The police officer in charge of combating child abuse in Scotland has cast doubts over whether the child protection register is fit for purpose.
Assistant chief constable Malcolm Graham, who is in charge of major crime and public protection at Police Scotland, questioned whether the register, a record of children at risk of harm kept by each of Scotland’s councils, is relevant in an age where the danger to children has moved online.
Mr Graham said there was a lack of consistency between the way registers were managed, with different thresholds for when a child was deemed to be at risk of mistreatment or abuse depending on policies within each local authority. Speaking ahead of a conference on child protection in Edinburgh yesterday, Mr Graham said: “I do think there is a question mark over the purpose and the effectiveness of the child protection register in local authority areas in an age where things have moved on substantially in terms of recognising welfare concerns, and also when children are at risk and action that can be taken.
“We need to make sure that the child protection register is still effective and relevant in that context. I would like there to be greater clarity about what it means [to be on the register].”
Successive investigations after the deaths of children known to social services have identified areas for improvement and promised that lessons would be learnt. In 2003, every single child protection case handled by the City of Edinburgh council was reviewed after 11-week old Caleb Ness was killed by his father. An inquiry found his death had been “avoidable”.
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Following the death of 23-month-old Brandon Muir in Dundee, who suffered weeks of beatings by his mother’s boyfriend, a review called for better information sharing between agencies, including the police.
And a report into the death of Mikaeel Kular, three, who was beaten to death by his mother, Rosdeep Adekoya, in Edinburgh two years ago, found that social workers could have “better tested” her ability to care for her children.
The number of children in Scotland on the child protection register rose by 41 per cent between 2000 and 2014, and there is growing concern over the explosion in abuse conducted over the internet.
Police revealed last month that the number of investigations into the sexual exploitation of children online had almost doubled, with 850 cases identified in 2015, compared with 496 the previous year.
Speaking to Holyrood magazine, Mr Graham said: “If a child is on the child protection register, then what does that mean in terms of what action is going to be taken? And if there are trends identified in areas of numbers of children either increasing or decreasing on child protection registers, what does that tell us?
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“Because at the moment I see trends going up and down in different areas and it doesn’t readily lead you to a conclusion as to whether that is a good or a bad thing. Sometimes it’s a subject of decision-making about what the threshold is for people going on the register in different areas.”
Mr Graham also said there were inconsistent standards being used by councils dealing with incidents of serious harm to children, and he called for more “transparency and openness” in sharing the lessons from significant case reviews.
Last week the Scottish government announced a major review of the child protection system, including the operation of the child protection register.
Responding to the announcement, Mr Graham said: “I particularly welcome the focus on significant case reviews and that process, ensuring a greater level of transparency and consistency about learning lessons from significant incidents.
“I have been involved in quite a number of those and they have been dealt with very differently in different areas. I would say that from time to time there have been questions asked about whether the necessary transparency and openness has been present in the way in which such reviews have been commissioned and then shared thereafter.”
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Charities said that Mr Graham was right to point out the risks to children in a changing world.
A Scottish government spokesman said last night: “We are planning a review of the key elements of the formal child protection system in Scotland, which includes the child protection register.”