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The next item of business is a statement by Natalie Don-Innes on secure accommodation capacity in Scotland. The minister will take questions at the end of her statement, so there should be no interventions or interruptions.
14:52
Since my statement in January, the Government has been taking a range of actions to address Scotland’s secure care accommodation capacity.
As I have set out consistently in the chamber, secure accommodation services are the most intensive, restrictive and specialised form of care for children and young people. There are 78 beds across Scotland’s secure accommodation estate, provided by four independent charitable organisations. Based on all known past placement patterns and the higher ends of all evidenced projections, that provision should be sufficient to meet Scotland’s needs. However, in recent months, there has been a considerable strain on Scotland’s available secure accommodation capacity.
Four factors are particularly relevant: the pause on admissions to St Mary’s Kenmure, which limited its secure accommodation capacity from the contracted 24 beds to 12, reducing the capacity across the secure estate by almost 20 per cent, which has displaced demands to the other three providers over the period; the complexity of some children’s needs, which can require the use of multiple beds, and the associated staff, to care safely for a single child; the increased duration of some placements as a result of the increased sentenced and remanded population; and cross-border placements.
As I set out in my statement in January, the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024 saw Scotland take a major step forward to keep the Promise, by introducing a series of reforms. It is with thanks to secure providers and wider care and justice partners that we can proudly say that Scotland does not imprison our children. Those reforms—although they were the right thing to do and were well prepared for—have required a period of adjustment. That is why, in these early post-commencement stages, it is important that we continue to work with that same collaborative, learning spirit as matters settle.
Members will recall that, following its inspection in October, St Mary’s Kenmure was served an improvement notice by the Care Inspectorate. That rightly triggered a pause on new admissions while improvements were made. That total pause on admissions was lifted by the Care Inspectorate on 18 December, but the maximum capacity at St Mary’s has been capped at 12. Following a further visit on 13 March, the Care Inspectorate was satisfied that significant improvements had been made in a number of areas, and it agreed to lift the improvement notice.
St Mary’s has been focusing on meeting the requirements of the improvement notice, and its focus is now on moving towards sustainable restored capacity as soon as safely possible. The centre is redoubling its efforts to augment staff capacity over spring. Work to fill those specialist roles is already in hand, but will, of course, take some time. I will update the Parliament further on that progress before summer recess, and I visited St Mary’s earlier this month to hear directly about the centre’s improvement journey.
As members are aware, secure accommodation demand is complex and volatile—capacity can shift at least daily. This morning, there was one place available in secure accommodation in Scotland, but it is entirely possible that that position could change during the course of my statement. That unpredictability in demand is why our key actions relate not just to restoring capacity, but to improving confidence among practitioners and decision makers when it comes to suitable alternatives to secure care.
Meeting the needs of children who may require secure accommodation is not just about numbers of vacant beds. It is about creating and sustaining environments where children receive the highest quality of care. Those services require a specialist and skilled workforce, and I acknowledge and pay tribute to the dedication of that workforce.
In my previous statement, I outlined the Government’s commitment to work collaboratively with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, Social Work Scotland and others to develop a secure care contingency action plan, and I thank all providers and partners for their contributions. I will write to the conveners of the Criminal Justice Committee and the Education, Children and Young People Committee with fuller details in April.
On immediate priorities, we have moved to restore Scotland’s secure accommodation capacity. I am therefore pleased to announce the establishment of a new four-bed national contingency resource with support from the Scottish Government. Part of Rossie’s specialised residential estate will be repurposed and specially staffed in order to offer a new four-bed secure care provision. That will directly alleviate some of the pressure on secure care accommodation. That fully funded resource is expected to be operational in the next month, subject to Care Inspectorate registration.
I am grateful to Rossie for its agility and innovation in helping to identify a tangible solution. The centre has just had very positive Care Inspectorate gradings, and members can be confident that the new provision will be a significant and effective augmentation to Scotland’s offer.
As well as boosting capacity directly, we are also supporting improved awareness and confidence among professionals working in Scotland’s placing authorities. I am therefore pleased also to confirm that we are funding a dedicated professional lead at Social Work Scotland for the next 12 months. The policy and practice adviser will work alongside officials in Scottish Government to enhance our partnership with local government and improve the co-ordination of relevant services across the country. The post should also enable us to accelerate our collective efforts to evolve Scotland’s secure care provision, in line with the Promise.
We also continue to focus on alternatives to secure accommodation, focusing on early intervention and preventative services. We are backing our contingency actions with up to £2 million this year alone. In addition, following the recent budget, funding of up to £8.4 million is being made available by the Scottish Government to cover the placements of sentenced and remanded children over the next two years. That is a significant further financial commitment to support the system and its sustainability.
