Hansard

The new year is traditionally a time to look back and reflect, but also a time when we make our resolutions for the future and signal the changes that we want to make for that future. At the beginning of this new year, I want to signal a new start to ensure that children in our country are better protected from abuse, harm and neglect.

In the past few weeks, many of us will have enjoyed spending time with our own children or with the children of family and friends, giving them special treats and presents. However, we will all have heard about children from families throughout Scotland who are not in such a fortunate position. We will be acutely aware of those children who are not being brought up in a supporting, loving and caring environment—children who are suffering harm from those who are closest to them. I am sure that members will want to join me in thanking everyone who worked over the holiday period looking after children in need of support: children's social workers and care workers, nurses and health professionals, police officers and voluntary sector workers.

I have made this point before in the chamber, and I will make it again: child protection is not just the concern of social workers. Effective child protection necessarily involves a wide range of workers, with each one doing an extremely difficult job in seeking to strike the right balance between ensuring that children do not come to harm and avoiding wrongfully interfering in private family life. That is not an easy balance to strike, as we know from our deliberations on the Protection of Children (Scotland) Bill. We also know that the consequences of each and every decision that is made can be monumental for the child.

The recent report of the child protection audit and review, "It's everyone's job to make sure I'm alright", discusses the many well-motivated and committed professionals who are working well in difficult and stressful circumstances. The report notes people's willingness and the effort that they put into doing a good job in supporting vulnerable children. It notes real progress and improvement over the past 20 years.

However, the report also makes for grim reading and there is no cause for complacency. It contains some very worrying findings, which we cannot, should not and must not ignore. It shows clear evidence that many children are living in conditions and under threats that are simply not tolerable in a civilised society—and those are carefully judged words.

Listen to the words of the children themselves, as they were reported to ChildLine Scotland:

"Dad held a knife at my throat."

Another child said:

"Mum hits me with dog leads."

Another said:

"I don't want to go home, he said he'd batter me and my mum wouldn't stop him. I want to live in a home."

Those are real experiences suffered by children in Scotland today. The findings from the review team's audit covered 188 children who had experienced a wide range of abuse and neglect, and they highlight some further harrowing examples of children living in dirty, cold homes, suffering from a series of untreated accidents and injuries; of children who have been sexually abused; and of children who have suffered due to their parents' alcohol or drug misuse.

A central theme in the report is the need for the range of agencies involved in child protection to join up more effectively to deliver better outcomes for children. The report makes it clear that there is duplication of effort, with energies being diverted into meeting system requirements rather than towards putting the needs of the child first.

Very worryingly, the review team found that more than 50 per cent of the children covered by the audit are not being adequately protected or cared for. That is not something that anyone could fail to be concerned by. Everyone involved in child protection—teachers, health visitors, social workers or local authority or national health service managers—will agree that we can and must do better.

When we discussed children's services more broadly in December, I outlined briefly the ways in which we will drive forward progress on the child protection agenda. I want to talk about those action points in a little more detail today. First, we are establishing a three-year reform programme for child protection services. The programme will establish clear practice standards, develop the role and responsibilities of child protection committees and build capacity to deliver. I have already indicated that we would consider legislation to put child protection committees on a statutory footing, and I repeat that commitment today. A child protection summit, involving senior local authority, health, police and voluntary sector representatives will be held on 18 February to help us to take that forward.

Secondly, we are establishing a team of experts from relevant agencies to work directly with local agencies in implementing the reform programme and tackling poor performance. The team will have top-level backing from the Executive.

Thirdly, we will establish a tough new inspection system to ensure that the reforms are delivered. The system will follow a multidisciplinary approach, bringing together expertise from a range of existing agencies.

Fourthly, we will develop a children's charter, which will be drawn up in conjunction with children and professionals and will set out the support that all children have the right to expect to protect them from harm.

Fifthly, we will provide resources to support work that benefits vulnerable young people directly. I have announced funding of £500,000 to ChildLine Scotland to enable it to open a new call centre and thereby to expand significantly the service that it will be able to offer.

The most effective child protection work is the work that is done before families reach a state of crisis and children are harmed. We will maintain and expand support for effective early intervention—in particular, support for very young children and their families. Bill Aitken is not present, although he was courteous enough to let me know that he would miss this part of my speech. I was very disappointed to read the comments that the Tories made in response to my announcement yesterday on funding to improve support for parents who are having difficulty with their families and require additional assistance. I may have time to come back to that point later, as I am sure that Bill Aitken will want to respond to it in his speech.

We will build support for effective joined-up working across the range of children's services, including the support that we offer to the children of parents who misuse alcohol and drugs. We will shortly issue new guidance, entitled "Getting our priorities right", for people who work with families in which parents misuse alcohol and drugs. That will help to ensure that professionals keep a clear focus on the needs of the children in a family when working with drug-abusing or alcohol-abusing adults, so that those most vulnerable children do not fall through the gaps in the system.

We need to ensure that we deal effectively with all forms of risk and abuse. Earlier this week I announced a second stage of our internet child safety campaign, highlighting the potential dangers to young people of giving out personal details over the internet and indicating how to avoid being targeted by potential abusers.

We know that in Scotland one child in nine runs away or is forced to leave home before the age of 16. Running away puts young people in danger, but may often be a sign of underlying problems in a young person's life. Children who are sexually exploited through prostitution may not always be visible on our streets, but we know that such exploitation is taking place here in Scotland. I want to make it very clear that adults who use child prostitutes are abusing those children and deserve to have the full force of the law used to stop them. Young people who have been exploited in that way need and deserve our support.

At the end of December, we issued the interim report of the working group on young runaways and children who are abused though prostitution. The working group considered the support that is needed for children and young people, guidance for professionals and effective early intervention to prevent abuse and exploitation before they happen. We have invited comment on the report. However, there are actions that I want to progress immediately.

The majority of young people who run away leave from their family home. However, young people who have spent time in care are more likely to run away than young people who have only lived at home in families. Nearly half the young people in residential or foster care have run away at some point in their lives. It is important that young people have access to advocacy services that can explore their reasons for running away and help prevent repeat episodes.

Who Cares? Scotland is an organisation that is uniquely placed to provide that advocacy service, as it has workers throughout Scotland who provide support to young people in care, including in residential settings. I am pleased that we have been able to identify funding of £60,000 this year and in each of the next two financial years to allow Who Cares? Scotland to develop and secure the services that it provides to very vulnerable looked-after young people.

Because we do not know how many young people and children are sexually exploited through prostitution in Scotland, and because we need better information about what works best to support them, I am pleased today to announce that we will provide £57,000 for a feasibility study, led by Barnardo's, that will identify effective services for young people who are abused through prostitution. The study will focus especially on ensuring that young people do not always end up in secure accommodation, which may not be the best place for them, and that there are appropriate alternatives.

For some time, people have been concerned to find other ways of supporting young runaways. I am again pleased to announce that I have identified up to £600,000 to develop work on refuge provision. I have asked officials to progress discussions with Aberlour Child Care Trust to build on its work with young runaways in the "running; other choices" project. Those targeted resources are specifically designed to help our most vulnerable young people. Importantly, the funding will be used to provide the kind of services that vulnerable young people have said that they need and want. Those young people will continue to be involved in developing the services.