Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024 - operation review: first annual report 2024-2025

The Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024: First Annual Report on the Review of its Operation 2024-25

Background

This report is made and laid in Parliament in accordance with section 34 of the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024 (henceforth ‘the Act’).

The Bill which preceded the Act was agreed by the Scottish Parliament on 25 April 2024 and received Royal Assent on 4 June 2024. Section 34 (which was brought into force on 5 May 2025) provides that:

(1)The Scottish Ministers must, as soon as reasonably practicable after the end of each review period—

(a)undertake a review of the operation of this Act, and

(b)prepare a report on that review.

(2)The report must, in particular, set out—

(a)whether sufficient resources are in place for the effective implementation of the Act,

(b)what steps (if any) the Scottish Ministers intend to take as a result of the findings of the review.

Matters commenced

The following provisions of the Act commenced on 5 June 2024 (in accordance with Section 38 of the Act):

• General powers associated with commencement and implementation were commenced at Royal Assent (sections 35, 36, 38 and 39).

The following provision of the Act commenced on 16 July 2024 (in accordance with section 38 of the Act):

• Section 33 amends the criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, to make provision about certain cases where a UNCRC compatibility issue is raised in criminal proceedings against a person who either is a child or was a child when proceedings were brought. Where a court determines that a particular decision to prosecute was incompatible with the UNCRC requirements, it may not desert the proceedings or otherwise dismiss the indictment or complaint (either wholly or partially). Instead, subject to certain exceptions, it must give the prosecutor an opportunity to reconsider the decision to prosecute in a UNCRC-compatible way and adjourn or continue the proceedings to another diet to allow for this. It will be for the prosecutor to decide whether or not to take up the opportunity to reconsider the decision to prosecute. The prosecutor may instead decide to appeal the finding of incompatibility. Alternatively, the prosecutor may decide not to proceed with the prosecution (if, say, the prosecutor concedes the UNCRC compatibility issue and considers that the incompatibility cannot be remedied by reconsidering the case). But where the prosecutor does reconsider the decision to prosecute, and ultimately determines that the bringing of criminal proceedings is UNCRC-compatible, the court must decide anew whether that is the case.

Section 33 concerns the matters arising in criminal proceedings, including prosecutorial decision-making, which are for the courts and the Lord Advocate acting independently. Such matters are constitutionally separate from Parliament and it would therefore not be it appropriate for the Scottish Government to comment further on the operation of these provisions.

Commencement Regulations

Two subsequent sets of commencement regulations have followed:

1. The Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024 (Commencement No. 1 and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2024 (“the 2024 Regulations”) were brought into force on 28 August 2024 commencing relevant provisions of the Act concerning the remand or committal for trial of a child under 18. These provisions ended the use of Young Offenders’ Institutions or prisons for the detention of children, supporting the nation’s commitment to Keep the Promise, the achievement of the updated Youth Justice Vision and in-line with UNCRC, international children’s rights law and standards. The 2024 Regulations also included appropriate transitional provisions to enable those who were remanded or sentenced in a prison or young offenders institution to be transferred to alternative places of detention, for example, secure accommodation.

2. The Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024 (Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2025 (“the 2025 Regulations”) were laid in Parliament on 24 April 2025. These brought into force, from 5 May 2025:

i. Some further provisions of the Act in relation to the remand or sentence of children, including children subject to restriction of liberty orders under section 245A of the 1995 Act.

ii. The annual duty to review the operation of the Act (section 34)

iii. The revocation of parts 4 and 5 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 concerning named persons and child plans.

And, from 1 September 2025, will bring into force:

i. The requirement to produce secure transportation standards, the first set of standards to be made by 1 September 2026 (section 25).

ii. Enabling provisions for the future regulation of cross-border placements (sections 28(1),(3) and (5), and sections 29 and 30, and consequential provisions), ahead of planned further regulations in relation to these matters later this year.

The 2024 Regulations

The provisions to end the imprisonment of children in Scotland represent a major step forward in Keeping The Promise, as well as upholding international standards on children’s rights. Secure accommodation is now the normal place of detention instead for children who require to be deprived of their liberty.

These provisions were commenced swiftly following Royal Assent. Whilst the reforms provisions were well prepared for, they have required a period of adjustment among the relevant agencies and services. As such, Parliament has been regularly updated and undertaken significant scrutiny in 2025. The Minister for Children, Young People and the Promise has given three Parliamentary statements to date this year. These were recorded on the Parliamentary record of 8 January, 26 March, and 15 May. A letter was also issued to the Education, Children and Young People committee on 29 April.

Regarding resourcing, funding of up to £8.4 million was made available by the Scottish Government to cover the placements of sentenced and remanded children (from 28 August 2024). Further funding of £8.4m has been agreed for 2025-26 and 2026-27 (subject to the annual Parliamentary budget approval process).

The Government continues to pay for up to 16 beds across the secure estate to help maintain capacity for children who are placed by the courts and to provide a level of financial security to secure providers. That intervention has been effective in driving down reliance on cross-border placements, with the number down to 4 cross border children in secure care in Scotland at the end of May 2025. In addition, to augment secure care provision when the legislation came into force, £500,000 of funding was offered to secure care centres in summer 2024 to support their preparations for the movement of children from young offenders institutions to secure care. Additionally, the Scottish Government has provided funding for the development of regional Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) pathways and services which will lead to improved access to specialist mental health care for children in and on the edges of secure care.

