Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Thursday, March 2, 2017

Official Report 962KB pdf

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Child Protection Improvement Programme

Good afternoon. The next item of business is a statement by Mark McDonald on the child protection improvement programme. The minister will take questions at the end of his statement, so there should be no interventions or interruptions.

A year ago, the then Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning set out the Government’s intention to implement a child protection improvement programme. In doing so, she acknowledged the strengths that are inherent in the current system but recognised that there are weaknesses that require to be addressed to ensure that we are doing all that we can to protect Scotland’s children.

In the past year, we have worked closely with partners across the children’s services sector to honestly scrutinise child protection and determine the changes that are required. Today, I am publishing the “Child Protection Improvement Programme Report” and the report of Catherine Dyer’s systems review, “Protecting Scotland’s Children and Young People: It is Still Everyone’s Job”. I can advise Parliament that I accept in full all the recommendations and actions in each report. The effective and efficient implementation of that suite of recommendations and actions will strengthen all aspects of the system to better protect our children.

Before I outline the key findings and indicate the steps that will be taken to ensure implementation, I thank everyone who has worked closely with us on the improvement programme. Their time, effort, knowledge and expertise have helped us to develop meaningful and substantial recommendations. I am grateful to Catherine Dyer for leading the independent systems review and to the members of the review group and the broader advisory groups for their thoughtful contributions.

Every child in Scotland who has been harmed or abused or who is at risk of harm or abuse should receive the best possible support and protection, no matter what their circumstances are or where they live. The risks that children face and our understanding of those risks continue to evolve, and our system needs to continuously adapt to address them.

According to the most recent figures, we have 2,751 children on the child protection register. That represents a 4 per cent decrease on the previous year, but the number has increased by 34 per cent since 2000. Although more children were taken off the register because of an “improved home situation”, more were on the register for more than a year.

Generally, the systems review concluded that, when children or young people are identified as being at risk of significant harm or have been harmed, the system works well to protect them. The need for improvement must be set in that context, but we cannot and must not shy away from the challenge that is before us.

One of the most profound impacts on our children’s welfare comes from neglect. Neglect is the primary maltreatment issue that children in Scotland face. Thirty-nine per cent of children who had been placed on the child protection register had been emotionally abused, and 37 per cent had suffered from neglect. In addition, lack of parental care is the most common reason for referral to the children’s reporter—5,606 such referrals were made in 2015-16.

Over the past 10 years, we have invested significantly to support parenting, to better prevent neglect and to address the issues that give rise to neglect, through initiatives such as the early years change fund, public social partnerships, the Lloyds TSB partnership drugs initiative, the expansion of free childcare and the family nurse partnerships. We have continued that investment with a programme of action on neglect that is working with agencies in three local authority areas to look at how practice change can be effected to work with families more effectively, based on the best available local, national and international evidence. An evaluation of the early work on that programme will report to me at the end of this month, and I will consider carefully the outcomes of that work.

Much has been done over the years to update legislation to strengthen the rights and wellbeing of our children, but one area where the law is out of date is section 12—“Cruelty to persons under sixteen”—of the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937. That provision targets physical neglect and harm of children and young people, but it does not take account of our modern-day understanding of neglect. We now know that emotional and psychological neglect can be just as devastating for children and young people as physical harm is, yet section 12 of the 1937 act is still the criminal legislation that operates today. In addition, the archaic language of section 12 means that the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has difficulty in prosecuting some offences, because the provision has limitations.

I can therefore confirm that new legislation will be brought forward in the current session of Parliament to introduce a new definition and criminal offence of abuse and neglect of children. As it has taken our society 80 years to make that change, it is vital that we get it right. We will therefore consult this year to determine the scope and nature of that legislation.

