is vital and our top priority. We believe that all children, adults, families, and communities who come into contact with us or our partners (in person or online) should have a safe, inclusive and collaborative experience, free from all forms of abuse, harm and harassment. We expect all staff, volunteers and partners to demonstrate the highest standards of behaviour in both our professional and personal lives. And we do all we can to prevent, report and respond appropriately to all safeguarding concerns.

Our five pillars of safeguarding are: prevention (preventing harm, including through robust risk management), reporting (ensuring children and adults can share any concerns they have, and will be protected to do so, whilst also encouraging lower-level, “near miss” reporting), response (investigating all concerns in a prompt, safe, fair and survivor-centred way), learning (seeking feedback from children and families, and regular case reviews) and governance (ensuring that our Board is well equipped to hold us to account). We aim to be unflinching in learning from our mistakes, including historic cases, and this learning is reflected in how we implement our safeguarding policies in practice.

Our safeguarding team is survivor-led and benefits from having registered social workers and a former police officer within the team. We supplement our safeguarding team with a network of safeguarding leads within different departments. These individuals are trained and supported to champion safeguarding, encourage reporting and support in robust risk management within their area of expertise. Our team in Scotland has received additional bespoke training on working directly with children and risk management.

Conclusion

Our approach to supporting survivors and safeguarding is based on continuous learning, development and best practice. We aim to build on the steps we have taken this year to ensure a joined-up approach with HETL in providing practical and emotional support to survivors and learning from any historic cases that we become aware of through the Redress Scheme or outside of it.

4.14 Sight Scotland

In accordance with our responsibilities under Section 99 of Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Act 2021 (The Act) please find below the report of the Royal Blind Asylum and School Trading as Sight Scotland for the period between 7 December 2022 and 6 December 2023.

We have been contacted by three survivors of abuse that occurred while in our care, through representatives of the survivors. We are working with the representatives to determine what support the survivors need from us as an organisation (as per s.99(2)(a) and s. 99(2)(b)). To date we have been asked to provide any pertinent school records for all three of the survivors. Due to the passage of time, we no longer hold those enrolment records, and as such have not been able to provide those survivors with any pertinent school records.

We continue to offer support to these survivors, and to any other survivors that were in our care that make contact with us, and will do our utmost to provide records from our archives in support of any requests for information. If we become aware of any further specific cases we will work with the survivor to provide funding for emotional, psychological or practical support (as per s.99(2)(a)(i)), advice and assistance on tracing and reuniting families (as per s.99(2)(a)(iii)), take action relating to the provision of an apology to such individuals (as per s.99(2)(a)(iv)) or any other support the survivor needs from us’ (as per s.99(2)(b)).

We have in place a safeguarding manager and have a policy whereby all staff, whether engaged in child care or not, undertake safeguarding training. Care, education and nursing staff and volunteers working directly with service users (this definition includes children as well as vulnerable adults) will be expected to undertake safeguarding training both at basic and advanced levels. This will be a combination of e-learning and face-to-face training. Staff are expected to successfully complete the advanced training module every year.

We first published our statement on Redress on our website on 31 May 2022 Sight Scotland – Redress Statement

We are fully supportive of the work being carried out by the Redress, Relations and Response Division of the Scottish Government and will continue to engage with them when called upon to do so.

4.15 Congregation of Poor Servants of the Mother of God

The Congregation of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God does not currently have responsibility for any social services in Scotland. To date, to the best of our knowledge, no complaint of abuse has been made by any former resident of St Mary’s Galashiels. Consequently, since our last report, sent on 8 March 2023:

• no funding has been sought or made available for emotional, psychological or practical support;
• no advice or assistance has been sought or made available on accessing historical records, and;
• no advice or assistance has been sought on tracing and uniting family members.
• we are prepared to provide a private and / or public apology to any former resident of ours who, at some future date, may make a complaint of abuse against the Congregation of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God. To date, to the best of our knowledge, we have not yet received any complaints of abuse from our ex-residents in Scotland.
• we continue to have relevant policies and procedures, including safeguarding training, and employ competent HR and safeguarding personnel in those countries where we manage services for children and vulnerable adults.

For the foreseeable future, we do not intend to include the Redress Report on our website.

Sr Mary Whelan SMG
General Councillor and Trustee

4.16 The Church of Scotland (CrossReach)

This report is issued on behalf of the charity trustees of the Church of Scotland (the Unincorporated Entities), Scottish Charity SC011353, including the Church of Scotland Social Care Council (also known as CrossReach) and its predecessors. The Church fully supports the Scottish Government Redress Scheme in its aspirations to recognise the historical abuse which occurred in children’s residential care settings prior to 2014, and to acknowledge the harm this abuse caused.

