Scotland's Redress Scheme: combined annual report 2025

4.14 Local Authorities

Introduction

Scottish Local Government is committed to providing redress to survivors of historical child abuse. In doing so, local authorities collectively acknowledge and seek to address the wrongs of the past and the harm caused by historical child abuse, in a meaningful and tangible way.

In terms of financial reparation, Local Authorities have committed to contribute £100 million to the cost of the Redress Scheme. This sum will be incrementally top sliced from the Local Government Settlement over a period of 10 years; this started with £5 million in financial year 2022/23, rising to a £6 million contribution in 2023/24. There will be a £9 million contribution in 2025/26. In addition to financial reparation, local authorities are also collectively committed to providing wider non-financial redress for survivors of historical abuse, including acknowledgment, apology and therapeutic support.

As contributors to Scotland’s Redress Scheme during the reporting period which commenced on 7 December 2023, Scottish local authorities are required to provide the Scottish Ministers with a redress report, in accordance with Section 99 of the Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Act 2021.

This document is a collective annual redress report for Local Government, which has been prepared by COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) on behalf of all 32 Scottish local authorities, in collaboration with Local Government partners including Social Work Scotland. In line with the requirements of the Act, it provides information on the non-financial redress activities that have been undertaken by local authorities during the reporting period which ran from 7 December 2023 to 6 December 2024 (referred to hereafter as ‘the reporting period’). The report also provides information on current policy and practice within local authorities, in relation to the care and protection of children and young people, as well as further actions currently underway to improve care and protection.

Support provided by local authorities during reporting period

Local authorities have undertaken a range of wider, non-financial redress activities during the reporting period. Provision varies between local authorities, with councils designing and delivering support in a way that seeks to respond to the specific needs of their communities and individuals living in their area. This section provides a summary of the support that has been provided across Local Government during the reporting period.

Funding for emotional, psychological or practical support

Many local authorities continue to provide, or fund partner organisations to provide, support services for survivors of abuse. Some local authorities provide or fund services specifically for those seeking redress through the Scheme.

In addition, there have been some instances where a local authority has funded access to specialist counselling or other forms of support for individual survivors.

Nationally, support for survivors seeking redress through the Scheme is provided by Future Pathways, funded by Scottish Government.

Advice and assistance on accessing historical records

All 32 local authorities continue to provide survivors with advice and assistance on accessing historical records. The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry and recent related increase in requests for access to records has highlighted this as a significant area for local authorities.

All 32 councils have existing processes in place to support the individual’s right to access their own personal data under the Data Protection Act 2018 (‘DPA2018’), also known as Subject Access Requests or SARs. Work is ongoing to reduce duplication across existing Local Authority processes and Redress-related information requests.

The right of access is subject to legal provisions under the DPA2018 and statutory guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office, which limit the information that local authorities can lawfully disclose. For example, local authorities can only provide personal information relating to the individual making the request. Information relating to third parties, including children who are not related and were in the same establishments, often cannot be disclosed. Historic recordkeeping practices also differ significantly from today’s. These combined factors mean that accessing historic records can be a complex and complicated matter. Local Authorities are keen to simplify processes for survivors to access their records and to make these processes as clear and straightforward as possible. The importance of rights-based approaches which balance data protection, confidentiality, privacy and human rights is recognised.

Local Authorities are reviewing their systems and processes to ensure information on how to access records and how to access records to support Redress applications and the support that is available to people is open and transparent. Many local authorities have dedicated individuals or teams who respond to access requests, though the nature of the dedicated resource varies dependent on geography, span, reach and need. A further complexity in the system is that it is sometimes the case that a survivor submits a SAR when they do not need to access their full records to support their personal statement, whether for fixed or individually assessed payments. Of course, sometimes survivors may wish to see their full records in advance of making a decision about pursuing Redress and/or to consider what information is held. However, sometimes it may be that they do not need to seek all of their records and may not need a SAR. To support systems development and review Aberdeen City Council, Edinburgh Council, Birthlink and Wellbeing Scotland are part of a pilot in relation to the Fixed Rate Payment Redress process. Lessons learned and areas for development are progressed through the Redress Local Authority Reference Group to ensure best outcomes for people subjected to abuse.