Through the improvement programme, we have published an updated action plan for tackling child sexual exploitation—it includes a revised definition and supporting document—to guide practitioners, and we have run a national campaign to raise awareness, particularly among parents, of what constitutes sexual exploitation. We have consulted on a draft human trafficking strategy that includes a focus specifically on children, and we are working with stakeholders and with children and young people in particular to develop a revised child internet safety action plan, which will be published shortly. We are working with the children’s hearings improvement partnership to identify action to strengthen consistency and effectiveness across the children’s hearings system.

I am clear that the improvement programme must not be seen in isolation. The Scottish child abuse inquiry will consider whether further changes in practice, policy or legislation are necessary to protect children who are in care from such abuse in the future. If recommendations for change result from the inquiry, it will be essential that we honour the integrity and spirit of the inquiry and make changes to do all that we can to avoid the abuses of the past.

We must allow the independent root-and-branch review of the care system to shape child protection in the future. The review will look at the underpinning legislation, practices, culture and ethos of the care system and provide care-experienced young people with the opportunity to speak directly to the Government.

The child protection improvement programme has augmented and reinforced our understanding of the factors that can diminish the capacity of parents to meet their children’s needs and keep them safe. Multi-agency planning for and delivery of child protection in local areas is increasingly practised; that should be replicated in national policy, planning and delivery.

A national child protection policy will therefore be published, which will identify all the responsibilities and actions across Government that are aimed at supporting families and protecting children. As part of that policy, we will develop a plan to better prevent the emotional, physical and sexual abuse of Scotland’s children. That will build on the work that I have outlined, and it will be designed to respond to emerging threats and challenges as well as to incorporate evidence of practice, activities and interventions that work. The aim is to provide agencies and practitioners with an evolving resource that supports their skills, knowledge and expertise. We all need to feel confident that the processes that are in place to protect children are working effectively.

The systems review recommends that we consider how to create a national child protection register. While work with partners will begin to explore how best to establish a national register and how it might work, we will work in the short term with Police Scotland to develop a flagging system on the national vulnerable persons database that will identify all children who are placed on local child protection registers.

We must ensure that the processes for learning in the child protection system are rigorous, timely and effective. When a child has died or suffered significant harm through abuse or neglect, we must always consider what might have been done differently to prevent that tragedy and what could be done differently to minimise the risk of a similar tragedy occurring. That is why we expect child protection committees to undertake significant case reviews and share them with the Care Inspectorate, so that it can analyse reviews and report nationally on key areas of learning.

The systems review concluded that we could learn more if the Care Inspectorate also received copies of all initial case reviews, and I agree. The inspectorate will take on that expanded role and explore how best to share findings to influence practice. I am also writing to all child protection committees to make clear my expectation that they will all follow the guidance and share all case review findings with the inspectorate. National standards will be provided for those who carry out reviews, to make sure that they have the right skills to conduct reviews timeously and consistently.

Analysis by the Care Inspectorate of recent significant case reviews found that the time taken varied from five months to 37 months, with criminal proceedings often complicating matters. The protocol between the Crown Office, Police Scotland and child protection committees on significant case reviews and criminal proceedings is being reviewed and will be further publicised in order to reduce delays in concluding SCRs.

Inspections are key to the child protection system’s effectiveness. I have asked the Care Inspectorate to host a short-life working group to look at how joint inspections can focus better on the experiences of and outcomes for children who are at the greatest risk of harm. The group will consider all relevant recommendations that emerge from the child protection improvement programme and it will draft a new inspection framework to be ready to replace the current programme of inspections, which ends in December 2017.

Although it is important to have in place the right processes and to evaluate them effectively, it is people who keep children safe. Our front-line practitioners who undertake this most difficult and often harrowing work need to know that they are supported through effective leadership and by effective governance, responsible scrutiny and appropriate management information.

Leadership was identified as a key focus for the improvement programme, not least because too many joint inspections have identified variable and weak leadership. For that reason, the Deputy First Minister, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport and I held a summit in June last year for the leaders of services in the public and third sectors that have a role to play in child protection in order to emphasise the importance of collective responsibility and hear experiences.