While we have committed to financial support to survivors of historical abuse through the Redress Scotland Scheme, this is only one aspect of the many ways in which we have offered support to survivors over the past year.

Care records and advice and assistance on tracing and re-uniting families

We understand the importance of historical records to those who have been in care, as these are often the only documents which capture information about their young lives. As a result, CrossReach has employed an Archivist since 2017 who has catalogued our records, so they are as accessible as possible to those who wish to access their care records. In the past year, CrossReach has responded promptly to 56 data subject access requests from people who have previously been in our care. We have also responded to 60 verification requests relating to our participation in the Redress Scheme.

Copies of records are provided to those who request to access their records, however, where an individual wishes to view and touch the original records, for example childhood artwork or letters from a parent, this is facilitated. In such circumstances copies can be retained by CrossReach and the original passed over to the person whose record it is.

Where someone is seeking to trace or be re-united with family members we signpost them to specialist agencies who can appropriately support them through that process.

Engagement

CrossReach has a protocol in place for when survivors contact the Church. We realise that everyone is seeking something different and therefore we respond with an individualised approach. This may be through offering counselling, signposting to relevant external supports, or making people aware of the Redress Scotland Scheme.

We support a very active Facebook group for the now closed Ballikinrain residential school which provides a mechanism for former pupils to exchange memories, good and bad and share experiences. This is carefully moderated and supported by a group of senior managers within our Care and Education service. It is recognised that this kind of support needs to developed for other accommodation services we provided.

We are aware that former residents of Ballikinrain school are currently organising a reunion day, and this will be supported by CrossReach care and education management as required.

There are times when people who have been in our care in the past and who find themselves in financial hardship or other difficulties contact CrossReach. The response provided to them is individualised to the person’s needs at that time. They may be looking for practical or emotional support and this can be provided by the most appropriate staff members. There is an individual who wants to talk to someone and every few months will phone to speak with an identified employee with whom they have built up a relationship with over the past few years.

Our Head of Education is currently taking forward a research project with a Scottish university to explore the potential for peer / pupil support from ex-residents. This is at design stage and further details can be provided in next year’s report.

Safeguarding Policy and Training

It is important to CrossReach that we have robust Adult and Child Protection policies in place which promote best practice. As a result, our Safeguarding Policies are updated on an annual basis by our specialist Safeguarding Team.

Staff are trained in safeguarding in both face-to-face and virtual learning platforms. The culture in our services is to positively recognise and report any potential safeguarding issues at the earliest opportunity.

Staff receive regular supervision which allows any practice issues to be discussed or addressed. Staff know that they can speak to their line manager at any time and issues of concerns would be raised straightaway. Posters are displayed within all CrossReach services detailing the name and contact details of the external manager and the Business Partner for Quality, Compliance and Improvement. This means that if someone does not feel they can raise an issue within the service they can raise it with a more independent and appropriate person.

CrossReach Children and Families staff members work with Who Cares, an independent organisation who regularly come in and advocate for the young people.

CrossReach are working towards being a trauma-informed organisation, the first step of which is to ensure that all staff have undertaken introductory training on Trauma-informed Practice. Many front-line specialists have undertaken trauma specialist training.

Regulation

The children’s residential services we run are all registered with the Care Inspectorate, and we ensure that we meet the requirements of safe care and focus on achieving positive outcomes for our young people. This is reflected in the high Care Inspectorate grades we hold.

Our workforce is also professionally registered with the Scottish Social Services Council with all staff holding or working towards a relevant qualification.

Apology

We recognise that there have been times when our practice has fallen short, and people have, regrettably, been harmed in our care. CrossReach has offered a public apology to survivors as well as on an individual basis.

Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry

During the year we have engaged positively with the SCAI in relation to our participation in the Phase 8 case study hearings concerning residential accommodation for young offenders and young people in need of care and protection. We provided information to the SCAI in connection with four establishments, all now closed: Ballikinrain, Geilsland, Langlands Park and Tynepark. This included the submission of records relating to individuals and information to assist in the tracing of witnesses. We also reiterated our heartfelt apology to individuals who suffered abuse whilst resident in these establishments and committed to listening with care to those who may appear at the SCAI as these hearings take place in the course of 2024 and acting on any resultant recommendations and guidance.

