Chamber and committees

The safety of children is always paramount and our children and young people have the right to be protected from all forms of harm. The Scottish Government has invested significant effort since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak, to carefully monitor data from a range of sources, to ensure that robust child protection measures are in place across Scotland and to develop appropriate responses to safeguard those children most vulnerable to abuse and neglect.

The Scottish Government is committed to a continued and specific focus on tackling child sexual abuse and exploitation through our continued funding commitments to the child protection sector and third sector partners. We continue to build on the wealth of activity already delivered through the National Action Plan to Prevent and Tackle Child Sexual Exploitation. Through a range of cross-governmental and Government-supported work we are taking action across Justice, Health, Communities, Equality, Childrens Hearings, Policing, Child Protection Policy and Education to tackle these forms of child abuse.

Getting it right for every child is the Scottish Government's approach to supporting children and young people. It supports families by making sure children and young people can receive the right help, at the right time, from the right people.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing new policy and practice guidance to provide confidence, clarity and practical support to deliver GIRFEC.

Data collection around the reporting of child abuse and social work interventions focusses on several key metrics used by Police Scotland and local authorities. The Scottish Government collects weekly data from a variety of sources including Police, Social Work Departments and Health Boards on the number of Police Scotland Child Concern reports for child protection; Inter-agency Referral Discussions; new registrations and de-registrations on the Child Protection Register; children and young people with a Child’s Plan seen by a professional in the previous two weeks; children and young people with a Multi-agency Plan seen by a professional in the previous two weeks. Monthly reports were published in April, May and June 2020 and can be accessed on the Scottish Government’s webpages at https://www.gov.scot/publications/supporting-vulnerable-children-young-people-data-
intelligence-report/ , https://www.gov.scot/publications/vulnerable-children-report-15-2020-scottish-
government-solace/ and https://www.gov.scot/publications/children-young-people-families-covid-19
-evidence-intelligence-report/

The latest edition of the annual Children’s Social Work Statistics is available online at https://www.gov.scot/publications/republication-childrens-social-work-statistics-scotland-2018-19/ .

These statistics include data on children on the child protection register, and concerns identified at case conferences of children who were on the child protection register. Statistics for 2019-20 are due to be published in March 2021.

The Scottish Government also publishes information on vulnerable children collected from local authorities and Police Scotland. The data is used to understand the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak and lockdown on vulnerable children and to understand how services are responding. The information can be accessed online at https://public.tableau.com/profile/sg.eas.learninganalysis#!/vizhome/VulnerableChildrenand
AdultProtection/Introduction .