The systems review considered the importance of leadership and governance and, as a result of its findings, I can announce that I will chair a new national child protection leadership group to support, strengthen and improve activity on child protection. The group will seek to embed consistency and reduce duplication in local areas; it will support the implementation of the recommendations and actions in both reports and will expect agencies to work collaboratively to deliver improvements and achieve sustained, meaningful change. The national leadership group will also identify how best to evaluate improvement and measure progress.

Catherine Dyer’s systems review group was tasked with considering whether a statutory underpinning was required for key aspects of the child protection system. The group concluded that legislation by itself would not deliver improvement and recommended a range of other actions before moving to legislate. I carefully considered that conclusion before accepting it. I am clear that we must see real progress in implementing the improvements that both reports recommend, particularly to achieve consistency of approach.

If there is little evidence in a year’s time of real and substantial progress in delivering improvements, the Government will introduce legislation to provide an appropriate underpinning for child protection committees, the use of the child protection register and the conduct and application of initial and significant case reviews. In particular, it will be vital that I see evidence of consistent good practice in child protection committees; effective leadership in community planning partnerships and engagement by all relevant agencies; adherence to child protection guidance; initial and significant case reviews being undertaken when necessary and shared with the Care Inspectorate; and agencies demonstrating that practice is changing as a result of relevant findings.

We have in place a child protection improvement programme that can and must move rapidly from reflection to implementation. We must move from having pockets of good practice to having a culture of good practice across the child protection system.

The Government is determined to ensure that more of Scotland’s children get the best possible start in life. For the most vulnerable in our communities, that means, at the most fundamental level, protecting them from harm and abuse. We must continue to embed a getting it right for every child approach in children’s services. We must also continue to invest in activity that supports families and intervenes early to prevent difficulties from arising and escalating. However, we also need to have a system in place that empowers practitioners to intervene to protect children when support is not working.

The system must value its workforce, and it should be accountable for and committed to a process of continuous improvement to address emerging risks and challenges and focus on adapting and improving practice based on what works. The recommendations and actions that are contained in the “Child Protection Improvement Programme Report” and the systems review report set out a clear pathway to achieve our vision and ambition for Scotland’s most vulnerable children.

I thank the Scottish Government for early sight of the statement and for its constructive engagement on what is obviously a very serious issue on which I am sure that there will be cross-party support.

Clearly, we have had some issues in recent weeks with the protection of vulnerable groups scheme. The minister was quite right to cite the fact that those issues have not happened in isolation and that other areas are involved. One aspect of the scheme that has been a considerable worry is that, although the legislation and the guidance are in the right place, some of the groups that have been using the scheme have not managed to find a satisfactory way of documenting that. There has been a very worrying gap in sports clubs and so on. Can the minister tell us how that aspect of child protection will be pursued?

I am grateful to Liz Smith for her constructive and consensual approach to the steps that I have outlined.

Liz Smith will be aware of the evidence that Aileen Campbell and I gave to the Health and Sport Committee last week, and I can announce that I have published the terms of reference for the review of the PVG scheme. I have written to the conveners of the Education and Skills Committee and the Health and Sport Committee to advise them of the terms of reference, and I am more than happy to write to Liz Smith and other spokespeople to share the terms of reference with them.

Essentially, the review will look at the practice and operation of the scheme and some of the issues that Liz Smith identified. The review is now under way, and some of the questions that she raises will absolutely form part of the thinking. She is correct to identify that no single aspect of the system guarantees that children are kept safe but that all the aspects form part of a wider jigsaw that ensures the safety of children. It is therefore important that we get that right. I will share the information on the PVG scheme review with her.

I, too, thank the minister for early sight of his statement. We certainly welcome any progress towards protecting our children, and the two reports that have been published today seem at first glance—we have not had them for very long—to be exactly that. It is good, then, that the minister has accepted all their recommendations.