Moving Forward

We recognise that there is more we could do to support ex-residents and plan to develop a more thorough action plan to ensure they are appropriately supported.

4.17 Congregation of Christian Brothers

St. Ninian’s Falkland

Redress Report to cover the period 7 December 2022 to 6 December 2023

The Congregation of Christian Brothers was founded in 1802 in Waterford, Ireland by Edmund Rice. Since then, many schools were established by the Christian Brothers in Ireland, England and throughout the world. The Christian Brothers ran one residential school in Scotland, called St. Ninian’s. St Ninians, in Falkland, Fife opened in January 1951 and closed in July 1983.

This report includes information on supports provided by the Christian Brothers for former residents of St. Ninian’s such as.

Funding for emotional, psychological or practical support

The Christian Brothers have not been approached by any former residents of St. Ninian’s with requests for funding for emotional, psychological or practical support during the reporting period 7 December 2022 to 6 December 2023. The Christian Brothers have previously offered assistance with financial and emotional support in terms of providing funding for counselling and arranging meetings with members of the Leadership Teams of the Congregation and Safeguarding Office.

The Congregation has settled civil claims brought by former residents of St. Ninian’s and has provided financial compensation.

Advice and assistance on accessing historical records

The Christian Brothers have in their employment a professional archivist who responds to requests from former residents, their families, their solicitors or other bodies such as Birthlink, Wellbeing Scotland and the Redress Scheme in order to help former residents access their records and to confirm their residency in St. Ninian’s. The St. Ninian’s records have been digitised, indexed and transcribed so any references to individual former residents are easy to find and requests can be responded to quickly. As the entries in the admission register are quite brief and focus on admission and discharge dates we do supplement the register entry with entries from the logbooks or school newsletters where possible.

Sometimes advice is given on how to further a search for records if the applicant was found not to have been a resident in St. Ninian’s Falkland but may have been in another school.

During the reporting period the Christian Brothers’ archives responded to 10 Subject Access Requests (these were received from Birthlink, directly from former residents and from solicitors for former residents, and there were three who were found not to have been admitted to St. Ninian’s Falkland).

During the reporting period the Christian Brothers responded to 36 enquiries from Scotland’s Redress Scheme seeking to confirm residency documents or to confirm if previous payments have been made to former residents of St. Ninian’s (including three not found in the St. Ninian’s register).

Advice and assistance on tracing and reuniting families

St. Ninian’s Falkland only opened in 1951 with many of its residents having relatively short periods of residency there. Therefore, requests for tracing family history and reuniting families have not been received by the Congregation in relation to St. Ninian’s Falkland. We do receive and respond to many requests such as these for the residential schools the Congregation ran in Ireland dating back to 1870. We are aware that Birthlink and In Care Survivors Scotland have services available to former residents in Scotland and should we in the future receive requests for advice in this area their contact details will be provided.

Activity relating to the acknowledgment of abuse and provision of an apology to those abused

In 1998 the Christian Brothers in Ireland issued a message and apology to anyone who suffered ill treatment while in their care. They apologised to those who experienced physical or sexual abuse by a Christian Brother. This message was published in national newspapers at the time. Contact details for the Brothers in Ireland and Northern Ireland were given with contact details of Faoiseamh (now Towards Healing), a counselling service funded by Religious Congregations in Ireland, including the Christian Brothers. Shortly after the apology in Ireland, the then English Province of the Christian Brothers (under whose jurisdiction St. Ninian’s was) made a public statement. It referred to the message and apology in Ireland and stated that the Province Leader in England was ready to respond to people who may wish to make contact. It emphasised that the Brothers were ready to listen sympathetically to any complaints and were ready to offer practical help and advice. The English Province has since amalgamated with the Irish Province of the Christian Brothers.

The Christian Brothers have cooperated fully and positively with the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry since 2017 and have responded to all requests from the Inquiry including extensive requests for records relating to St. Ninian’s. Members of the Congregation attended and gave evidence at the Inquiry in 2019. The Congregation has acknowledged that children were abused within St. Ninian’s Falkland, has apologised unreservedly for this, and has acknowledged that the abuse of children is always reprehensible and intolerable. Apologies have also been given to individual former residents of St. Ninian’s that have made direct contact with the Christian Brothers’ Safeguarding Office. No individual apologies were requested during this reporting period in relation to St. Ninian’s.

