Public Petitions Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Official Report 597KB pdf

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Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation in Scotland

I have two points. First, having read the response from the minister, I am concerned that the issue, which is a particular issue and is probably the one that has really affected me personally since coming to Parliament, will be subsumed into the work of child protection committees and associated with the raft of much-needed child protection measures, which I do not want to happen; we need to ensure that it does not happen.

Secondly, it would have been helpful to have had timescales for when all the responses will come in.

12:00

Would you like us to raise the points that you have raised at this stage rather than waiting—

Let us wait until we see a national action plan.

I will pick up on John Wilson’s point. It is only fair to clarify that Falkirk Council is considering cutting funding to a local group, but has postponed the decision until it has more information. I have voiced my concern about the matter in the local press.

Thank you. In summary: I have a couple of points that I want to raise immediately, John Wilson has a question, and I think that Chic Brodie is prepared to wait.

There should be a rigorous review of the national action plan when it comes out.

There was also a point made about timescales, so there are four specific points to raise. Does the committee agree with the substantive point that we should wait until the national action plan has been prepared before we discuss the issues in detail?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you.

Agenda item 3 is on our inquiry into tackling child sexual exploitation in Scotland. Since our last meeting, we have had the Scottish Government’s response to our successful inquiry, which was lengthy and in-depth. Members might wish to comment on the response.

I will raise two points, which have come via Barnardo’s. One is on looked-after children and relates to our recommendation 13, which is on the powers of residential care workers. It is important that we ask the Scottish Government whether the national action plan could address clarification of the powers of residential care workers. Although the Government has responded to that recommendation, the response was not very explicit. We need to tie down the Government on the issue.

The second issue is post-legislative scrutiny of the Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2005. In recommendation 25, we asked the Scottish Government to carry out specific work on that, particularly around grooming. That request echoed the Lord Advocate’s evidence to the committee. We asked the Justice Committee to consider doing that post-legislative scrutiny, but its work plan does not allow it. At the end of the day, the job is for the Scottish Government, so if we put the matter back to the Government, it will have to consider a mechanism for that.

We should progress those two specific points now. On overall action, we might want to wait until the national action plan is prepared by the ministerial working group over the summer before we look at the wider issues.

Can I throw in a third point, convener?

Most definitely.

I suggest that we ask the Scottish Government to carry out research into funding of local organisations that provide services to vulnerable children who have been subjected to sexual abuse. My understanding is that some local authorities are cutting funding for such services; for example, a project in Falkirk has had its funding cut by Falkirk Council. It would be useful if the Scottish Government were to map out the local services that used to be available, those that are currently available and those that might face cuts.