Our remaining concerns are about the speed of what has been quite a lengthy process. It was in 2014 that the Brock report was published, and the author sounded alarm bells when, after 18 months, little had happened, as she put it. It was a year ago that the then cabinet secretary came to the Parliament to respond and announce the two reports that we see today. Welcome though their recommendations are, many of them are for further reviews, consultations, evaluations, research or the drafting of plans. What assurances can the minister give us today about the urgency with which he believes the work that is elaborated on in the reports can be delivered?

I thank Iain Gray for his comments on the Government’s approach to the recommendations. On the 2014 Brock report and the subsequent statement, if he looks at page 49 of the systems review group report, he will see that Jackie Brock was one of the members of that group, whose recommendations I am accepting, so she has been involved in the formulation of those recommendations.

Iain Gray will also know from my statement that, although—based on the recommendations of the review group—I am not taking steps to put elements of the child protection system on to a statutory footing, I have expectations around the pace of improvement that I expect to see, and if I am not satisfied, I will bring forward legislative measures. We are also today committing to develop a national child protection register and a national child protection policy and to legislate in relation to neglect.

I say to Iain Gray that, although there are areas that require further review and thinking, there should be no underestimating of the fact that a number of actions are following on from the reports. The Government will take those forward, and I look forward to him and his colleagues playing a constructive part in that.

As a former social worker, I am glad to see that children and families are at the heart of the Scottish Government’s child protection improvement programme. Will the minister explain how the children’s hearings improvement partnership will support the child protection improvement programme?

The children’s hearings improvement partnership was asked to scrutinise the impact of recent legislative and practice changes on the children’s hearings system and to identify action to strengthen consistency and effectiveness across the system. CHIP specifically considered the impact of increased legal representation at hearings. It is taking forward work to ensure that practice and decision making within the children’s hearings system are consistent, positive and purposeful across Scotland.

In addition, the systems review group made a specific recommendation that the Scottish Government reviews not only measures that are available to protect 16 and 17-year-olds but whether the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 should be amended to allow any young person aged 16 or 17 to be referred to the principal reporter. We will take that work forward.

I echo the point that I made to Liz Smith. Alongside the PVG scheme, the children’s hearings improvement partnership forms part of the bigger picture of child protection across Scotland, and we look forward to taking the recommendations forward and working closely with the children’s hearings system.

I was interested in the minister’s response to Liz Smith about the PVG scheme. First, I ask him to clarify the timescale for the review of that scheme. Secondly, given our exchange at the Health and Sport Committee last week, when I asked him whether he felt that the PVG scheme should be made compulsory, has he given the matter any further consideration in the light of his statement today?

As Donald Cameron knows, I said at the Health and Sport Committee that, if legislation is required off the back of the review, we expect to pass it by 2019. Based on that, I anticipate that the review will conclude its work within this calendar year. However, I will get back to him with firm timescales.

In response to Donald Cameron’s second question, I am afraid that I am just going to repeat what I said to him at the Health and Sport Committee. It would not be sensible for me as a minister to pre-empt the work of the review on whether the PVG scheme should be mandatory. That is rightly work that the review should undertake, in relation to which it should consider the evidence. It is a question to which ministers will give active consideration, but before we have undertaken the review it would not be helpful for me to say in the chamber either yes or no to the question whether the scheme should be mandatory.

I welcome the setting up of a working group to consider how joint inspections might better focus on outcomes for children. Can the minister outline his views on how a new approach to inspection could ensure that agencies—especially those involved in education, health and children’s services—could work together more effectively to deliver better outcomes for children and young people?

I want to ensure that joint inspections of services for children and young people are underpinned by prevention, early intervention and partnership working. Inspections should recognise that child protection is a collective responsibility, be transparent with regard to learning, use evidence to effect practice improvement, and enable practitioners to make the right decisions at the right time to protect children and support the workforce.

Rona Mackay gets to the nub of the issue when she mentions the various agencies that need to work together to ensure that children are protected. We must ensure that children’s protection is viewed as everybody’s responsibility and that people do not work with silo mentalities. That will very much form part of the work on joint inspections and the leadership group.

In his statement, the minister said:

“We must also continue to invest in activity that supports families and intervenes early to prevent difficulties from arising and escalating.”

We can all agree that early intervention to prevent harm from occurring is absolutely crucial. What assurances can the minister give that social workers and all other practitioners who are involved in the protection of children at the crucial early intervention stage will be able to access the resources that they need to do their jobs?

I point to headcount in relation to the Scottish social service workforce, particularly in children’s services. Data collected for us by the Scottish Social Services Council shows that from 2012 to 2015, the number of social workers who work in children’s services has increased from 5,550 to 5,960. I also highlight to Monica Lennon, as I have highlighted either to her or to her colleagues in previous debates, work done by Audit Scotland that shows that there have been real-terms increases in spending on social work in Scotland. Put together, those pieces of evidence demonstrate a collective focus and a collective will to ensure that services are not just available but well resourced.

Beyond that, I have highlighted a number of other areas where this Government is taking forward work on early intervention. I highlight to Monica Lennon the children and young people early intervention fund, which the Government has established. As I announced during the debate on the care review, a large part of that fund is being specifically targeted at how we work with children who are either in care or on the edge of care.

The Government is taking forward all those areas of work so that we can intervene early to protect children and prevent them from coming to harm and from having to come into contact with the system in the first place.

The minister will be aware that the Education and Skills Committee has begun its own exercise to take stock of the reforms to the children’s hearings system. We will of course share our findings and any recommendations that we make arising from that to inform the wider child protection improvement programme. How will the minister reciprocate and involve and include the committee in this type of work? When will he be able to say who will be on the leadership group that he is setting up?

I welcome the committee’s interest in and input to the child protection improvement programme. I will be more than happy to engage with the committee and provide regular updates on its progress.

I am currently giving careful consideration to membership of the national leadership group, but it is clear that it must consist of individuals who have demonstrated a track record of strong leadership. I will provide an update to the committee when the membership of the group has been agreed, which I expect to be next month.

I thank the minister for early sight of the report and commend its good work, which will clearly enhance children’s rights. As he will be aware, I am hoping to progress a member’s bill to remove the offence of justifiable assault, which will similarly enhance children’s rights, and I look forward to the review of section 12 of the 1937 act and the subsequent legislation.

Recommendation 11 of the report talks about understanding children’s experiences. The Government has a very good track record of engaging with looked-after children and people in formal settings, but a more challenging issue is how we understand the experience of children who live at home or in domestic settings, who make up the vast majority of those involved. Has the minister considered how their views might be taken on board?

I thank John Finnie for his question, although I should correct him—I think that he mentioned section 11 of the 1937 act, when what we are looking at is section 12. I just want to make sure that that is correctly understood.

Mr Finnie also mentioned his member’s bill, which I have committed to discussing further with him. However, the Government will obviously wait until the bill is published before we take a position on its content.

Mr Finnie is absolutely right to highlight children who are looked after at home as a group that we must consider. In fact, just this morning, I was in Perth, meeting organisations that will be delivering mentoring to children who are looked after at home. The Government is giving careful consideration to how best to capture the views and experiences of children who are looked after at home because, as Mr Finnie has rightly pointed out, the outcomes for those children are not what we want them to be. As I have said, I will carefully consider the best way of capturing their views as part of our wider commitment to listening to the voices of children and young people who have care experience.

I, too, thank the minister for early sight of the statement and welcome his willingness to accept the recommendations. I also put on record my thanks to Catherine Dyer and the others involved in this thoroughgoing work.