Any other supports

A Director of Safeguarding with training in psychology and counselling experience has been employed by the Christian Brothers and is available to former residents or past pupils of Christian Brothers’ schools should they wish to make direct contact with the Congregation for support in any area. The Province Safeguarding Statement is updated as and when necessary and is reviewed by the Trustees and the Safeguarding Team. The Christian Brothers do not currently have children under their care in Scotland. The Congregation is compliant with the policies and guidelines of the Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service (CSAS) and more recently the Religious Life Safeguarding Service (RLSS) and the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA) in England.

4.18 Harmeny Education Trust

Introduction

This report sets out the non-financial steps that Harmeny Education Trust Limited (HETL) has taken to meet our obligations as a member of the Scottish Government’s Redress Scheme (the Scheme) for Survivors of Historic Abuse. The reporting period covered is the first year that HETL has been a member of the Scheme, from 8 February 2023 to 6 December 2023. The report is submitted to the Scottish Government in line with our obligations under the Scheme.

During the reporting period, we had contact from the Scottish Government Redress Team regarding one former pupil who was placed at Harmeny School (the School) during the period HETL has held responsibility for running the School (from December 1995).

We have also received one subject access request (SAR) relating to a former pupil who may have been placed at the School during the period HETL has held responsibility for running the School, although this is unknown, as the individual commenced during the period Save the Children UK (SCUK) ran the School (1958 to 1995) and their leaving date is unknown.

We outline, below, the measures that we have in place to ensure that we are prepared to provide assistance or support to survivors who make contact with us.

Governance

We have taken the following steps to ensure that we fulfil our obligations under the Scheme and provide high-quality support for survivors:

• the Chief Executive holds responsibility for overseeing HETL’s commitments under the Scheme, with a team of individuals providing support, including the Administration Manager, Head of HR (who fulfils the role of Data Protection Officer), Harmeny’s Social Worker and HETL’s external solicitors.
• requests are responded to within required timeframes, and HETL’s Trustees are regularly kept up to date at Board meetings.
• an agreement is in place with SCUK regarding how we work together to support former pupils to access records and provide emotional, psychological or practical support.

Providing, emotional, psychological or practical support

During the reporting period, we have not had any requests for emotional, psychological or practical support from individuals who were abused as children during the period HETL has run the School. However, as an organisation involved in the therapeutic care and education of children and young people who have experienced early years trauma through abuse and neglect, we have a number of resources which will allow us to offer such support to any former pupils. These are as follows.

• Harmeny Here4U, a “transitions and keeping in touch” project, which enables former pupils to maintain contact with Harmeny and have conversations about their time at the School. This allows us to evaluate and learn from their experiences, and signpost former pupils to services which might provide support in relation to their identified needs.
• A fully qualified Harmeny Social Worker, whose background includes significant child protection experience and the provision of practical and compassionate support to children and families.
• A Therapies Manager, who is a Chartered Psychologist, and oversees a small team of Therapists and Assessment and Planning Workers.
• A therapeutic practice framework, known as the Harmeny Way, describing the range of theories and evidence-informed approaches which inform our work.

The above resources allow us to work in a trauma-informed way, and in the event of a request from a former pupil who may have been abused during the time HETL has run the School, a package of support would be put together, in consultation with the individual, and tailored to their needs. This might include counselling through a third-party accredited provider depending on where the individual lived.

Our approach will be flexible and continually monitored, and will be refined based on feedback on how it works in practice from survivors over the course of the scheme.

Providing assistance to survivors to access historical records

We have a contractual agreement in place with SCUK to ensure that our obligations to make historical records relating to the School available to applicants under the scheme are met. This agreement sets out the basis for the control, protection and sharing of personal data between HETL and SCUK in line with data protection legislation and guidance, as well as forming the basis on which HETL and SCUK co-operate with one another in relation to access to, and use of, historical records relating to the School.

Under our agreement, and in practice, HETL and SCUK work closely together to handle SARs by former pupils of the School. Such requests are generally received by the management at HETL, whereafter HETL and SCUK jointly prepare the response to the individual to ensure that all appropriate records relating to their request can be provided.

HETL maintains contact with the individual making a request, or their representative, by telephone or email, and offers the opportunity for the individual to visit the School, if they would like to do so. A copy of the book, ‘Recollections of Harmeny: The First Fifty Years’, (see 7.5) is also available free of charge for any former pupil, should they wish to have a copy.

