Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Data Short Life Working Group minutes: May 2026

Attendees and apologies

Chair

•    Alastair McAlpine, Chief Statistician, Scottish Government

Group members in attendance

•    Child Protection Unit Officials, Scottish Government
•    Justice Analytical Services Officials, Scottish Government
•    Centre for Excellence for Children's Care and Protection (CELCIS)
•    Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)
•    Police Scotland
•    Education Scotland
•    Social Work Scotland
•    Scottish Children’s Reporter’s Administration (SCRA)
•    Improvement Service
•    NSPCC
•    Barnardo’s 
•    University of Edinburgh

Apologies

•    NHS

Secretariat

•    Child Protection Unit, Scottish Government

Additional Attendees

•    Childlight
 

Items and actions

Welcome, introductions and apologies

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and noted apologies. New members who not previously attended to group meetings introduced themselves.

The Chair set out the agenda for the meeting:
•    Reflections on engagement since the last meeting in March
•    Child Protection Unit Update
•    Updates on workstreams
•    AOB and discussion of next steps

Reflections from Chair

The Chair met with other sub-group Co-Chairs of the National CSAE Strategic Group (“national group”) and agreed to continue regular meetings to ensure sub-groups add value to ongoing high-level work (e.g. the National Review and upcoming inquiry), rather than duplicate it. The Chair also highlighted the need for clearer strategic direction from the national group on the purpose and aims of the sub-groups, while noting that existing tasks can still be progressed in the meantime.

The Chair met with the National Social Work Agency (NSWA), where similar strategic discussions took place. NSWA noted that the issues considered by the data sub-group extend beyond CSAE, applying to a wider range of harms and priorities. It was agreed that the Chair will meet Chief Social Work Officers, supported by NSWA, to present on the group’s work.

The Chair raised points from a meeting with John O’Brien on the Truth Project and its role alongside the public inquiry in England and Wales, noting potential relevant data outputs and suggesting John could join this group in future.

Child Protection Unit update

Scottish Government (SG) officials reflected on the upcoming period following the election, work underway to prepare briefings for incoming Ministers and interim arrangements until Ministers are appointed.

On the inquiry, SG officials advised about the current early-stage work, with initial discussions underway with Alexis Jay on premises, staffing and financial arrangements. It was highlighted to members that a sponsor team is now in place in the Child Protection Unit to support the set-up, alongside policy work on defining the Terms of Reference and scope, including alignment with other inquiries - a key focus in the coming months.

Reflecting on the national review, SG officials advised that Phase 1 is expected to report towards the end of summer, with significant internal work underway to assimilate evidence, which is anticipated to have a substantial impact on future work. SG officials confirmed that Inspectorates raised feedback about the heightened burdens on Local Authoritys due to the significant pressure from the national review alongside multiple concurrent requests. In response, the group’s workplan has also been adjusted to reduce early demands while maintaining a focus on key outputs.

Workplan

The detailed workplan was shared with members in advance of the meeting. The Chair explained that the group will discuss each workstream.

Workstream 1: Analysis of available CSAE data

Childlight highlighted the organisation’s public health approach to CSAE, including a global index, thematic reports every two years, and a technical advisory programme supporting system strengthening to ensure research impact.

The Chair advised about on-going discussions on the Scottish Health Survey regarding methodology, limitations and outputs. The Chair proposed a combined analysis of previous and 2025 data (when the latter becomes available) to enable deeper insights. The analysis is anticipated to take place this autumn, with findings shared by the end of the year.

The Chair advised about continued engagement with chief statisticians at the Home Office and the Department for Education on the Casey Audit, including work on algorithms used by the National Crime Agency to flag CSAE-related crimes, with potential to explore applicability in Scotland.

The Chair met with Police Scotland’s chief data officer and further meetings are planned to discuss Inter-Agency Referrals data. CELCIS advised that metadata from Police Scotland’s IRD data capture has previously been shared.

Engagement with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) was discussed. The Chair discussed feasibility of future survey measuring child abuse led by ONS and advised members about current challenges and shifting priorities that might cause delays. NSPCC commented regarding school surveys as part of work proposed by ONS, and that the concept has been dropped now due to various concerns. The member highlighted that the online survey is planned to still go ahead with young people and young adults. The Chair proposes to convene a UK-wide roundtable (including third sector) before summer on the issue.

SG Justice Analytical Services Officials reported that the first post-COVID Scottish Crime and Justice Survey results on sexual victimisation (age 16+) will be published later this year.

NSPCC advised that work to undertake a case file audit of Childline contacts is not currently feasible, although timelines for this group may allow revisiting this in future. However, NSPCC is exploring routine CSAE data and potential for further analysis, with the ability to provide relatively quick feedback. Engagement is ongoing with organisations working with children and young people, including planned sessions with Childline counsellors in late June to improve how information is recorded and reported, meaning progress continues despite changes to the initial approach.

Barnardo’s highlighted that they were asked to provide data as part of the National Review from a number of local authorities in a geographical area, however, this is not consistently being done across Scotland, despite that it would substantially enrich the returned datasets. Barnardo’s suggested collecting other third sector partners’ experiences with this issue.

Using the Scottish Government’s recently (March 2026) published Child Protection Statistics 2024-2025, CELCIS presented the latest available annual data on the number of children registered on the Child Protection Register with CSA and CSE recorded as a concern. Following which CELCIS and COSLA presented on their on-going work to collect CSAE related data from local partnerships from Joint Investigative Interviews.

Workstream 2: Data to support prevention and early intervention

To be discussed at the next meeting.

Workstream 3: Data Quality and Capture

CELCIS have been reaching out to members to arrange exploratory conversations with organisations working directly with child victims, focusing on emerging concerns and how these are identified and reported, which is planned to be progressed through June, with an early update prepared for the next monthly meeting. 

In parallel, background work is underway by CELCIS examining how CSAE is defined in published documentation across Scotland, the UK and internationally; this is not being actively consulted on at this stage and will be informed by outputs from the national review, with an update likely at a later meeting.

Next steps

Chair put forward that in the upcoming period the meetings of the sub-group should be done on a regular basis. The next meeting is scheduled for 8 July.

Actions

•    draft paper on behavioural research and perpetrator-focused interventions for next meeting (Chair) 
•    prepare short note on Scottish Health Survey (questions, methods, estimates) for next meeting (Chair)
•    explore applicability of NCA/HO algorithm to Scotland and report back (Chair)
•    gather IRD metadata from Police Scotland for mapping exercise (Chair)
•    share existing national IRD metadata/spreadsheet with Chair (CELCIS) 
•    consider UK-wide roundtable with ONS, HO, DfE and third sector before summer (Chair) 
•    provide feedback from Barnardo’s and third sector data experience across local authorities to Inspectorates on the National Review (SG CPU officials)
•    circulate summary NPPLG data update paper (SG CPU officials)
•    report back on Workstream 3 engagement with organisations in June meeting (Chair)