As well as inviting the minister to clarify some of the funding implications of what he has set out, I want to focus on the issue of leadership, which he is right to highlight. The committee that was the predecessor to the one that James Dornan now convenes looked at the issues that are very much at the heart of the minister’s statement, and one of the problems that we identified was the loss of experience from front-line social work to management roles or indeed from the sector as a whole. Can the minister offer any reassurance that that expertise in assessing risk will be retained at the front line?

Moreover, is there any reason why the minister has chosen not to accept the report’s recommendation that the leadership group report to the minister? Why is he proposing to chair the group himself?

If Liam McArthur wishes to write to me with any specific questions about funding implications as a result of actions that the Government is taking forward, I will be more than happy to respond to him with specifics.

With regard to experience in assessing risk, I think that it is important to ensure that that is not just the responsibility of those at the front line, although I take on board the member’s point. Good leadership is about ensuring that all staff feel empowered to assess risk and capable of making, analysing and responding to such assessments.

With regard to the leadership group, I had a conversation with Catherine Dyer in which I indicated my position that it would be better if I chaired it. If I am going to place an incumbency on leadership in other areas, I, too, should demonstrate leadership by chairing the group and bringing together individuals with strong track records to look carefully at how best we can improve the system.

Violence against women and girls has significant consequences for the lives of children and young people. I see from the minister’s statement that the Government is going to consult on changes to section 12 of the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937. Can he offer any further information in that respect and outline the impact of such an update on the protection of children who live in households where domestic abuse is present?

Last month, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and I met groups representing children and victims of domestic abuse to discuss how the law can be reformed to reflect the impact of domestic abuse on children. At that meeting, we agreed to continue to work with those groups on the issue. As Christina McKelvie will be aware, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice is going to introduce a bill during this parliamentary year that will provide for a specific criminal offence of domestic abuse between partners and ex-partners. The Scottish Government has been working with stakeholders to consider what can be done in that bill to reflect the harm that is done to children through domestic abuse.

Separately, the consultation on reform of the offence of child cruelty or neglect, which is in section 12 of the 1937 act, will enable us to reflect our understanding of the long-term effects of the experience of emotional and non-physical neglect along with how the damage that is wrought by that experience can be just as devastating to the victim as other, physical forms of neglect and abuse. It will also provide a clear opportunity to consider what further law reforms are required to recognise children as victims of domestic abuse, whether through a reformed and modernised version of that offence or through the creation of a separate provision to deal specifically with domestic abuse of a child. We will work closely with stakeholders in the children’s sector in the development of that consultation and will keep the Parliament informed as part of the process.

I thank the minister for the advance copy of his statement. I also remind the chamber that I am a councillor in the City of Edinburgh Council.

A lot of the leadership that the minister has talked about will come from local authorities, from both councillors and council officers. What work and consultation has he undertaken with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, and what role does he see local authorities playing in delivering the policy, particularly at a strategic level?

Jeremy Balfour is correct in saying that, as well as strategic leadership, in the form of local authority officers, there is political leadership and direction, which is given to those officers by local authority councillors. I will give careful consideration to how best we can ensure that that leadership mentality is embedded at an elected member level as well. With the upcoming local authority elections, there is the potential for changes in local authority administrations across Scotland, which will perhaps provide us with an opportunity to look again at how we can address the matter and take it forward with any new administrations as well as with those councillors who are returned to their posts, some of whom have a strong interest in and track record on the issue. I will give the matter careful consideration and will reply to Jeremy Balfour once we have given it some further thought.

There are a number of recommendations that will place additional responsibilities on the Care Inspectorate; indeed, the minister has spoken of an “expanded role” for the Care Inspectorate. Liam McArthur asked about budgetary considerations. Given the recent cut in funding for the Care Inspectorate, what resources will be made available to ensure that it has the staff and capacity to meet the new challenges?