As outlined above, during the reporting period, we had contact from the Scottish Government Redress Team regarding one former pupil who was placed at Harmeny School during the period HETL has held responsibility for running the School (from December 1995). We also had contact regarding two former pupils from SCUK’s time

We received one SAR relating to a former pupil who may have been placed at the School during the period HETL has held responsibility for running the School, and worked with SCUK with three requests from former pupils placed for the period they ran the School.

Providing assistance in tracing and reuniting families

We have had no requests to provide assistance in tracing and reuniting families during the reporting period. However, should an individual request this we would support them in doing so, with our Here4U Project Worker taking a lead role in this, supported by the Chief Executive.

Providing apologies to survivors

As stated in our Acknowledgement Letter, published on the Scottish Government’s Redress Scheme’s Website, Harmeny Education Trust offers our unreserved and sincere apologies to anyone who suffered abuse or harm while in our care. While nothing can undo the hurt and pain suffered, we hope that being part of the Redress Scheme confirms our commitment to making amends.

During this reporting period, we have not provided an apology to any individual survivors; however, we acknowledge the importance of this element in relation to non-financial redress. Our approach would be to tailor an apology to an individual who was abused or harmed during the period HETL has held responsibility for running the School, ensuring that they are treated with dignity, respect and compassion.

Where a face-to-face apology was requested / agreed by an individual victim and / or their family, we would be willing to provide this. However, we would equally be willing to provide a written apology only, where a victim expressed such a preference. We would seek advice as appropriate in those circumstances.

Other support

Visits from former pupils

Our Harmeny Here4U project offers former pupils, both from during the period in which SCUK ran the School as well as during the period in which HETL has run the School, to visit the School. SCUK has provided a financial contribution to HETL to support former pupils from their time with travel and other expenses. During their visit, we provide hospitality through food and refreshments, allow the former pupil time to share memories of their time at the School, provide a tour, provide a free copy of the Recollections of Harmeny book (see 7.5), and share any photographs and historic archives which might be of interest.

During the reporting period, Harmeny Here4U Project hosted the following visits.

• Visits from 3 SCUK former pupils, totalling 4 separate visits.
• Visits from 17 HETL former pupils, totalling 35 separate visits.

National standards and commitment to quality

HETL has very good processes in place to safeguard the welfare of children in our care, evidenced by strong inspection reports over the last 15 years. We are dedicated to providing the highest-quality services, and the safety and wellbeing of children in our care are core to our values, practice and ethos.

We are regulated and inspected by the Care Inspectorate, and are required to provide residential care and education to children and young people, in line with national Health and Social Care Standards. In June 2023 we received an unannounced care inspection and received the grade of 5 (very good) for “children and young people feel safe, feel loved and get the most out of life.” Some key inspection findings included:

• “Children and young people are cared for in a nurturing and therapeutic environment.”
• “Staff are skilled in their sensitive approach to the care of the children and young people.”
• Our Harmeny Here4U Project being described by inspectors as “exemplary”.

Safeguarding policy and procedures

We have a comprehensive Child Protection (CP) Policy, which includes clear procedures for handling CP and wellbeing concerns. The policy and procedures are overseen by the Chief Executive, updated regularly, and signed off by the Board of Trustees. The policy includes the following key sections.

• Definitions of CP and well-being concerns.
• Types and indicators of abuse.
• Procedures for reporting concerns internally and externally.
• Recording procedures.
• Roles and responsibilities.
• Procedures when allegations against staff are made.
• Staff supports.
• Training.

All staff, volunteers and consultants are required to undertake CP training and read the policy and procedures as part of their induction, and receive refresher training on a regular basis. A group of Lead CP Officers meets quarterly to review incidents, update the CP Policy and oversee the provision of training, alongside our learning and development team.

Safeguarding governance

A summary of safeguarding issues is provided at each Board meeting by the Chief Executive, and Trustees are invited to ask any questions or provide feedback in relation to this. Trustees also regularly visit the School and attend School events and Harmeny Pupil Council. Pupil and parent / carer representatives attend the Board once per year to provide feedback on the quality of services and make suggestions around how they might be improved.

Historic archive

As well as the safe storage of former pupils’ records, we hold a small historic archive relating to the School’s history, including documents relating to the establishment and development of the School, photographs, annual reports, newspaper articles, and records of visits from dignitaries and officials. In 2014, HETL published ‘Recollections of Harmeny: The First Fifty Years’, which tells the story through words and pictures of Harmeny School, drawing on stories of staff and former pupils.

Participation in the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry

In 2018 HETL was named by the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) and was advised by the Inquiry Team that we were required to respond for the period from December 1995, when HETL took over the running of the School. We are unaware of why we have been named but are fully cooperating with the process and submitted a formal two-part questionnaire in September 2019, covering the period from 21 December 1995 to December 2014.