Refreshed guidance on community alternatives to depriving children of their liberty has also been prepared and was published last week. I thank the Children’s and Young People’s Centre for Justice and the Youth Justice Improvement Board for bringing that work to fruition.
As members know, secure care should be used only when absolutely necessary. We are also working with third sector organisations to identify high-intensity wraparound services, which are intended to offer credible support to high-need children, and to encourage safe, early step down from secure care. The Parliament will be updated further on that before summer recess.
In the medium to long term, we are committed to developing a more resilient and responsive system of secure care provision, capacity preservation and placement management. Also ahead of the summer recess, we will publish our response to the “Reimagining Secure Care” reports, which will set out our longer-term vision for the future of secure care within a trauma-informed, Promise-keeping context.
I expect that response to confirm the continuing necessity of secure care and to underline the value that we place on those specialist services, but also to cover the need to extend secure care beyond its current configuration. We will focus on a holistic approach that includes preventative measures, improved alternatives to secure care and a stronger focus on transitions to support children to return to their communities, and to their families, wherever that is safe and appropriate.
As with all Promise-keeping efforts, there is a shared responsibility between national and local Government alongside delivery partners. I want us to improve the co-ordination and integration between different parts of the system to ensure that our system is both compassionate and responsive.
Children in secure care often require multiple services, including mental health support, education and vocational training, among others. We therefore need to foster greater collaboration with health services, local authorities, education providers and the third sector. We are also considering where quantitative data, real-time data and enhanced management information can help us to predict and forecast demand.
I hope that this statement reassures members as to our focus and resolve on these matters. It is clear that, since January, improvements have been and are being made. I want to reassure all those who are involved in the provision of secure care, from the children who need its support and the staff in secure care centres to local authorities and community and justice partners. My message is that the Government will work with them to take urgent supportive action where it is needed, and to develop sustainable and integrated solutions. Our priority will always be to ensure that children have access to the care and support that is necessary to keep them, and others, safe.
I am aware that members will have further questions, and I would be pleased to answer those now.
The minister will now take questions on the issues raised in her statement. I intend to allow around 20 minutes, after which we will need to move on to the next item of business. I would be grateful if members who wish to ask a question could press their request-to-speak buttons now, if they have not already done so.
I thank the minister for advance sight of her statement.
The strain on Scotland’s secure accommodation provision and the complex factors involved might not have been foreseeable, but they were certainly possible, and I raised those concerns at the time. The fact is that the minister and the Scottish Government were told, time and again during the passage of the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024, that the situation in which we now find ourselves was entirely possible. It is a shameful dereliction of duty that nothing was done in anticipation.
I welcome the commitment to building contingencies in the system as we move forward. However, the Scottish Government had a long lead-in time to prepare, and a lack of urgency has resulted in vulnerable children being denied the support and protection that they require. That is not good enough.
The Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland wrote to the minister on 20 February with three specific questions, and the minister was unable to answer those during questioning at the Education, Children and Young People Committee this morning.
So, how many children in each of the past six months have been unable to be placed in secure care? Is the minister still of the view that redundant overprovision would be contrary to the Promise, and if so, how confident is she that the measures that she announced in her statement today will not result in the very same overprovision?
I note the minister’s commitment to working with the third sector to identify high-intensity wraparound services. Again, there has been a lack of urgency, and the issues should have been foreseen. What form will these services take, and how soon will they be implemented?
I was actually able to answer those questions in committee this morning.
The first question from the children’s commissioner was about the number of children who have been unable to be placed. As I said in committee this morning, the Scottish Government does not routinely hold case-specific information around that. However, I know that, in instances where the issues of capacity have caused concerns, there have been real efforts between all the different stakeholders involved—whether that is the Scottish Government, COSLA or secure care providers—to come to an arrangement that meets the needs of the child and of the other children in secure care.
The commissioner asked another question on the national co-ordination of secure placements. Our current focus is on the short term and on rebuilding the capacity. The member asked whether we feel that that extra provision will have an impact on the idea of redundant overprovision. I have made it clear—and it is clearly set out in the Promise—that we do not want to have a large estate of secure care that is not utilised; that would not be good for anybody. Instead, we would want to invest that money in appropriate community alternatives or other interventions for the children and young people.
In essence, I do not agree with the member—I feel that extra capacity is required at this moment in time and will help to alleviate the challenges that members have brought to me.
I thank the minister for advance sight of her statement.
The minister indicated that 78 beds were available across Scotland—that is according to Scottish Government data that was published for 2022-23. However, the data that was published in February this year for 2023-24 confirms that the number of beds is actually 71. I wonder whether the minister could consider the position and clarify the record in writing.