Person-centred and trauma-informed approaches to records access is also recognised as critical to support the unique journey of each person seeking their records. The significant impact that seeking records can have is recognised across the country, and Local Authorities have and are developing responsive, trauma-informed teams and reviewing resources to support those seeking their records.

Social Work Scotland recently undertook a piece of research into the experience of care-experienced people accessing their records across Scotland, along with other relevant groups. Accessing Records in Scotland was published in July 2024, providing the foundation to develop a consistent, trauma-informed, rights-based framework to support organisations responding to Right of Access requests. The voices of people with lived experience of care and accessing records are at the heart of this project. This report lays the foundation for a Gold Standard Best Practice Guide. The development of the Gold Standard is supported across the country. This project continues and updates will be provided in due course.

Advice and assistance on tracing and reuniting families

In the specific area of non-financial redress for survivors of historical abuse, we are not aware at this time of any specific cases where local authorities have provided support with tracing and reuniting families. However, some local authorities, to support next of kin redress applications, carry out forensic research to trace family members.

As it relates to adoption and fostering, local authorities must provide post adoption support services for adoptive people/birth families seeking information, or to be reunited. Some authorities outsource this service to other organisations.

Activities relating to the acknowledgement of abuse and providing a meaningful apology to survivors

A number of local authorities have given evidence at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, which is investigating the historical abuse of children in care in Scotland. In the process of giving evidence, including through written submissions, oral evidence and opening and closing statements, many local authorities have taken the opportunity to include acknowledgement and acceptance of historical failings and abuse, and issue apologies to survivors. This is a key mechanism by which councils have sought to acknowledge and provide meaningful apology to survivors during the reporting period. Transcripts from the inquiry hearings are accessible online.

As a contributor to the Scheme, a letter of acknowledgement was submitted by COSLA’s Resources Spokesperson on behalf of all Scottish local authorities. This letter confirms Local Government’s commitment to providing redress to survivors, collective acknowledgement of and commitment to address the wrongs of the past, and commitment to provide financial as well as non-financial redress, including acknowledgement, apology, and therapeutic support for survivors.

Local authorities as an aspect of Redress also provide individual apologies. These can be written or face to face dependent on the survivor’s needs and circumstances. A range of such apologies have taken place over the reporting period.

Other examples of support

Local authorities continue to provide information during the reporting period on new policies and practices which have been put in place to prevent the harms of the past repeating. Information of this kind has been included in submissions and opening and closing statements made by a number of local authorities in their contributions to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

In many cases current local strategies and policies relating to the care and protection of children are publicly accessible online. In addition, relevant legislation, as well as a number of national level policy frameworks and guidance materials which are implemented or applied by local authorities, can be accessed online.

The possibility of providing memorial events continues to be considered and may be planned in future by local authorities.

Challenges facing Local Authorities when providing support

Local authorities are committed to providing support to survivors and have taken a range of actions to do so during the reporting period.

However, due to high demand and significant resource pressures, particularly in relation to staffing within local authorities and the complexities and pressures around accessing records, timeous engagement and support for care-experienced people seeking support have not always been possible during the reporting period. This is a consequence of the significant budgetary and financial challenges facing councils and does not demonstrate a lack of desire to provide that support.

Over the reporting period all local authorities have been operating in a climate of staffing vacancies and a national shortage of social workers. Some local authorities have been working with 77% staffing, with this level of vacancy having a significant impact on ability to carry out core functions. While national work is ongoing to seek to improve this picture, this is a longer-term activity.

The budgetary and financial pressures currently facing Local Government remain significant. Over the past decade, Local Government has experienced substantial pressure on core budgets as a result of real-terms cuts to funding and increased demand, compounded by inflation, the cost-of-living crisis, the impact of Covid, an ageing population and climate change. This has meant that Councils have been forced to make difficult choices about service funding levels. This has significant implications for local services, and the staffing capacity and resources at their disposal, which restricts the ability of local authorities to deliver on important priorities, including the provision of non-financial redress under the Scheme – for which no additional funding has been made available by Scottish Government.