In November 2023, Lady Smith, Chair of the Inquiry, announced Phase 9 of the Inquiry, which will focus on the provision of residential care in establishments for children and young people with long-term healthcare needs, additional support needs and disabilities. HETL will be included within this phase, alongside around 17 other establishments, and it is expected that public hearings will commence in spring 2025. We are highly supportive of the SCAI and will continue to fully cooperate with any further requests that the Inquiry Team might have.

Neil Squires – Chief Executive

4.19 Kibble Education and Care Centre

Introduction

This report is provided in response to the Scottish Ministers request for Kibble Education and Care Centre (“Kibble”) to prepare and send an annual redress report for the period 7 December 2022 to 6 December 2023.

This fulfils Kibble’s requirement under the Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Act 2021 in producing a report covering the following requested areas:

• funding for emotional, psychological, or practical support;
• advice and assistance on accessing historical records;
• advice and assistance on tracing and reuniting families;
• activities relating to the acknowledgement of abuse and providing a meaningful apology to survivors, and;
• other relevant examples of support provided to survivors.

Funding for emotional, psychological, or practical support

In the reporting period, we received forty-nine requests for records from individuals or their representatives looking for information on their time in our care. Kibble supported these requests by investing in a dedicated team of staff tasked with logging all individuals who had been in Kibble’s care during its existence. This subsequently allowed Kibble to provide the practical support to requestors and enabled Kibble to quickly access, review and produce the records in a timeous manner (in circumstances where Kibble held those records). This also enabled Kibble to respond timeously to requests from the Redress Team, where that Team were seeking verification of records or confirmation of payments relating to applications submitted to the Redress Scheme itself. The development of Records in all contexts is a key priority for Kibble and is reflected by ongoing investment, supported by the Board and Chief Executive.

During the reporting period Kibble has not been in direct contact with any survivors of abuse.

Advice and assistance on accessing historical records.

We were able to successfully provide all available records to thirty-eight of the requestors, two requests have resulted in further information being required form their representative and for the remainder we were unable to confirm, from the records available, if they were previously cared for by Kibble. Where Kibble was unable to confirm, we offered practical advice and guidance on accessing information from other agencies, including their local authority.

Kibble, during this process, also established good working relationships with Birthlink and Wellbeing Scotland in their support of individuals looking for their records.

In correspondence, it is explained that not all records have survived the passage of time, and the available records sometimes only offer the confirmation that the requestor was care-experienced through dates of admission and / or release.

The team has met with one individual who was in our care in the 1970s and he was very gracious and thankful for the support provided to access his records, as he had been having difficulty accessing other records from establishments.

Where records of a more substantive nature have been provided, care is taken to ensure that a trauma-informed and sensitive approach is adopted to the release of information that may prove challenging or distressing for the requestor.

Advice and assistance on tracing and reuniting families.

We have received no request for support in this area.

We have supported requestors with record requests relating to family members who were in our care and have passed on as they try and learn more about their family history.

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

Details of any redress payments made to past residents of our establishment have not been shared with Kibble. We have had no direct contact from, or with, any individuals concerning abuse during their time placed with Kibble, where they have sought an acknowledgement or an apology.

Other relevant examples of support provided to survivors.

We have a long history of staying connected with people who we have cared for and have reached out to us for support or even just a chat.

Kibble continually develops it best practice and has adopted a Trauma-informed model of care across all areas of the organisation. Kibble has adopted the Promise, which has helped shape how we move forward in the developments of both policy and practice in the care, safeguarding and protection of the people we care for.

4.20 Sailors’ Society

Background

Sailors’ Society today does not run any residential care services for children and has not done so since the closure of Lagarie Children’s Home in Scotland, which ran from 1949 to 1982. A Joint Venture Agreement with Quarriers at Overbridge followed and this ran between 1982 and 1985.

In our current work with seafarers and their families, we have robust safeguarding policies and procedures in place, which are updated as needed, reviewed annually and are in line with national and international guidelines and requirements. We also have ongoing safeguarding training.

While Sailors’ Society is not a contributor to the Redress Scheme, we are pleased to provide an account of the work we do to support survivors of abuse with access to records, funding for counselling and advice on accessing historical records.

Access to records

It is important that individuals get timely access to records, and we prioritise this area of work.

