Meeting of the Parliament 28 January 2014
I listened to the debate with great interest. It is fair to say that this is not the easiest topic to hear about, think about or deal with—as George Adam said, the subject brings feelings of revulsion—but it is important that elected representatives take the topic on and take steps to move it forward. The subject is too important for us not to do that, for the victims of child sexual exploitation and for the agencies in the public and voluntary sector who work hard to reach out to and support victims. Members of the Scottish Parliament have a responsibility to bring to bear all our influence and resources in making improvements in relation to the area.
As is often the case in debates in this Parliament about issues that affect children and young people, the need to listen to young people themselves came through very strongly. The committee used the evidence that it gathered and feedback from young people to build a strong set of recommendations. We took an in-depth approach, working with service providers, service users and other agencies, whose input had a profound influence on our work and on today’s debate.
Part 4 of our report focused on support, education and training. It is clear that support can be provided only when young people trust the agencies and organisations that set out to help them. Confidentiality is key, and the role of third sector agencies is vital in delivering essential support services for young people. David Torrance, in a thoughtful speech, talked about the third sector’s role in engaging with young people. The third sector is often where young people are at—to use the modern terminology—and it can use its engagement in all sorts of circumstances to build a relationship in which a child can talk about sexual exploitation. Given that relationship, the third sector is uniquely placed to be able to introduce preventative education and awareness raising for young people and their parents and families. It can also offer emotional support. The third sector has a powerful role in taking such matters forward.
The committee convener’s two case studies showed the importance of awareness raising among the public and support for vulnerable young people. Neil Bibby and Graeme Pearson talked about their work to support vulnerable constituents and about the need to train staff who work with young people. The third sector is well placed to share its experience and work with the public sector to build a skills base.
Many members picked up on the closure in 2013 of the only refuge for young people, which is mentioned in our report. Aberlour, which ran the service, said that a problem with its sustainability was the poor rate of referrals to it. Of course, we cannot get people to come to a refuge by saying, “We’re open for business; here’s the refuge service for runaways.” Young people will not respond to that; we need to be much more sensitive, diplomatic and clever in how we engage with them.
Aberlour says that every five minutes a young person in the United Kingdom runs away from home, often because of neglect or harm, so it is worrying that a low referral rate contributed to the refuge’s closure. A number of factors need to be considered in relation to Aberlour’s decision, so I was pleased to hear the minister agree that we need a better understanding of what services can be provided to help young people.
Many members, including David Torrance and John Wilson, talked about variations in service provision and data collection across the country. Scottish Labour, in the context of its support for the committee’s recommendation that there be an overarching national strategy, is keen for further research and improved data collection to be done in Scotland. As Neil Bibby said, we are dealing with children, not statistics, but we must gather data if we are to understand the scale of the challenge and the prevalence of child sexual exploitation, for example in remote and rural areas, as we said in the report.
We are keen for more work on the pursuit of child sexual exploitation as an offence. The child sexual exploitation short-life ministerial working group reported:
“The Group ... was generally satisfied that there were no significant gaps in the overall scope of the criminal law to pursue CSE as an offence.”
However, Liam McArthur talked about our need to achieve a better understanding of child sexual exploitation. Many members have mentioned the increasing need to do that because the internet and social media play such an important role in the world in which we live and the lives of many young people. Indeed, I see how immersed members of my family and the young people who I know are in the internet. If we are to understand the issue and define what child sexual exploitation is, we must look at the role that the internet plays in that regard. Perhaps we could also take that role on board when defining what should be an offence.
Evidence given to the committee criticised the use of existing powers. The report notes—members have picked up on this—the committee’s continued dissatisfaction with the responses of Police Scotland, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and the Lord Advocate to the concerns raised about the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 and the Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2005. It is clear that post-legislative scrutiny of the 2005 act is required.
Angus MacDonald mentioned the need for training and support for police officers, as well as the need to react strongly and prosecute perpetrators, which is an issue that must be picked up through legislation. John Wilson spoke about the Care Inspectorate’s role.