Councils need fair and sustainable funding and flexibility to make decisions on spend based on local needs and circumstances. As is referenced above, whilst local authorities are fully committed to the provision of wider redress support to survivors, without adequate funding they simply do not have the capacity or resources to provide timeous support to survivors in every case.

In the context of the Verity House Agreement there is an expectation that many of the structural funding issues will start to be worked through jointly. However, the aspirations of the Agreement are set against the context of an extremely challenging position for Scotland’s public finances as well as the various other pressures mentioned above. There have been some positive developments in relation to implementing the Verity House Agreement but there is still further progress to be made.

Developments in Policy and Practice – care and protection of children and young people

The landscape of legislation, policy, and practice around the care and protection of children and young people has developed significantly over recent decades, with many important changes being made to the way that national and local systems and services are designed and delivered. This includes changes to legislation; national policy frameworks and guidance; local planning and partnership working; as well as developments in specific areas of policy and practice at both national and local levels.

In 2002 the first Child Protection Reform Programme was launched, resulting in key achievements such as the Children’s Charter, the Framework for Standards and guidance for Child Protection Committees (latterly incorporated into the National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland). A further programme of reform within care and protection services began in 2016 as the focus of the Child Protection Improvement Programme (CPIP). As described in the meeting of the National Child Protection Leadership Group in March 2023 (see minute), a review of the delivery of the CPIP and the Child Protection Systems Review (CPSR) by CELCIS concluded that all actions and recommendations have been adequately addressed.

Since 2007, the Care Inspectorate have led a regular schedule of strategic inspections of children’s services which support improvement in how local multiagency children’s planning partnerships design, develop, deliver, and evaluate services for children. As well as the strategic inspections, registered services such as residential, foster care, adoption and continuing care services undergo separate inspections and are scrutinised in depth by local authorities themselves, the Care Inspectorate and other inspection bodies

Growing networks to share emerging learning from the myriad of quality assurance and evaluation activity now routinely underway within and across services, assist in ensuring lessons learned are shared in order to maximise their value. This includes improved use of technology such as Knowledge Hub which facilitate online communities of practice.

Development of care and protection services has reflected new understandings of the nature and extent of child abuse and neglect, as well as advances in policy and practice in caring for children when the level of risk requires that they be removed from their family home, broader changes in relation to the place of children in society and an increasing focus on children’s rights, including progress to incorporate UNCRC into Scottish legislation.

Placement of children and young people who require alternative care in family settings has always been a focus for local authorities but has been given additional emphasis over recent years. This has included a significant increase in the use of formal kinship care as a placement of choice for children, and additional support for permanent kinship placements.

Many of the inquiry reports on the abuse of children in care have highlighted issues in relation to the recruitment and selection of carers, their education and training, and the levels of support they receive when caring for children and young people. Legislative, policy and practice changes have been made based on this.

Against this background of significant development and improvement, local authorities take a wide range of actions to ensure that in the discharge of their statutory duties, and through the services they provide, they satisfy the required standards of care and meet the wellbeing, development and safety needs of children and vulnerable people. This section provides a non-exhaustive overview of policy and practice changes over this reporting period (including changes still currently being developed or implemented), which local authorities adhere to in the course of their work with looked after/care- experienced children and young people.

It should be noted that the pieces of work highlighted below do not sit in isolation from each other or other areas of policy and practice (including, for example, education, child poverty, and children and young people’s mental health). Local Government is committed to ensuring that the work being taken forward, as outlined below, is not siloed and that every effort is made to ensure that joined-up approaches are taken.

It is worth noting that there are a number of other legislative and policy changes and improvement currently being proposed and/or developed (for example the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill; National Care Service), not explored in detail below, which are anticipated to have a significant impact for local authorities and the delivery of services in future.

