Children's Hearings System - future of secure care and the single point of contact (SPOC) for victims: consultation

1. Ministerial foreword

I am pleased to launch this national consultation on the future of Scotland’s secure accommodation and secure care transport standards. We are also seeking respondents’ views on the developing Single Point of Contact service for victims whose cases are dealt with under the Whole System Approach to youth justice or in the Children’s Hearings System.

In respect of the core secure care element of this consultation, we have arrived at a significant moment in our collective journey to ‘reimagine’ how we care for and support some of our most vulnerable children.

This consultation builds on the Scottish Government’s June 2025 response to the ‘Reimagining Secure Care’ report, published by the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ) in September 2024. I want to express my sincere thanks to all of those who contributed to that report and who continue to shape this vital agenda.

Scotland is committed to being the best place in the world for children and young people to grow up. Central to this ambition is The Promise, which calls for early, holistic support that helps families stay together, where it is safe to do so. In response, the Scottish Government - working with partners across sectors -developed a shared Vision and National Principles for Family Support, aiming to ensure families receive the right help, at the right time, for as long as they need it.

To support this vision, the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding (WFWF) Programme is enabling transformational change in how family support is designed and delivered. This change is being led locally by Children’s Services Planning Partnerships with a focus on creating services that are sustainable.

We are also committed to ensuring that all children in Scotland receive the care and protection they need when they are at the highest levels of vulnerability and risk. For a very small number of children, that includes providing access to secure care when it is necessary to keep them and others safe, and to support recovery and stability at times of crisis.

Over the past year, challenges in secure care have required swift action to stabilise capacity and strengthen sustainability. These steps have helped restore much needed capacity, build resilience and protect the most critical services for children and young people.

The Scottish Government’s focus has been on ensuring sufficient capacity for children who require secure care services now, while also future-proofing services to meet evolving needs, in alignment with The Promise. This means embedding a sustainable approach that places children’s rights at the centre and ensuring that the system is equipped to meet the needs of the most vulnerable children in Scotland.

Scotland’s secure care system, and those working within it, have long been recognised as dedicated and skilled. But the system is also seen as vulnerable to structural challenges: fragmented commissioning arrangements, financial instability linked to occupancy-based financial models, and limited national oversight and support. These issues have been highlighted repeatedly, including within the Children Care and Justice Bill consultation process, The Promise, inspection evidence and the ‘Reimagining Secure Care’ report.

The Scottish Government welcomed the ‘Reimagining Secure Care’ report, while indicating that certain findings required further exploration. The Government committed to working collaboratively to redesign secure care as a recognised specialist and essential service, but as part of a wider continuum of support. I recognise that the sector - and partners with statutory responsibilities to support it, require long-term stability, improved commissioning arrangements, and greater flexibility to better meet the full spectrum of children’s needs.

In that context, this consultation takes the necessary next step. It seeks views on options for the future. These include options to nationalise secure care services in Scotland and to design a new sustainable funding model that places children’s rights at the centre. It also asks fundamental questions about what secure care should mean in the future, including whether to broaden the definition to include alternative, adaptable models. It also addresses how standards can ensure the safe and secure transportation of children, whether to secure care facilities or to essential appointments, during their stay in secure care, alongside wider secure transport needs.

Your views matter. The way we respond to these questions will shape the future of secure care, and related systems and services, in Scotland.

We recognise the importance of a phased approach to implementation and meaningful engagement with stakeholders to ensure any changes identified through the consultation process are effective, sustainable, and responsive to the needs of all involved. That is why we will develop a clear plan to deliver change incrementally, recognising the need to manage system impact and ensure workforce readiness at every stage. While some of the more systemic reforms will take years to fully implement, they will be underpinned by early confidence-building measures wherever possible, and a structured plan to guide progress and maintain momentum.

The ‘Reimagining Secure Care’ report and the Scottish Government’s response both emphasise restorative, relational, rights-based approaches. Although the primary focus is rightly on each child in, or on the edges of, secure care, these reforms intersect directly with the experience of victims navigating the Children’s Hearings System. That is why this consultation also seeks your views on the establishment of a Single Point of Contact (SPOC) for victims affected by harmful behaviour that is being considered within Scotland’s youth justice policy framework, including the Children’s Hearings System.

It is essential that today’s secure care system delivers for children, even as we work to build a more effective and accessible system for the years ahead, including improved support for victims.

Natalie Don-Innes

Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise