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

Attendees and apologies

Co-Chairs

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

Group members in attendance

• Alexis Jay, Independent member
• Alison Deighan, Practice Reporter, Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration
• Alison Wales, Senior Policy Officer, NSPCC Scotland

• Alistair Hogg, Head of Practice and Policy, Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration
• Angela Latta, Office of the Chief Social Work Office, Scottish Government
• Brian Taylor, Deputy Director Children’s Rights, Protection and Justice, Scottish Government
• Catriona Scobbie, Education Scotland, Safeguarding Lead Officer
• Deirdre McCormick, Chief Nurse and Head of Public Protection, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
• Doug Marshall, Pathway to Impact Manager, Childlight
• Fiona Dyer, Director, Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice
• Jackie Irvine, CEO, Care Inspectorate
• Jane Scott, Head of Early Help and Protection, Centre for Excellence for Children's Care and Protection (CELCIS) 
• 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, SOLACE representative
• Kevin Mitchell, Executive Director, Care Inspectorate
• Kirsty-Louise McNally, Senior Policy and Public Affairs Lead, Barnardo’s
• Laura Bradley, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS)
• Lucy Coleman, Chair, National Organisation for the Treatment of Abuse (NOTA) Scotland
• Mary Glasgow, Chief Executive, Children First
• Mhairi Grant, Vice Chair, CPC Scotland
• Michelle McCargo, Renfrewshire Council, Social Work Scotland
• Moira McKinnon, Vice Chair, Child Protection Committee Scotland (CPC Scotland)
• Nicola Dickie, Director of People Policy, COSLA
• 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
• Yvonne Friel, Health Improvement Manager, Public Health Scotland

Apologies

• Alison Mcintyre, Assistant Director, Barnardo’s
• Carrie Lindsay, Executive Officer, Association of Directors of Education Scotland (ADES)
• Laura Caven, COSLA, Children and Young People Team
• Lynda Fenton, Early Years and Young People Leads, Public Health Scotland
• Jillian Ingram, COSLA, Children and Young People Team

Also in attendance

• Craig Naylor, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Scottish Government

• Fidelis Muturi, Public Health Scotland
• Child Protection Unit officials, Scottish Government
• CELCIS

Secretariat

• Child Protection Unit, Scottish Government

Items and actions

Welcome, introductions and apologies

The co-chairs welcomed all to the meeting and noted apologies. The Group were advised that today's meeting is an opportunity to review the work of the Group to date and to take stock. 

The co-chairs reported on recent engagement with the First Minister and advised that the First Minister is keen to hear the views of the Group on group-based abuse. It was also confirmed that the First Minister and Ministers remain open-minded in relation to the need for an inquiry.

Members were also advised that Police Scotland continue to undertake work into the identification of unsolved crimes, following the methodology of Operation Beaconport.

Minutes of last meeting and actions arising

The National Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group (referred to as the CSAE Group) previously met on 8 October. Minutes from the meeting are published on the Scottish Government website.

Outstanding actions from the last meeting

The Group was advised that the most recent Serious Organised Crime Taskforce (SOCT) meeting took place on 13 November, and at that meeting a paper highlighting the work of this group was presented and its complementary actions to work being taken forward on Child Criminal Exploitation were noted.

Members were advised that engagement with young people at risk from exploitation is taking place in December with the support of Guardianship Scotland. A stakeholder engagement session on child trafficking and exploitation in support of the Scottish Government’s Human Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy Delivery Plan is intended to take place at the beginning of next year.

The co-chair advised that another meeting has been arranged with the Cross-Party Group (CPG) on Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse to provide them with an update and seek their views.

NPPLG Event – Manchester approach to Child Sexual Exploitation

The co-chairs and several Group members shared their reflections on the National Public Protection Leadership Group (NPPLG) event presenting Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s approach to tackling child sexual and criminal exploitation arising from group-based sexual exploitation of children in Rochdale. It was agreed that it provided important learnings about whole-system responses and multi-disciplinary intervention required to tackle child sexual exploitation, and that work should be taken forward together with the NPPLG to consider the learning from this event and model.

Review paper

Members were provided with a Review paper ahead of the meeting which identifies the work the Group has carried out to date. Colleagues leading specific pieces of work provided updates. 

Workforce sub-group update

At the last meeting, a number of actions were agreed for the Workforce ‘Deep Dive’ working group co-chairs (Lucy Faithfull Foundation Scotland and Social Work Scotland) to take forward focusing on engaging with the workforce. 

The Workforce ‘Deep Dive’ group co-chairs advised that they have updated their Terms of Reference to reflect that the work of the group will continue longer term and that membership will be extended. 

The co-chairs advised that, working with CELCIS, they are developing a programme of engagement with the workforce across all relevant agencies, to be taken forward in early 2026. Group members were asked to support staff engagement with this important work as appropriate. 

