All children in Scotland have the right to be protected from abuse or neglect.

We are ensuring that effective child protection procedures are in place wherever there is a likelihood or risk of a child coming to significant harm.

Actions

We are taking forward the Child Protection Improvement Programme (CPIP) to make improvements in all areas of child protection, including:

Report child abuse or neglect
Find out what to do if you're worried a child is being neglected or threatened at: www.mygov.scot/report-child-abuse/.

Call 999 if it's an emergency or if they're in immediate danger.

We are also:

Background

Everyone has a role to play in child protection, not just core professionals. There were more than 2,700 children on the child protection register in July 2016.

Child protection is part of Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) – our national approach to improving outcomes and supporting the wellbeing of children and young people.

Bills and legislation

The Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 includes measures to impose tougher penalties on perpetrators of human trafficking and a higher standard of care to victims of human trafficking.

The Children (Equal Protection from Assault) (Scotland) Act 2019 changes the law and removes the “reasonable chastisement” defence from 7 November 2020. This means that all forms of physical punishment of children will be against the law in Scotland, and children will have with the same legal protection from assault as adults.

Contact

Report child abuse or neglect
Find out what to do if you're worried a child is being neglected or threatened at: www.mygov.scot/report-child-abuse/. 
Call 999 if it's an emergency or if they're in immediate danger.

To contact us about a policy related matter: 

Email: ChildProtection@gov.scot
Telephone: 0300 244 4000 – Central Enquiry Unit

Post:
Scottish Government
Child Protection Policy Team
Care and Protection, Area 2A (N)
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ

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