National Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group minutes: June 2025

Attendees and apologies

Co-Chairs

• Iona Colvin, Chief Social Work Adviser, Office of the Chief Social Work Adviser (OCSWA), Co‑Chair
• Detective Chief Superintendent (DCS) Sarah Taylor, Head of Public Protection, Police Scotland, Co-chair

Attendees

• Alison Mcintyre, Assistant Director, Barnardos
• Alison Wales, Senior Policy Officer, National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) Scotland

• Alistair Hogg, Head of Practice and Policy, Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration
• Catriona Scobbie, Safeguarding Lead Officer, Education Scotland
• Deirdre McCormick, Chief Nurse and Head of Public Protection, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
• Jennifer Crocket, Chief Education Officer, Argyll and Bute, Association of Directors of Education Scotland (ADES) representative
• Doug Marshall, Pathway to Impact Manager, Childlight
• Fiona Dyer, Director, Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ)
• Ian Donaldson, Deputy Director Children’s Rights, Protection and Justice, Scottish Government
• Jane Scott, Head of Early Help and Protection, Centre for Excellence for Children's Care and Protection (CELCIS)
• Jillian Ingram, Children and Young People Team, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)
• Jillian Taylor, Child Health Commissioner & Chief Nurse, NHS Forth Valley
• Joanne Smith, Policy and Public Affairs Manager, NSPCC Scotland
• Kathryn Lindsay, Chief Executive, Angus Council, Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and. Senior Managers (SOLACE) representative
• Kirsty-Louise Hunt, Senior Policy and Public Affairs Lead, Barnardos
• Laura Bradley, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS)
• Lucy Coleman, Chair, National Organisation for the Treatment of Abuse (NOTA) Scotland
• Lyndsey Scott, Regulatory Affairs Advisor, Ofcom
• Mhairi Grant, Vice Chair, Child Protection Committees (CPC) Scotland
• Michelle McCargo, Renfrewshire Council, Social Work Scotland
• Rhona Robb, Head of Public Protection, Scottish Ambulance Service
• Sharon Glasgow, Protecting Children Social Work Policy & Practice Advisor, Social Work Scotland
• Sharon Maciver, Director for Criminal Exploitation, Action for Children
• Stuart Allardyce, Director of Lucy Faithful Foundation Scotland
• Tam Baillie, Chair, CPC Scotland

Apologies

• Professor Alexis Jay
• Glenn Preston, Scotland Director, Ofcom
• Joanna Barrett, Associated Head of Policy, NSPCC
• Lynda Fenton, Early Years and Young People Leads, Public Health Scotland
• Moira McKinnon, Vice Chair, CPC Scotland
• Yvonne Friel, Health Improvement Manager, Public Health Scotland

Also in attendance

• Child Protection Unit officials, Scottish Government
• CELCIS

Secretariat

• Child Protection Unit, Scottish Government

Items and actions

Welcome and apologies

DCS Sarah Taylor chaired the meeting.

Chair welcomed everyone and introduced new group members. Apologies were shared. Members were advised that Ministers have shown interest in engaging with the group directly so an initial meeting will be arranged between the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, the Minister for Victims and Community Safety and the co-chairs and Ministers would like to attend a future meeting of the group.

Minutes of last meeting

Minutes from the previous meeting were circulated to members on 16th April. One comment was received, the minute was updated and subsequently published on 3rd June.

Outstanding actions from the last meeting:

• slides on the links between the Group and other Scottish Government and external groups were shared with members to share any further comments
• CPC Scotland confirmed that they have contacted North Ayrshire Council to discuss how their learning from their local approach to CSAE presented at the April meeting of the CSAE Group can be promoted more widely across CPCs but noted that they need more time to take this work forward
• Cross-Party Survivor Group (CPSG) was to be updated on the work of the CSAE Group at their 3rd June meeting. This meeting did not go ahead and will be rescheduled. An update will be provided after that meeting. It is intended that the Chairs will attend the September meeting

Support was expressed for SG officials to review the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales (IICSA) to detail how UK Government activity has evolved and consider the equivalent position in Scotland where relevant. This included discussion of the UK Government’s ongoing action to introduce ‘mandatory reporting’ (MR), and that a number of Scottish stakeholders including Social Work Scotland, Police Scotland and Child Protection Committees Scotland are undertaking work to develop their position on this issue.

Actions:

• Stuart Allardyce to provide an update following the rescheduled CPSG meeting contact co-chairs regarding their availability for the September meeting
• SG officials to review IICSA recommendations within a Scottish context and produce ‘benchmarking’ paper for next meeting
• agreement for a discussion on MR at the next meeting

Update on Scottish Government activity

A written update was sent to members ahead of the meeting which covered the following:

• the Home Office published their Tackling Child Sexual Abuse – Progress Update report on 9 April. The report provides an update on UK Government action to implement recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA)
• SG officials continue to work with UKG to extend powers to new provisions against online CSAE set out in the UKG Crime and Policing Bill
• Scottish Government are commencing an update of the 2012 National Risk Framework to support practitioners in identifying and acting on risks to children and young people. SG has commissioned IRISS to lead on this work who will be reaching out to partners through various routes to involve them in updating this crucial tool
• in April, the Scottish Government published Parent Club resources on criminal exploitation to raise awareness of this issue. The resource recognises that children caught up in criminal activity may also be at risk of sexual abuse and exploitation and signposts parents and carers to the Parent Club section on child sexual abuse
• the Scottish Government has been working with partners over the past year to revise the Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy. The Strategy update is informed by a series of evidence reviews carried out by the Scottish Government’s Justice Analytical Services. The evidence reviews will be published by 16 June, ahead of the Strategy being published
• key stakeholders are currently undertaking work to develop current papers and positions on statutory mandatory reporting duty . It was noted that stakeholder opinions on mandatory reporting have varied, and the advantages and possible risks have been highlighted with the group welcoming a chance to discuss further at the next meeting
• the next phase of the Sextortion Campaign was launched on 9th June at Meldrum Academy, Aberdeenshire by the Minister for Victims and Community Safety. The minister announced the launch of a video, educational resource for teachers and new national oversight group to maintain awareness and vigilance on this type of criminality

Members were invited to ask questions on the written update:

• there was a discussion on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) proposed survey on child abuse, including sexual abuse which is being supported by NSPCCs. It was confirmed that SG are in regular engagement with the team at ONS leading this work, who had confirmed a pilot in England and Wales is proceeding and ONS are finalising plans before writing to Devolved Governments. SG are liaising with UKG more broadly on work to improve data on experience and prevalence of child sexual abuse

Group discussion on CSAE Prevention Framework

An update was provided by CELCIS on the CSAE Prevention Framework, outlining changes made to the Framework following feedback from the Group.

Members were asked if they had any input on the framework’s language and any other comments:

• proposed to use ‘those impacted by’ to give flexibility for support to wider family in line with whole family approaches and using ‘young people who cause harm’ instead of ‘offenders’
• there is a need to reconfigure recovery services for inter-familial abuse to provide for specialist services than have an enhanced approach
• members asked for clarification on what is meant by “practitioners” and concerns were raised regarding the proposed timeline for the deep dives noting that it would be challenging due to the summer period
• group discussed the overlaps between Criminally Exploited Children (CEC) and CSAE, particularly as children who experience CSAE are often the same children who experience CEC. The co-chairs have agreed to have a discussion with the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce around this matter

Actions:

• framework to be updated by CELSIS to reflect group feedback
• co-chairs to meet with Serious Organised Crime Taskforce ahead of next Group meeting

Group discussions on remit of the workforce deep dive

Chair thanked members for providing their views on the ‘deep dive’ approach. Group members Michelle McCargo and Stuart Allardyce had volunteered to co-chair the deep dive on workforce development and presented their proposals to the group and facilitated a discussion on the deep dive approach.

General Comments:

• members were pleased to see the second key principle of the approach (Workforce education and training), noting that reflective supervision and coaching is not prioritised enough, but it is essential to build confidence and capability alongside formal training
• it was mentioned that it would be good to identify ways in which any training or input would be linked to practice development opportunities in a tangible way
• Iona Colvin advised that Office of the Chief Social Work Advisor (OCSWA) can provide a baseline for many areas including ongoing work around supported supervision, existing evidence and inputs from the nine Higher Education Institutes who train social work practitioners
• members agreed that multidisciplinary focus is lost at local levels, and it was suggested that there should be mandatory training for all staff in every team. Although it was also commented that in Education a focus should be on initial teacher training as a basic input in child protection is not enough if early career teachers are to be prepared to respond to these issues
• it was noted that it would also be good to link in with the workforce group that sits under the Whole System Approach (WSA) group that reports into the Youth Justice Improvement Board (YJIB)
• it was discussed that there should be local engagement to find out what kind of training each Local Authority offers

Remit and Proposed Workplan

• it was noted that it is a large and ambitious remit given the proposed timescale and that different agencies and professional groups will be at different stages
• it was noted the key goal of this work is to identify actions that will improve training and education. This is challenging given the variety of training on offer, and when considering other workforce frameworks, it is difficult to verify whether training is actually taking place
• it was asked whether there are other professional groups that should be engaged in the work of the ‘deep dive’. It was agreed that mapping will need to be carried out across SG and externally to consider other relevant workforce development activity underway

Practitioner involvement

• it was agreed that the word “practitioner” will need to be defined. However, it was also agreed that a practitioner refers to line managers/seniors. It was raised that the group also needs to think about management issues as there are no available training opportunities for managers
• it was agreed that a system wide understanding is needed and members suggested looking into this further as well as considering learnings from Joint Investigative Interviews (JII) and reports from Learning Reviews (LRs) and the Care Inspectorate (CI)

Survivor representation

• it was mentioned that the Group needs to discuss how to link with adults and children affected by CSAE, noting that there are multiple ways to do this and the Group should opt for more than one
• it was highlighted that the Group needs to be careful and consider the questions they are looking to ask from survivors to avoid re-traumatisation
• it was mentioned that it would be helpful for the Group to directly engage with children as well as adult survivors because adult survivors will have a different perspective when looking back on their experience. On the other hand it was raised that there needs to be ethical consideration of appropriate engagement, and it would be important to utilise movements and groups that already exist, and ensuring that there is consideration of what is already published and known about the needs of survivors and victims from the workforce
• the Everyday Heroes project was raised as a useful approach whereby children and young people who had been abused were asked very specific questions about how they felt they'd been responded by professionals to and what needed to change

Group approved the proposed deep dive approach and agreed the following actions:

• members to nominate subgroup members to establish core membership
• Deep Dive group to engage with OCSWA to identify opportunities to link to existing work that can inform the work of the deep dive group
• Jennifer Crocket to explore what relevant education materials are available at all Local Authorities
• SG to review relevant workforce activity underway across other directorates

Next steps

The Co-chairs summarised the actions agreed and asked for any other business.

• Doug Marshall highlighted Childlight’s engagement with the Atlanta Declaration

The meeting was closed with the following additional actions agreed:

• secretariat to schedule future meetings of the Group for the year ahead
• Childlight to share written update on Atlanta Initiative with the Group