Record requests come to us in various forms:

• calls to our designated phone line from former residents or their family members;
• by email to the designated email address, which is published on our website;
• by post, and;
• most frequently, through Birthlink and Wellbeing acting on an individual’s behalf.

All enquiries are handled with sensitivity, compassion, understanding and in a trauma-informed manner. We provide transparent information on the records we hold. We have limited surviving records and if we cannot provide evidence of time in care, we help in whatever way we can, giving advice on searching for records and signposting to further support. We also advise former residents and their families about how to contact the redress scheme.

Funding for emotional, psychological or practical help

In the past we have offered and funded counselling support for individuals. However, within the reporting period specified for this report, we have not been approached for help in this area.

We do, however, provide a listening ear whenever required and help in whatever way we can, including signposting to the help provided through the redress scheme.

Advice and assistance on accessing historical records

As we have very few surviving records from Lagarie, we have conducted extensive searches for information that could be held by other organisations in relation to children who were resident there. Having approached all schools we knew children attended, we were able to access the Rhu Primary School register of admission and withdrawal for the period Lagarie Children’s Home was operational. This was the only school that had retained records for the relevant period and had Lagarie listed as the address of children from the Home. This register has become our primary reference document in helping individuals prove residency at Lagarie for redress.

During this reporting period, we have received 17 Subject Access Requests from individuals, relatives acting on behalf of individuals, Wellbeing and Birthlink.

The redress team has sent us 33 requests to authenticate documents and/or confirm any previous payments to individuals.

Where a record request is made by an individual for whom we have no records, we direct them to organisations that can help search on their behalf, like Birthlink and Wellbeing.

Advice and assistance on tracing and reuniting families

This is not something we have been asked to help with. In the event that this was requested, we would signpost individuals to appropriate organisations who may be able to help them with their search for relatives.

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

Sailors’ Society has apologised unreservedly for any abuse that was suffered by children who were in the care of the British Sailors’ Society (Scotland) at Lagarie. Apologies have been made in the media, on our website, and through personal letters to survivors known to us.

During the reporting period we had one individual apology request through the redress scheme, which we engaged with fully.

Additional activities

Sailors’ Society has participated openly and fully in the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry and we wrote to all former residents we were aware of inviting them to contact the Inquiry and police.

Improving record request processes

We work to continually improve our processes. We aim to respond to requests quickly and well within the time limit. Where a Subject Access Request is particularly complex, we keep the former resident updated and request time limit extensions if necessary.

4.21 De La Salle Trust

We refer to the above. Below is our Annual Report under the Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Act 2021. We will follow the criteria set in section 99(2).

The context is that following the 2017 reforms to the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act Section 17, when taken along with the decision of the UK Supreme Court in Various Claimants in 2012, a number of civil claims were subsequently intimated upon the De La Salle Brothers (the Brothers). This is in a context where the Brothers left the last Scottish school in which they had a presence in 1993 and all of the Brothers who had taught in those schools are deceased, except for two (one of whom is aged 96, and the other is an inmate of HMP Saughton resulting from convictions for offences against children arising in these schools). Another important point of context for present purposes is that, whilst the Brothers provided the Head, some teachers and some Residential Social Workers in these schools, the Brothers were not the statutory body responsible for operating the schools, nor were the Brothers the employers of any civilian staff in the schools. The statutory responsibility for these schools rather lay with the Managers appointed under the relevant Regulations (the Approved Schools (Scotland) Regulations 1961) and the statutory predecessors of these regulations. This statutory framework has significance in the context of this report given the Managers were not only the employers, and in loco parentis to the children but the Managers were also responsible for the record-keeping (Regulation 49). Whilst the Head was a Brother the Head was also an employee of the Managers (and indeed, we have a copy contract of employment with the Managers for the last Head of St Joseph’s who was a Brother).

We can confirm that following the above 2017 Limitation reforms a number of civil claims for damages were intimated on the Brothers who have settled a number of litigations arising from former pupils. These have all settled without any former pupil requiring to give evidence. There is a considerably smaller number still in litigation but those have commenced in litigation recently and we are working through them at present. There are a number of other claims that have not yet litigated, some of which may be misdirected to the Brothers (e.g. if related to a civilian member of staff employed by the Managers) or where other legal arguments apply such as Prescription (for pre-September 1964 allegations) or where there are Limitation arguments (e.g. where the allegations are directed against a Brother who died before the allegations were made).

We can confirm that in less than 10% of those litigations that have already settled has an apology been requested. Where this has been requested it has been provided promptly, individually, and unreservedly by the Brothers.