There was discussion about ensuring that strategic engagement with relevant sectors supports prioritisation of the Group’s work. It was noted that relevant Ministers across Justice and Education, as well as the First Minister, are actively involved in considerations about the work of the Group and see this agenda as a priority. Working with all relevant partners to communicate this effectively – while noting the considerable pressure on the workforce and the many other priorities for delivery of public services – is crucial.

The co-chairs requested that the group consider the further recommendations detailed in the deep dive workforce report at a future meeting and this was agreed.

Data work update

An update was provided setting out the mapping and analysis work completed to date. This has demonstrated that there are limited published sources of CSAE data to inform the scale and nature of CSAE. However, this also identified a range of possible additional data sources and work is therefore ongoing to explore those additional data sets. The goal is to build a better understanding of scale and nature of CSAE by bringing in a wider net of data sources. It is proposed to form a short life working group to drive forward this work, which would report into the CSAE Strategic Group. 
It was proposed that the work could be phased:

• phase one: initial mapping and analysis - completed
• phase two: unlocking and collating additional data sets - ongoing
• phase three: analysis of all gathered data in order to build a better picture of CSAE prevalence
• phase four: development of CSAE data with an eye to supporting early intervention and prevention

This proposal could be agreed with a short life working group with the necessary expertise, and an update will be brought to the next meeting of the CSAE Strategic Group in January.

It was agreed that links would be made with other relevant work, including that of the Online Safety Taskforce, and several partners indicated that their organisations were able to share relevant data or information to support this work.

The Group also discussed data about perpetrators of CSAE. Police Scotland flagged the importance of other agencies sharing soft intelligence, and referenced its dedicated partners intelligence portal, which is used for a number of public protection areas including domestic abuse, rape and sexual crime. A session to further promote use of this portal will take place at the CPC Scotland meeting in December. It was agreed that it would be helpful if information about this portal could also be shared widely with partner agencies.

Mandatory reporting update

The co-chairs reflected on the discussion of mandatory reporting in the last meeting, setting out that whilst there are some differences of opinion across the group – for example in terms of the breadth of a duty or the sanctions attached to it – the Group agreed to set up a Task and Finish Group to take forward consideration of this issue. A Chair for this group is currently being identified. A draft Terms of Reference, including a Membership list, have been circulated and Group members were asked to review this and respond to the Secretariat with any comments.

Scrutiny and assurance of local CSAE response

Members were advised that the co-chair has been working with the Care Inspectorate, as well as HIS and Education Scotland, to develop a proposal to scrutinise the local practice and response to CSAE harms, and how this can be supported.

Care Inspectorate and HMICS set out an overview of this proposed work for the Group to consider. While the proposal is in development, it is likely to combine self-evaluation activity with targeted work to support improvement actions. This could complement the work of Police Scotland. The co-chairs noted that this work will be shared with the Group once it has been further developed. It was noted there is value in both considering learnings from historical harms and practice, as well as looking ahead to improve preventative responses to reducing the number of children and young people affected by CSAE within the current context with new and emerging risks, such as online harms.

The co-chairs noted calls for a public inquiry into organised networks of child sexual abuse and exploitation. It was shared that Ministers intend to update Parliament on this issue before Recess and the Group’s discussions will be considered as part of this. A number of Group members stated that they did not feel there was enough information or data at present to inform a decision about whether an inquiry should take place. It was reflected that further work is needed to identify the nature and scale of the issue in Scotland so that an informed position can be taken on whether or not a public inquiry is required, and the proposed CI/HMICS-led scrutiny work, as well as the data work underway, could help to provide the information required to inform any such decision in future. It was noted that the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry is ongoing, so the need for and aims of any other inquiry would require careful consideration. 

It was agreed that a strategic approach to engagement with survivors of abuse was required in order to inform the work of the Group, with models being considered. This will be brought back to the Group as a substantive agenda item at a future meeting in early 2026.

Any other business

It was noted that due to the retirement of Iona Colvin, a new co-chair of the Group will be identified shortly.

Next steps and close 

The next meeting of the Group will take place on 14 January.

Actions

• Secretariat to take forward engagement with the NPPLG about lessons from Manchester learning event to ensure alignment of activities
• Workforce ‘Deep Dive’ working group co-chairs to continue workforce engagement work alongside CELCIS
• Workforce ‘Deep Dive’ report recommendations to be discussed at a future meeting
• Child Protection Unit leads to set up Data short life working group and continue to progress Phase two of data work
• Police Scotland to share information with partners about the partners intelligence portal to encourage use
• Group members to provide feedback on Mandatory Reporting Task and Finish group terms of reference
• Secretariat to include discussion of survivor engagement on agenda for future meeting in early 2026
• Secretariat to provide updates on further developments between meetings to Group members in writing