National developments

Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC)

With the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as its foundation, GIRFEC provides Scotland with a consistent framework and shared language for promoting, supporting, and safeguarding the wellbeing of all children and young people. GIRFEC is based on evidence, is internationally recognised and is an example of a child rights-based approach. It is locally embedded and positively embraced by practitioners and managers across children’s services, changing cultures, systems and practice for the benefit of children, young people and their families.

Scottish Government published refreshed GIRFEC guidance in December 2022, which reassures leaders, managers and practitioners about how GIRFEC should be delivered within the current legislative and policy framework of rights, information sharing, and delivery of supports and services to children, young people and their families.

Amongst the refreshed guidance is Getting it right for every child Practice Guidance 3 Role of the lead professional 2022. which provides updated guidance for those in the role of Lead Professional. For children who are looked after, the Lead Professional is usually the local authority social worker. The Lead Professional coordinates delivery of the child’s plan and support for the child and their family. The refreshed guidance has an increased emphasis on the voice of the child or young person, including enabling participation within decision-making.

A new GIRFEC Child’s Plan Practice Statement was published by the Scottish Government in October 2023. It aims to provide practitioners with confidence, clarity and practical support to continue to implement GIRFEC.

The non-statutory child’s plan remains a core component of the GIRFEC approach to promoting, supporting and safeguarding the wellbeing of children and young people.

This new practice statement reflects the relationship and alignment between statutory and non-statutory plans, and recent legislative and policy developments. It covers what a child’s plan is within GIRFEC, when a child’s plan should be considered, who should be involved in the development and review of a child’s plan and how a child’s plan supports transitions and chronologies.

You can find the statement here, along with an easy read version here.

National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland

The National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland was updated in 2021, and again in 2023, to ensure that all professionals working with children and families continue to have up to date guidance on care and protection. A National Child Protection Guidance Implementation Group was in place between September 2021 and September 2023 to undertake detailed implementation planning as local areas engage with the Guidance and a fuller picture of support needs for practitioners, managers and leaders emerges. Certain workstreams continue.

As part of the national implementation plan for the revised National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland, a National Learning and Development post was funded by the Scottish Government for two years, supporting the National Framework for Child Protection Learning and Development. However, this post has recently ended. The National Framework for Child Protection Learning and Development has been revised and central learning materials developed to assist the multiagency workforce with the skills and knowledge required to effectively protect children and young people.

There are 31 Child or Public Protection Committees across Scotland. These are locally based, multiagency strategic partnerships who lead on local child protection policy and practice, as well as contribute to national policy and practice. Amongst their responsibilities, which include strategic planning, multiagency learning and development and continuous improvement, these Committees also lead local programmes of awareness raising about child abuse and neglect and they actively promote routes for children and families to seek support as well as guidance for adults on how to identify early indicators of concern about children.

Local partnership activity

Children’s Services Planning

Under Part 3 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, local authorities and health boards hold joint statutory responsibility for developing, publishing, implementing and reporting on local Children’s Services Plans (CSPs). Local authorities and health boards work collaboratively with other members of their Community Planning Partnerships, as well as children, young people and their families, as part of this process. Each local authority and its relevant health board jointly prepare a Children’s Services Plan every three years, as well as annual progress reports. CSPs set the strategic direction for the planning and delivery of children’s services in each area and highlight priorities and key areas of focus for the three-year period. The current cycle of CSPs run from 2023 to 2026.

This process is in place to ensure that local planning and delivery of children’s services is integrated, focused on securing quality and value through preventative approaches, and dedicated to safeguarding, supporting and promoting child wellbeing. It aims to ensure that any action to meet need is taken at the earliest appropriate time and that, where appropriate, this is taken to prevent need arising.

Participation and voice of children, young people and families

Inquiries and reviews, including those related to child abuse and neglect in care settings, have consistently highlighted missed opportunities to respond to early concerns about children due to failure to hear children or notice and respond to indicators of distress.