According to the public website, there are 67 beds and, as the minister indicated in her statement, there is one available bed. As she said, that is due to the situation at St Mary’s Kenmure. When the Edinburgh secure services provision closed in 2023, we had 84 beds. Is 84 beds too much provision? We have hit full capacity on whatever figure the minister would like to dictate is available.
For clarity, under the Scotland Excel contract, there are 78 beds, but not all of those are being used at the moment due to the issues with St Mary’s Kenmure. I have been very clear that St Mary’s is working to recruit staff and to restore its capacity—I hope that that will happen as soon as possible.
The member provided a figure of 84 beds. The number of children who are going to secure care has decreased in the past number of years. I am nervous about overcapacity, but I appreciate that we have to have places for children who require to go to secure care. There is a fine balance between the provision that we need and overprovision.
The minister’s update is welcome, including her announcement on the new four-bed national secure care provision at Rossie.
More broadly, it is vital that care and justice services for children continue to be informed by the views of care-experienced children. Can the minister say any more about the steps that the Government is taking to ensure that young people’s voices are at the heart of its work?
As the member knows, that is extremely important to me. The Government commissioned the Children’s and Young People’s Centre for Justice to consider the future needs of children and young people who are in or on the edges of secure care. Last autumn, the CYCJ published its report, “Reimagining Secure Care”, which included specific and detailed information setting out the views of a sample of children in secure accommodation. In the coming months, the centre will also undertake a census study of children in secure accommodation. The views that are captured as part of that study will inform our work, which is under way, on “Reimagining Secure Care”.
I appreciate that the minister had a tough appearance at the Education, Children and Young People Committee this morning, where she was repeatedly unable to provide a timescale for the introduction to Parliament of the Promise bill. I give her another opportunity to redeem herself by stating simply when a bill on the Promise will be laid before the Scottish Parliament, so that the Education, Children and Young People Committee can finally scrutinise the detail.
It is my intention to introduce the bill to Parliament prior to the summer recess. I explained in committee that I am not able to give any further commitment or more detail because of the requirements of the legislative process and the on-going work on the content of the bill. I have made it clear that my priority and commitment is to get the Promise bill right for the people who want to see it.
It is right that Scotland is committed to a rights-based approach to youth justice that is focused on prevention and early intervention. With that in mind, what is the Government doing to invest in preventative approaches and alternatives to remand?
Wherever possible, children who are in conflict with the law should be supported via appropriate community-based support. In practice, those interventions are often provided via a partnership of statutory and voluntary sector services. That is reflected in our investment in services and initiatives that aim to address the underlying causes of offending and to support young people in the community through funding streams such as the cashback for communities programme or the whole family wellbeing fund. For example, the whole family wellbeing fund has supported the highly regarded third sector organisation Includem to offer its ADAPT project services to local authorities across Scotland.
Other examples of community support might include referral to the Government-funded interventions for vulnerable youth service, which is a national service that uses a multidisciplinary, tiered approach to provide risk assessment, formulation and management for young people aged 12 to 18 who present with complex needs.
The increased duration of some placements as a result of the increased sentenced and remand populations is welcome. Will the minister outline whether appropriate mental health support will be given to children who might be awaiting proceedings or trial? In relation to young people who reach the age of 19 and who are in the criminal justice system, has any assessment been made of what support they might need to transition to a young offenders institution?
All of that is contained in the conversations around and the plan for the child who is entering secure care. Mental health needs would be recognised. As we have spoken about, the case of every child is taken on a case-by-case basis. Where extra support is required, that would be recognised and implemented.
The transition would be an on-going consideration in relation to the child’s plan. The member will be aware that there are provisions in the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024 that would allow young people to stay beyond their 18th birthday. Those have still to come into force, and we will be considering that issue in line with the act.
The steps that the Scottish Government is taking to develop a more responsive system of secure care provision are welcome. Can the minister provide an update on the stakeholder engagement that the Scottish Government has undertaken ahead of responding to the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice’s “Reimagining Secure Care” report?
As I noted in my statement, although the immediate focus is on stabilisation, our efforts must also look forward. In the medium and long term, we are committed to developing a much more resilient and sustainable system of secure care accommodation, in relation to commissioning, resourcing and placing management. The secure care contingency plan is the first step in a broader and more ambitious vision for the future of secure care in Scotland. We are deep into a period of engagement with stakeholders to explore their views on the reimagined vision and options. To date, that engagement has included care and justice partners such as secure providers, COSLA, Social Work Scotland and the Care Inspectorate.
