The future of secure care
£4.1 million to help restore capacity.
Funding of over £4 million to establish new secure care houses has been announced by the Scottish Government.
The funding will allow for restored capacity and enable a different approach to be developed to ensure children with the greatest need are able to access intensive support. Additionally, this investment will support the creation of three four-bed secure houses, as well as a further four-bed contingency resource.
There are currently 82 contracted secure places provided by four independent charitable organisations in Scotland – Rossie, Good Shepherd Centre, Kibble and St. Mary’s Kenmure.
Children’s Minister Natalie Don-Innes said:
“It is imperative that we continuously improve how we care for those children who have the greatest need of support. We also need to address the challenges currently facing the secure care system, and this funding will ensure that both these aims can be met.
“Scotland is rightly proud of our unique, welfare based and focused approach to care and justice for children and young people. We want to build on that tradition and the current strengths of the system, while embracing a future vision for change as set out in the ‘Reimagining Secure Care’ report. And with that change, it is important that we maintain a resolute focus in ensuring that children and young people’s needs and rights remain at the heart of this process.”
Background
This follows the publication of the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice’s (CYCJ) report on ‘Reimagining Secure Care’ which outlines a transformative vision for the future of secure care, and broader children’s care, in Scotland. The Scottish Government has responded to this report.
More than 18% of the contracted beds are not available from the independent charities offering them. This is due to various factors, including reduced capacity at St Mary’s Kenmure, the complexity of individual children’s needs which requires additional staffing and an increase in the average length of stay for those children sentence and remanded to secure care.
The Scottish Government has increased the number of available beds in secure care by four since April 2025 to support restoring capacity. This funding will further strengthen capacity for the future.