In addition, these schools are presently the subject of Chapter 2 of Phase 8 of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (closing submissions on 2 February). The Provincial, the most senior office bearer of the Brothers in the UK, and their Safeguarding Lead, have been present for the entire three weeks of this chapter of evidence. The Brothers have apologised publicly both in their Opening and Closing statements.

Regarding advice and assistance on accessing historical records it will be appreciated from the above context that the Brothers were not the record-keepers for the schools under the 1961 Regulations. That statutory responsibility lay with the Managers as outlined above. The Brothers only have index cards showing where and when the individual Brothers were located at any particular time. The Brothers have sought to assist the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (the inquiry) where they can by providing these index cards to the inquiry if requested. In the last few years, the Brothers have undertaken extensive investigations to try to locate the school records and pupil records, since these are not in the possession of the Brothers, for the reasons already outlined. The Brothers did so with the National Records of Scotland, with Freedom of Information requests to various local authorities and with requests to the Archdioceses. These investigations finally proved fruitful last December when a court order the Brothers had been granted in their favour uncovered that extensive records were held by East Lothian Council relative to St Joseph’s School Tranent. These also included 31 boxes of pupil records. East Lothian Council will have had these records as statutory successors of the Managers. The Brothers can now direct any inquirer to East Lothian Council for St Joseph’s pupils’ records. In the circumstances, except for these St Joseph’s records, the Brothers would need to refer any requests for information made to the inquiry. Given the absence of records, prior to these developments the practice of the Brothers in response to SARs had been to direct inquirers to the various possible sources for such records, since the Brothers had none, but now at least following the inquiry the Brothers can direct such requests to some specific known sources of records. The Brothers are heartened that they can assist with such SARs in the future.

The settlements reached have been global ones but, in a context, where heads of claim have included an element for damages payments for counselling. Given the global settlements the Brothers do not know if any sum paid has actually been applied for counselling or treatment but certainly settlement funds have been provided by the Brothers which would more than cover such treatment costs. The Brothers could not insist on such treatment being sought as a condition of settlement. As an aside, the Brothers have also become aware that some of the claimants’ solicitors have retained as fees from the claimants’ damages a proportion of the damages paid by the Brothers. The Brothers would emphasise that in the course of these settlements the Brothers have also paid the claimants’ solicitors legal expenses (costs) so it appears that the claimants’ solicitors are receiving both legal expenses from the Brothers (who are uninsured) and also retaining a proportion of the claimants’ damages from the claimants. The Brothers would emphasise that the Brothers are not party to any such arrangements between the claimants and their own legal advisors. The Brothers do not approve that some claimants’ representatives in legal firms are doing so but the Brothers have no means to prevent that occurring, even although it limits the actual damages being received in the hands of claimants. From press reports the Brothers are aware that such legal firms also seem to be taking a proportion of redress payments from redress applicants but again the Brothers have no means to prevent that since it is a matter between the redress applicants and their legal advisors.

The Brothers have not been approached by any survivors’ groups in Scotland.

Having withdrawn from the last Scottish school in 1993, the Brothers have no presence in Scotland. The Brothers have appropriate measures in place in the jurisdictions in which they are still present to ensure the relevant local safeguarding policies and care measures are in place. The Brothers have sought to listen and learn at the Scottish inquiry, through attending every day, and are in the process of feeding back those lessons into their communities in other jurisdictions.

The Brothers took no part in any child migration from Scotland given the nature of the schools (List D/Approved) in which the Brothers had a presence. The children arrived at and departed from these schools under compulsory measures of care to which the Brothers were not a party. The children returned to their local families / communities. Accordingly, advice and assistance on tracing and reuniting families is not a matter in which the Brothers have an involvement.

At the time of the introduction of the Redress Scheme the Brothers did have a dialogue with the Scottish Government about the provisions of the scheme. The Brothers pointed out to the Scottish Government at that point that the proposed contribution from the Brothers did not accurately reflect the Brothers’ role, since the proposal failed to take into account the separate statutory role of the Managers, as referred to above. The Brothers subsequently reminded the Scottish Government about their position. Very recently the Scottish Government has intimated revised proposed figures for consideration by the Brothers, accepting the point the Brothers made regarding the Managers’ contribution. The Scottish Government has also very recently published an updated statement of principles on financial contributions to the Redress Scheme. The Brothers can now give due consideration to all of these.

On behalf of the De La Salle Trust (GB), Brother Michael Curran FSC, Trustee