One issue that was unearthed by Parliament’s scrutiny of the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill was the almost completely unregulated nature of the transport provision that is associated with secure accommodation. Parliament accepted my amendment to begin regulation of secure accommodation transport and to end the inappropriate use of restraints such as handcuffs. Will the minister provide us with an update on how that regulation is being developed?
Absolutely. As the member will be aware, there are a number of regulations—I just referred to those relating to children staying in secure accommodation beyond their 18th birthday. I am more than happy to write to the member with an update on those specific provisions following this statement.
It is utterly shameful that the minister has presided over cobbled-together provision for people who are in desperate need of secure accommodation. We were promised that, through the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024, there would not be a problem, but she has repeatedly come to the chamber to try to fix the very problem that she created. Can she guarantee that there is no two-tier system in which those who go through the courts versus those who go through the hearings system are dealt with differently?
I can guarantee that. As I have said, every child is looked at on a case-by-case basis. I disagree with the member’s idea of cobbled-together provision. He has raised issues with me in relation to children not being able to enter secure care from the children’s hearings system, but there should always be a plan in place. There could be a multitude of reasons why a child cannot enter secure care, over and above the capacity challenges that we are faced with just now.
Conversations should always take place around where would be safe for a child if they cannot enter secure care. There are already plans in place. I feel that they are robust and that the conversations that take place between all the stakeholders that are involved in a child’s placement are strong enough. The measures that I have come to the chamber with today, on the restoration of capacity, will only strengthen them.
The minister has previously advised that work is being undertaken to consider effective alternatives to secure care so that children and young people receive the care that they need in the setting that most appropriately suits their needs. With consideration of all that has been said so far, can the minister say any more about such alternatives?
Maximising alternative measures is absolutely critical to ensuring that no child is deprived of their liberty unnecessarily. The core responsibility for developing and delivering those alternatives lies, rightly, with the implementation authorities, but the Government is supporting them with those responsibilities.
Only last week, new guidance on community alternatives to depriving children of their liberty was published. It will aid those who work with children who might require secure accommodation to consider alternative options for them. Funding of up to £8.4 million is also being made available by the Government to fully cover secure placement costs for sentenced and remanded children in 2025-26 and 2026-27. That is a further financial commitment to support the system and its sustainability.
I find it difficult to believe that the minister has come to the chamber this afternoon to announce that four additional beds will solve secure care accommodation capacity issues. I am not convinced that the minister believes that four additional beds will solve the problem either, given that capacity has already been reduced by almost 20 per cent.
I find the timing quite odd, because we have had a statement this afternoon, but the secure care contingency plan has not yet been completed. Why not? How has the minister managed to arrive at the conclusion that four additional beds are sufficient? Will MSPs have to come back to the chamber in a few months’ time, when the number increases yet again?
Capacity was not reduced by 20 per cent—
Yes, it was.
It was originally, but it has improved now, because there has been a further restoration of capacity at St Mary’s Kenmure.
I believe that the four secure care beds will make a difference. If the member has been following the numbers over the past few months, she will be aware that adding such a number is an appropriate response, because we do not want there to be overprovision. We want to invest money in our children and young people, rather than waste it on empty beds.
The member made another point, which I do not recall. If she is happy to write to me on that, I am happy to respond.
The minister has previously spoken about the use of cross-border placements. Can she comment on how the secure accommodation situation in Scotland compares with the situation elsewhere in the United Kingdom? Can she say more about the Scottish Government’s latest engagement with the UK Government regarding the use of cross-border placements?
Absolutely. Scotland is not alone in facing such a situation. It is well known that placements across the rest of the UK are volatile, and children are often placed in secure accommodation in Scotland due to the limited availability of placements in England and Wales. I understand that the UK Government is currently working on those issues, as per its recently announced Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
The Scottish Government is clear that cross-border placements should occur only in exceptional circumstances and when such a placement is in the child’s best interests. We have made provision through the Children, Care and Justice (Scotland) Act 2024 to allow ministers to further regulate cross-border placements in residential care in Scotland. We are currently developing a bolstered regulatory framework, with the overarching aim of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of every child who is placed into care in Scotland from other parts of the UK.
In relation to the national contingency resource, I am sure that the minister will agree that Rossie should be provided with stable financing to allow it to recruit and retain crucial staff. Can the minister assure me that those beds will not be paid for by usage alone?
We have provided Rossie with funding for the contingency resource. I am confident that the funding has been well received and will go a long way towards alleviating the pressures that I have discussed today.
That concludes the ministerial statement. There will be a brief pause before we move to the next item of business to allow front-bench teams to change.
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