Senior Police Scotland officer questions whether child protection register is fit for purpose

The officer in charge of Police Scotland’s efforts to tackle child abuse has questioned whether the child protection register is fit for purpose amid the growing threat of online offending against children.

Police Scotland Assistant Chief Constable Malcolm Graham, who has responsibility for major crime and public protection, said “greater clarity” is needed about measures that kick in if children are placed on the register.

Every local authority in Scotland has a child protection register, which is a confidential list kept by the social work department of children who may be at risk of future harm.

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Latest official statistics put the number children across Scotland on the register at almost 2,900 following a rise of 41 per cent between 2000 and 2014.

Graham’s comments come a week on from the Scottish Government announcing a full review of Scotland’s child protection system is to be commissioned. 

The child protection register is one of four areas the review will make recommendations on by the end of this year, Education Secretary Angela Constance told MSPs

“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 concerns, welfare concerns, and also when children are at risk, and action that can be taken,” Graham told Holyrood

“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].

“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.

“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 subject of decision-making around about what the threshold is for people going on the register in different areas, [that] would be my experience of looking across Scotland.”

The government review will consider legislation covering children at risk of neglect or abuse to see if it needs strengthened.

As well as child protection committee and initial case reviews, the review will also focus on significant case reviews, which take place after a child dies or is seriously injured and abuse or neglect is thought to have taken place.

Graham, who is speaking at a Holyrood event on Scotland’s child protection system later, added: “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.”