In the medium to long term, the Scottish Government is committed to developing a more resilient and responsive system of secure care provision, capacity preservation and placement management. The University of Strathclyde’s Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice was commissioned to consider the future needs of children in or on the edges of secure care, which resulted in the publication of the “Reimagining Secure Care” report on 27 September 2024. The intention is to produce a response to this report by the end of June.

The Scottish Government is also developing the national secure adolescent in-patient service for Scotland, known as Foxgrove, which was commissioned by the national services division. This will be a medium-secure in-patient service for children and young people aged from 12 to 18 years with appropriate forensic child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) needs. Foxgrove will open in late 2025 and will initially provide four beds. The Scottish Government has provided just under £3.5 million across the west, east and north of Scotland to support the planning and development of regional elements of the CAMHS national service specification. This includes the development of a four-bed adolescent Intensive Psychiatric Care Unit (IPCU) in the West of Scotland as well as community Forensic CAMHS, CAMHS to Secure Care, Learning Disability, Intensive Home Treatment CAMHS services and pathways. The Scottish Government continues to provide funding of up to £380,000 to the Kibble-based interventions for vulnerable youth service, which is a specialist psychological and social work service that offers therapeutic forensic mental health risk assessment and management support to children and young people who present a risk of harm to others.

The Scottish Government is funding a dedicated professional lead at Social Work Scotland for the next 12 months to work alongside officials. This is intended to enhance partnership with local government and improve the co-ordination of relevant services across the country. The post should also enable acceleration of collective efforts to evolve Scotland’s approach to children who are in or on the edges of secure care, in line with The Promise.

Secure care is designed to meet the needs of the small number of children who may be a significant risk to themselves, or others in the community, and require the most restrictive level of care and support to meet their needs and manage these risks. Therefore, it requires to be seen in the wider context of Scotland’s approach to early intervention and support. Government investment in community-based alternatives and initiatives, such as Cashback for Communities and the Includem Adapt work supported through the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding, are aimed at addressing the underlying causes of children coming into conflict with the law and supporting young people in the community. Since 2022, the Scottish Government has invested over £148m through Whole Family Wellbeing Funding to transform family support. This includes the multi-year commitment to funding Children’s Services Planning Partnerships through Whole Family Wellbeing Funding which will increase from £32m to £38m in 2025-26 and 2026-27.

The Programme for Government and Scottish Budget also commited to increasing flexibility over funding and reporting – to support local partners who have identified better ways to deliver services that are more responsive to the needs of the families who use them, in support of the Scottish Government’s ambition to eradicate child poverty.

The 2025 Regulations

Section 32 represents a long-standing commitment. On 19 September 2019, the then Deputy First Minister announced to Parliament the intention to repeal Parts 4 and 5 of The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, which were never commenced. Operationally, the outcomes which these provisions were aimed at are being pursued via well-embedded Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) practice and policy.

The operation of the Section 34 duty is this report.

The provisions on cross-border placements and secure transportation are not yet operational, pending their commencement on 1 September 2025. However, careful preparation and planning is advancing across a range of stakeholders. Consultation requirements and Parliamentary scrutiny of associated regulations will also take place in line with statutory timescales.

Further Planning

The provisions yet to come into force are not operational (therefore within the Section 34 requirement). However, careful planning and engagement with a range of children’s care and justice stakeholders and duty-bearers is established on the matters yet to commence and continues. Such activity dates back to consultation on the legislation in 2022 and is supported by the multi-agency Implementation and Resourcing Group, which established during Parliamentary scrutiny of the associated Bill.

A programme of engagement and support for preparation has been ongoing following Royal Assent, supported by the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ). This includes agency readiness support offered to all 32 local authorities, with only once council not responding. Support has been delivered in varying degrees across local government, based on take-up.

Awareness-raising has been undertaken through the publication of blogs, information sheets, briefing papers, videos, and webinars, as well as providing inputs at a range of local and national events and forums, CYCJ have also answered frequently asked questions in relation to practice. Approximately 2,000 practitioners have been reached through inputs and webinars. A continued schedule of awareness raising will continue over the next year, alongside the updating and development of national level guidance. Regarding monitoring and reporting, CYCJ have worked with partners to map all sections of the Act to existing data sets and identify data gaps, which will inform future monitoring of operation of the Act and reporting requirements.

In relation to resourcing, key statutory bodies such as the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration and Children’s Hearings Scotland have been allocated budgetary uplifts in this financial year for preparations, with such funding to continue. This is reflected in current agency publications, such as the Children’s Hearings Scotland Business Plan.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting victims, especially child victims and their families, no matter which system deals with an offence case. Development work for the single-point-of-contact (SPOC) service, is well underway. Victim Support Scotland (VSS) have received grant funding to develop the SPOC framework which will inform regulations which will be put Parliament. VSS are:

• Scoping and developing the process for victims to access information, advice and support where there is information to suggest the child has committed an offence or a child under the age of 12 has behaved in a particular way that has caused harm.
• Negotiating interagency communications, data and information sharing protocols.
• Developing systems and promotional tools (including digital and online) to ensure victims are aware of the new service, their rights and the support available to them.

Discussions with local government partners continue regarding resource allocations to councils. This will be incorporated into the SG 2026/27 budget planning process and, ultimately, consideration by Parliament on next year’s budget.