Chamber and committees

Local authorities have a general duty under the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in need in their area and provide services appropriate to the child’s needs. Police officers also have a responsibility to ensure that victims of any crime are offered appropriate support.

Any child abuse investigation will typically be in close consultation with partners from health and social work for a number of reasons, but particularly to ensure that the welfare of any victim is at its centre. Local Public Protection Units are aware of what local support services are available and what special services can be obtained nationally if required. A number of third sector partners are recognised for their specialist work in areas such as abuse and trauma recovery.

We have introduced measures to improve standards and ensure practitioners have the necessary skills and knowledge to protect children from neglect and abuse. The National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland, published in 2010, sets a national framework to help shape local practices and procedures. It highlights that all agencies and services have a shared responsibility for protecting children and safeguarding their welfare.

Training on the above categories is incorporated into other training and appropriately tailored to the needs of the students on any particular course. Probationer training at the Scottish Police College will encompass inputs on child protection and sex offenders. This training will touch on various types of offending such as child sexual exploitation or ritual child abuse and will take place within the training delivered to specialist officers deployed to deal with the victims of serious sexual offences, or the training delivered on specific child protection courses.

Initial detective training also encompass these areas and there are inputs on supervisory training courses.

<>I refer the member to answer to question S4W-10913 on 15 November 2012. Police investigations are not formally categorised or recorded other than by reference to the crime type under investigation. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The following table shows the number of sexual offences against children recorded by the police in Scotland for the past 5 years.

2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
2250	2049	2219	2173	2233

Police forces in Scotland do not record instances of child abuse by means of the sub-categories referred to.

Since 2007 we have invested £4.25 million in services for survivors of sexual abuse, awareness raising and training for staff in statutory and voluntary organisations. Further funding of £1.65 million has been allocated for 2012-2014.

We have set up a group to oversee the refresh of the National Guidance for Child Protection which will examine how well the Guidance continues to address all aspects of abuse. In addition, a working group has been set up to develop multi-agency local protocols on a number of child protection issues for all parts of Scotland.

In March 2011, the UK National Screening Committee agreed that flexible sigmoidoscopy technology met the Committee’s criteria for a screening test, within national bowel screening programmes.

Whilst bowel screening in England is offered from age 60, in Scotland bowel screening is offered earlier, from age 50.

Since the Committee’s recommendation, the Scottish Government has been working closely with experts to consider the benefits of flexible sigmoidoscopy technology within an already screened population and has set aside £2 million over the next two years to undertake a feasibility pilot.

The Scottish Government is committed to enhancing consumer protection in this area as soon as practicable. The 2010 Act is being implemented in stages, beginning with the provisions relating to alternative business structures for the legal profession. We anticipate commencing the will-writing provisions in 2013.

We expect a total of 300 Dementia Champions to be trained and to graduate by 2013, broken down by discipline in the following table. The first cohort of 100 were trained in 2011-12 and graduated in March 2012. The second cohort completed training in September 2012 and the third cohort training runs from October 2012 to February 2013.

All Dementia Champions drawn from the NHS work in acute general hospitals. The primary focus of the Dementia Champions programme in hospital settings reflects the prioritisation of this key care setting in Scotland’s first National Dementia Strategy, which runs to summer 2013. The 2012-13 cohorts also include social services staff working in a range of areas.

Nationally by Discipline (all cohorts 2011-13)

Nurses	224
Occupational Therapists	28
Physiotherapists	15
Social Workers	14
Social Services – Unit Manager	5
Dietician	4
Speech and Language Therapist	3
Social Services – Care Manager	2
Social Services – Team Leader	1
Chaplain	1
Pharmacist	1
Sheltered Housing Coordinator	1
Dementia Support Coordinator	1
Head of Spiritual Care	1

The Dementia Champions programme complements the improvement work with boards and others in respect of older people’s care, including those with dementia, being led by the Chief Nursing Officer, and the ongoing programme of inspections of older people’s care in hospitals by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

In addition, the Scottish Government is providing substantial funding to support Alzheimer Scotland in the appointment in every NHS board of a Specialist Dementia Nurse for general hospitals. This appointment process is now complete.