Scottish government response to "reimagining secure care" report

4. Background

4.1 Scotland’s Secure Accommodation

Secure accommodation is a critical part of Scotland’s child welfare and justice systems. It is among the most intensive and restrictive form of child care available in Scotland, whereby children up to age 18 are placed in a locked specialised child care setting, which is registered by the Care Inspectorate and approved by the Scottish Ministers. The need for a child to access secure care arises due to the level of concern about the risks, or actual significant harm, which a child's behaviour or needs may pose to themselves and/or others. Admission to secure accommodation can occur through emergency chief social work officer placements, the involvement of the children's hearings system or the criminal justice system.

The Promise is clear that intensive family support and specialist mental health support is critical. The Scottish Government remains committed to ensuring that children are supported within their families and communities, wherever possible, and that secure care is only used when no other alternatives are appropriate.

Each year in Scotland, only a small number of children are placed in secure care. They have almost always had significant adverse experiences throughout their childhood - including bereavement and loss, exposure to violence, abuse or neglect and psychological trauma. All of these children deserve our care, compassion and concern.

At the time of writing, there are 82 contracted secure places provided by four independent charitable organisations in Scotland - Rossie Secure Accommodation Services, Good Shepherd Centre Bishopton, Kibble Education and Care Centre, and St. Mary's Kenmure.

All of Scotland's secure care centres offer an integrated model of delivery, caring for children who have been placed in secure care through a number of routes.

4.2 Secure Care Commissioning and Funding Model

The interaction between demand and supply of secure care has consistently been recognised as a complex and shifting landscape. A spot purchase model operates, whereby local authorities and the Scottish Government directly approach secure providers in order to access secure care placements. The four secure providers subscribe to a national framework contract managed by Scotland Excel.

The current contract has played a vital role in standardising expectations, care standards, and placement processes across Scotland’s independent secure care centres, as well as bringing transparency and consistency to placement costs. However, successive strategic reviews, the experience of providers and purchasers, the observations of Parliamentary Inquiries and The Promise, and the emerging vision for secure care, all raise fundamental questions about whether the existing contractual frameworks continue to meet Scotland’s needs.

Scotland’s secure care system does not currently have a placement commissioning mechanism or national oversight of placement decisions. As a result, it is difficult to know whether the children currently placed in secure care are those who most require this service across Scotland. Current approaches do not offer the necessary monitoring and data provision.

4.3 Data

While published statistics on secure accommodation in Scotland are essential for understanding broader trends, they have limitations in capturing the fluid nature of secure placements and the immediate effects of acute capacity challenges and fluctuations in demand. Addressing these limitations will require an investment in real-time data collection systems, resourcing and standardising of data reporting.

We need to understand the support needs of children across all care settings, particularly where they cannot be looked after at home. This will require a nuanced understanding of the evolving profiles of children in secure care, and an analysis of what that evolution reveals about changed future needs. Aggregated real-time data would provide valuable insights into trends and patterns within secure accommodation settings. That is needed to inform policy and resourcing decisions and the development of targeted interventions, ultimately improving the care and outcomes for children in secure accommodation, now and in the future.

4.4 Risk and needs profiles of children in secure accommodation

Children placed in secure accommodation can have very high levels of need. There is a complex interplay between those and children’s risks. Examples include high risks arising from children harming themselves, risk of exploitation or trafficking, or coming into conflict with the law.

Children in secure care often have complex presentations that would benefit from specialist assessment to help fully understand the complexity of their needs and potential risks. The system faces challenges in providing, or accessing, timely and appropriate mental health assessment to inform what necessary ongoing individual, family or environmental and systemic supports or treatments are required to respond to these.

More robust data is required to fully understand the different, and possibility changing, risk and needs profiles of children in secure care. We are committed to strengthening data to better understand the needs of children requiring secure care, and to inform future planning and policy development.

4.5 The Care Inspectorate

The Care Inspectorate registers and regulates all secure accommodation services in Scotland, ensuring services meet the Health and Social Care Standards and comply with relevant legislation.

The Care Inspectorate conducts regular inspections of secure accommodation services to assess the quality of care, safety, and outcomes of children.

4.6 Secure Care Pathway and Standards (2020)

The secure care pathway and standards were published in 2020. These set out what all children in or on the edges of secure care in Scotland should expect across the continuum of intensive supports and services. They provide a framework for ensuring the rights of children and young people are respected and improve experiences and outcomes.

The standards were co-produced with children who have experience of living in secure care, written from the child’s perspective.

The Care Inspectorate undertook a review of the secure care pathway and standards in 2023. The review evaluated how the standards were being implemented and assessed their impact on children’s experiences in secure care in Scotland. The Care Inspectorate’s findings report highlights the importance of early intervention, community-based alternatives to secure care, and strengthening aftercare and transitional support for children returning to their communities.

4.7 National Social Work Agency

We can only bring about sustained systemic change to operational children’s care services by investing in our social work workforce. The Scottish Government will therefore establish a National Social Work Agency (NSWA) by April 2026.

The NSWA will be a new Executive Agency of the Scottish Government. It will have oversight of social work, and advance and advocate for the profession in Scotland. It will raise the profile of social work, drive change and continuous improvement in social work education and learning, ensure Scotland has a national approach to the numbers of social workers needed now and in the future, and support implementation of national policy. It will, through a National Chief Social Work Adviser, provide advice to Scottish Ministers and support the co-ordination of national policy affecting social work practice.