Most children and young people who experience abuse and neglect do not disclose their experiences at the time. This is due to several factors but, critically, children fear that they will not be believed, or their experience is that they have tried to tell someone what has happened, and they have not been believed.

Cultural changes in our society mean that we are, collectively, more willing to recognise that abuse and neglect of children does occur and that it can occur in a variety of places, including being perpetrated by those charged with caring for children. This shift is helping us to create more opportunities for children to be heard in policy-making, in service design and in their own lives. With the range of national level frameworks noted above – all of which promote an explicit focus on the voice of the child – local children’s services partnerships have a range of mechanisms in place to ensure children’s voices are heard and are actively, meaningfully involved in the support, services and systems that impact them. These include children’s rights officers and services, advocacy services and Champions Boards.

In addition, much more attention is being paid to ensuring children are aware of their rights, including their right to protection from abuse, and to providing education and awareness to children and families, and those that come into contact with them, about child abuse and neglect and where to seek help if they have worries.

All local authorities have a children’s rights plan, often designed with children and young people and incorporated into their children’s services plan, which outlines how they include the voice of children in service design and priorities for work.

The Promise

Following the Independent Care Review, Scotland made a Promise to care experienced children and young people that they would grow up loved, safe and respected. Many organisations and institutions, Local Government included, have committed to keeping the promise by 2030. The promise recognises that transformative changes are needed to the ‘care system’. Initially plan 21-24 shaped and structured the work required to make this happen. This has now been built on with plan 24-30 which was launched in June 2024.

Implementing The Promise is a key priority area for Local Government and a wide range of work is currently taking place across Scotland’s councils to implement the changes it requires, and significant progress is being made in a challenging landscape. Examples of the work taking place includes service redesign and transformation; increased and innovative participation and engagement with children and families; new models of family support; examples of workforce development, recruitment, and training; and multiagency and multi-disciplinary partnership approaches.

Over the reporting period, local authorities alongside others delivering care, have accessed Promise funding for a range of aspects of service improvement and innovations. This includes work to support siblings to remain together and connected, and development of family support provision via the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund.

UNCRC incorporation and implementation

Local Government has from the outset been fully supportive of the intentions of the incorporation of the UNCRC into Scots Law, sharing the vision of a Scotland where children’s human rights are embedded in all aspects of society and public services, including services and support delivered for looked after/ care-experienced children and young people. Whilst the enactment of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 was delayed following the Supreme Court legal challenge, local authorities have remained committed and engaged in this work.

Extensive work is underway across local authorities to take forward and embed the UNCRC, and excellent progress has been made in a challenging landscape.

Nationally, Local Government, through COSLA and a range of professional associations (including the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives, Association of Directors of Education in Scotland, Social Work Scotland, and Society of Local Authority Lawyers and Administrators in Scotland), is continuing to engage closely in the work on legal incorporation and implementation of the UNCRC, led by Scottish Government. This includes work to ensure that the right support, guidance, information and resources are in place to support meaningful implementation of the UNCRC by local authorities and practitioners on the ground.

Local authorities continue to work with the Improvement Service to prepare for incorporation and implementation of UNCRC. This project, which launched in 2022, aims to support local authorities to prepare for their new duties under the UNCRC legislation, and embed and implement effective children’s rights based approaches across services. Key elements of the support available from the Improvement Service’s dedicated team include: webinars and briefing materials for Elected Members; a facilitated Peer Support Network constituted of officers from every local authority; high-quality learning materials (shared through a designated Knowledge Hub); and help with identifying practical action that councils can take to further embed and improve the realisation of children’s rights.

One example of local work taking place is the Rights Respecting Schools Award project, through which UNICEF UK works with primary and secondary schools to embed children’s rights in the schools’ ethos, raise awareness of the UNCRC and increase understanding of children’s rights. In May 2022, Scottish Government announced funding for UNICEF UK to offer this programme to all local authority schools in Scotland. UNICEF UK has and continues to develop strong partnerships with local authorities to support schools and embed the work. Based on UNICEF figures, 75% of Scotland’s local authority schools were engaged with the programme.