I had discussions with the Care Inspectorate before we produced the recommendations, so I am confident that it is in a position to accommodate the role that I am asking it to take on. I would not ask it to take on the role if I did not feel confident in its ability to manage that function. I am happy to reply to Daniel Johnson in writing with more detail. My clear focus is on ensuring that the system is about continuous improvement and learning from experience. The Care Inspectorate has a fundamental role to play in that, and I am confident that it will be able to play it.

The minister has explored the range of areas on which the programme focuses. I have, however, a question on a particular area. Can the minister outline what action the Government is taking to protect children from being exploited on social media, including by parents or close relatives of the children?

I want all children and young people to be able to benefit from the opportunities that the internet has to offer. However, we must also ensure that they are safe and protected from the risks that can be posed. Richard Lyle may be aware of operation Lattise, which Police Scotland ran last year. The operation identified more than 500 children aged between three and 18 years who were victims or potential victims of online predators, and it recovered 30 million images of abuse. The operation has highlighted the fact that online abuse is a national threat and that the abuse is happening to children of all ages.

In our programme for Scotland, we have committed to publishing a refreshed action plan on internet safety for children and young people, to ensure that appropriate training, support and information are provided. We will publish that action plan in the very near future. In developing the plan, we have worked across the Government and in partnership with Police Scotland, a number of third sector organisations and Education Scotland. We also consulted children and young people.

As part of that work we are in conversation with some of the key social media providers, including Facebook and Twitter. We will continue to engage with them in an effort to ensure that children who use their sites are appropriately protected. We also continue to be represented on the executive board of the Council for Child Internet Safety. In addition, the Scottish Government continues to engage with the UK Government as it develops the Digital Economy Bill.

I hope that Richard Lyle can be assured that a range of approaches are being taken by the Scottish Government to ensure that children are as safe as they can be online. I am sure that he will take an active interest in the internet safety action plan when it is published.

Figures that have been published by the Scottish guardianship service have highlighted that 40 per cent of the 262 unaccompanied children that it has registered since 2011 were brought to Scotland by traffickers. Nine children were trafficked in 2011, and the number rose to 32 children in 2015. That is clearly a worrying trend. We welcome today’s statement, but in the light of those figures, what specific measures regarding children will be included in the draft human trafficking strategy?

The approach that we will take will be to ensure that we raise awareness among the public and professionals about the services that are available to children who have been victims of trafficking. They will continue to be supported through standard child protection processes. As a Government, we have a zero-tolerance policy in relation to issues around trafficking.

The specific point that Miles Briggs makes highlights the importance of ensuring that appropriate care and support are available for unaccompanied children. I am sure that he shares my discomfort at the approach that it appears is being taken by the Government down south in relation to unaccompanied children, which seems to suggest that it has pulled back completely from the Dubs amendment, which was about ensuring that appropriate support and protection are given to unaccompanied children. I am sure that he will join the Scottish Government in asking the UK Government to think again on that issue.

Given that thousands of neglected children in Scotland are not visible, can the minister expand on the action that the Scottish Government will take to address the specific issue of neglect?

As I highlighted in my statement, there are in Scotland some areas of promising practice in dealing with neglect. The Care Inspectorate triennial review and the Brock report both highlighted weaknesses in assessing and responding to instances of unmet need and exposure to risk. We have developed a programme for action on neglect that is now working in three local authority areas to identify and implement the best approaches to tackling neglect and building practitioner capacity.

In addition, as I said in my answer to Monica Lennon, £3.3 million is being invested this year through the children, young people and families intervention fund to charities that support looked-after children and work with vulnerable families to help to prevent children becoming looked after. Among those programmes is intandem, which mentors young people who are looked after at home.

A range of work is being done to address the impact of neglect, to identify children who are either at risk of neglect or have experienced neglect, and to support them to ensure that they achieve positive outcomes, rather than the negative outcomes that have been experienced in the past.

That concludes our ministerial statement on child improvement. I will allow a few moments for members to change seats before we move on to the next item of business.