Scotland's Redress Scheme – 2025 Combined Annual Report

4.17 Quarriers

Background

The Scottish Parliament has enacted legislation to provide survivors of abuse with the opportunity to seek financial reparation through the National Redress Scheme. The Act places an obligation on participating organisations to submit a report to Scottish Ministers on work undertaken to support survivors, with particular regard to:

• Emotional, psychological or practical support provided
• Advice and assistance on accessing historical records
• Advice and assistance on tracing and reuniting families
• Activity relating to the provision of an apology to such individuals.

While Quarriers is not a contributor to the scheme, we acknowledge it is nonetheless good practice to publish an account of the work we undertake to support survivors of abuse.

Investment

In setting the budget for 2024/25, the Quarriers Board of Trustees agreed to maintain an investment of £200,000 in our aftercare service.

The investment has allowed us to build capacity in our aftercare team. The team has further developed in the last year and now consists of a Head of Service, two full-time Aftercare Support Workers, a Trauma-Informed Coordinator and an Information Officer.

Our Aftercare Support Workers support survivors to access records, provide advocacy support where required, and signpost to other places of support or professional advice in circumstances where that is preferred.

We have also recruited a part-time Information Officer to support the ongoing work of the team, and part of the role includes aftercare administrative support.

Our Trauma-Informed Coordinator moved across to the team on a permanent basis 18 months ago, and they are advising, implementing and supporting trauma-informed practice and culture across the organisation. We are also in the process of developing a trauma-informed strategy to complement our organisational, workforce and wellbeing strategies.

Inclusion

In order to better inform organisational decision-making, Quarriers has established an aftercare sub-committee of the Board, chaired by the Chief Executive and involving a range of stakeholders including FBGA, Birthlink Scotland, Future Pathways and Wellbeing Scotland. The role of the sub-committee is to advise on the development of our aftercare service and to scrutinise its performance. There has been a change of committee members in recent months, in particular with the retirement of a valued contributor to Quarriers’ endeavours.

Access to records

Across 2024/25, Quarriers had a total of 126 enquiries (an increase of 39 from previous year) from people looking to access information about relatives formerly supported by Quarriers. We also supported a total of 129 individuals to access their own records via subject access requests.

At present, the majority of requests relate to those who were resident in Quarrier’s Village; however, we have received some enquiries relating to services external to the Village, e.g. Seafield School. We have experienced challenges cataloguing, digitising and collating such records; however, we are currently engaging with our off-site archiving provider to consider the most efficient options for progressing this area.

Across 2024-25, Quarriers had a total of 189 enquiries from Redress Scotland, in support of an applicants’ Redress claims. The enquiry relates to the verification of ‘in care documentation’ and the provision of any civil claim information. The team aims to provide a response to Redress within a 48-hour period where possible.

Apology

As an organisation, Quarriers continues to offer an unreserved apology to people who were abused in our care.

Across 2024/25, Quarriers received one enquiry from an individual requesting an apology. Quarriers was unable to apologise to the individual on that occasion because of complex legal issues.

Reuniting families

Quarriers continues to work with a range of overseas organisations whose primary interest is in the tracing of family connections back to Quarriers. State-endorsed migration schemes operating between the 1870s and 1960s led to thousands of children being migrated to Canada and Australia. We have offered an unreserved apology to the children who were migrated by Quarriers, and we acknowledge the impact migration had on children’s lives and those of their descendants.

Over the last twenty years, Quarriers has been engaging with the descendants of migrated children who wished to access records and tell us about how child migration has affected them. We have taken steps to publicise our apology in an effort to reach other former migrants with whom we are not in direct contact, and we continue to offer an aftercare service to those affected. We continue to engage regularly with citizens from overseas in relation to genealogical enquiries. In 2024, we welcomed the British Home Children Canada President to Quarrier’s Village and were able to share knowledge and further strengthen our working relationship.

Commemoration

During 2023/24, Quarriers initiated plans alongside survivors to develop an Australian memorial, which was installed in 2024 within Quarrier’s Village. The piece of artwork was kindly provided by a survivor and sourced via a local artist.