Scottish Child Interview Model and Bairns Hoose

The Scottish Child Interview Model is a new approach to joint investigative interviewing in Scotland. Joint investigative interviews are interviews conducted by specially trained social workers and police officers where a child may be a victim of, or witness to, criminal conduct and there is a concern that they may be at risk of significant harm.

Joint investigative interviews are a form of pre-recorded evidence and their use in court proceedings can help prevent or minimise a child being required to give testimony in person in court, an experience that can be retraumatising. The implementation of the Scottish Child Interview Model across Scotland has led to improved quality of joint investigative interviews which, in turn, is key to their increased use in court proceedings.

The new approach is trauma-informed, places the needs and rights of children at the centre, and aims to achieve best evidence through enhanced planning and interviewing techniques.

Evidence to date highlights that children who are interviewed using The Scottish Child Interview Model are likely to tell the interviewers what has happened to them. This is a key development in services to protect children and ensures that where there is a concern that a child may have been abused or neglected, they are supported to participate in an interview that provides the conditions necessary to help the child provide detail of what has happened.

Local partnerships gather feedback from children in relation to their interview experience and this is universally positive, with children reporting they feel prepared for the interview, supported to participate and some have also said that giving their account in such detail in a forensic interview has helped them feel better. The trauma-informed approach utilised in the Scottish Child Interview Model promotes children’s recovery from abuse.

Capturing high quality evidence such as this also assists in criminal justice processes, as the child’s pre-recorded evidence in the form of an audio and visually recorded interview can be utilised in court settings, further contributing to improved protection of children and young people as those who perpetrate harm to children are brought to justice.

The Scottish Child Interview Model is now available to over 80% of the child population, with continued work by local multiagency partnerships underway to reach full implementation.

The Scottish Child Interview Model is a key element of Bairns Hoose, which is a child-centred response for children who are victims or witnesses of serious crime and abuse.

Bairns Hoose is Scottish Government’s approach to bringing Barnahus to Scotland. Barnahus is internationally recognised as an evidence-based model of excellence for children and families. The Barnahus model was established in Iceland in 1998. It seeks to provide a trauma-informed response to child victims and witnesses of serious and traumatic crimes in a familiar and non-threatening setting.

Bringing ‘Barnahus’ to Scotland has been a long standing and crosscutting policy ambition. The 22/23 Programme for Government made a commitment to “Set out the next steps in ensuring access to Bairns Hoose services for all children referred for support.” This was reaffirmed in the 2023/24 Programme for Government with a commitment to “Launch Bairns Hoose Pathfinders in autumn 2023, a key action in our keeping The Promise Implementation Plan and Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, enabling a whole-system approach for child victims and witnesses of abuse and harm.”

Ministers have approved a delivery timeline which will adopt a three-phased approach for the development of Bairns Hoose. This allows time to build in the learning and evaluation needed to ensure that the Bairns Hoose model is achieving the correct outcomes ahead of national rollout. The first phase will be the Pathfinder phase from 2023 to 2025, followed by the pilot phase from 2025 to 2027 and then national rollout from the end 2027/early 2028.

National Trauma Transformation Programme

NHS Education Scotland led the development of The National Trauma Training Programme in partnership with the Scottish Government with the ambition of a trauma-informed and responsive workforce, that is capable of recognising where people are affected by trauma and adversity, that is able to respond in ways that prevent further harm and support recovery, and can address inequalities and improve life chances. The Office of the Chief Social Work Advisor (OCSWA) has established an expert advisory group to ensure that Scotland’s social work services are able to recognise where people are affected by trauma, and to respond in ways which reduce risks of retraumatising and supports recovery. Scottish Government are also looking at rolling out trauma training nationally to foster carers.

Local Government and Scottish Government share a vision for a trauma-informed workforce, systems and services and all councils have committed to work to achieve this vision.

The Scottish Child Interview Model, as set out above, is one example of the application of trauma-informed principles in the delivery of services to children and families. The trauma content in the new National Joint Investigative Interviewing Training Programme sits at enhanced level.