I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Three recent Acts of the Scottish Parliament - the Management of Offenders (Scotland Act 2019, the Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Act 2019 and the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 - have changed the disclosure process in relation to the wellbeing and future life chances of children who have been involved in the children’s hearings system or criminal justice system.

Per Scottish Government policy, Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessments have informed policy development and involved children and young people in evidence-gathering and decision-making.

Children and young people were spoken to directly though engagement with them at the Young Offender Institution (YOI) Polmont, the Scottish Youth Parliament, Children's Parliament, Who Cares? Scotland, Youth Advantage Outreach, Up-2-Us, Sacro, Youth Just Us, Life Changes Trust and Kibble, Good Shepherd, St Mary’s Kenmure and Rossie Young People’s Trust secure accommodation. The methods used to engage and record views ranged from scenario storytelling to quizzes, timelines, discussion groups, voting cards, games and artwork. Their views were recorded and applied to impact assessment of the policies.

New processes for review applications under the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 are due to be implemented in April 2025. Disclosure Scotland is engaging with Who Cares? Scotland, Children and Young People's Centre for Justice and Clan Childlaw about the effect on people who had justice-experience in childhood. Following engagement with children who had been brought into the PVG Scheme, the Disclosure Act raises the minimum age for accessing most disclosure types to 16 years old.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Disclosure Scotland is focused on providing reliable safeguarding outcomes for the public. It plans and regularly reviews service delivery performance to meet the Service Level Agreement. The process includes a range of system and human validation checks to ensure the accuracy of the information disclosed along with a comprehensive programme of training and performance management.

The Scottish Government is committed to making sure that the necessary resources and support are available for professionals and volunteers working in child protection roles.

We are working with partners and the workforce who support children and families to improve the skills, knowledge and shared values of all those who contribute to the national outcomes for children, young people and families through the implementation of Getting It Right for Every Child, UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, The Promise, and through delivery of our Early Child Development Transformational Change Programme.

The National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland was updated in August 2023 and supports everyone who works with children, young people and their families in Scotland by outlining responsibilities and expectations regarding child protection. The National Guidance will be updated as necessary to remain up to date with significant legislative, policy or practice changes.

Last year, we commissioned the Scottish Social Services Council to lead on a refresh of the Common Core training framework for the workforce providing support to children, young people and families. The Framework focuses on the core skills, values and learning the workforce requires to deliver holistic family support and rights-based practice in accordance with UNCRC and GIRFEC principles.

We have also worked with partners on the development of NHS Education for Scotland eLearning resources to support health professionals in their child and adult protection roles. In 2022 four eLearning modules were published on Turas Learn, thereby improving accessibility to high quality learning and consistency in practice across Scotland.

Furthermore, we continue to work with partners to support the workforce to develop a wider trauma-informed approach to the provision of care. As part of the National Trauma Transformation Programme (NTTP), we continue to rollout 'Transforming Connections', a tailored ‘Trauma-Skilled’ level training and coaching package, to people who work alongside care experienced children and young people in priority sectors of the Children and Families workforce in Scotland.

To support the child protection workforce with learning and development, the Scottish Government is funding a National Learning and Development Co-ordinator post for two years. The post holder has worked with a stakeholder group and Scottish Government colleagues refreshed the National Framework for Child Protection Learning and Development in Scotland, which was published on 1 March 2024, and to develop a range of resources for Child Protection Committees (CPCs) which will be made available on a Knowledge Hub site later in March 2024. CPCs are the key local bodies for developing, implementing and improving child protection strategy across and between agencies, bodies and the local community.

The Scottish Government aims to engage with children and young people wherever appropriate during the development and review of child protection policies and services.

Throughout the recently updated , national-guidance-child-protection-scotland-2021-updated-2023.pdf (www.gov.scot) it is continuously emphasised that at a local level, staff working in child protection should engage positively with children and families during delivery of services. A resource is also currently being developed by Scottish Government in collaboration with the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection (CELCIS) which will provide an accessible source of information on the guidance specifically for children, young people and families. This resource is being co-designed with children and young people.

The Bairns’ Hoose Bairns' Hoose - Children and Young People Participation and Engagement Plan (www.gov.scot) describes how children and young people will be involved in the development and implementation of the Bairns’ Hoose in Scotland.

More broadly, the Children and Young People’s Participation Framework offers an approach that ensures a range of children and young people are involved in the wider work of the Scottish Government. This includes a particular focus on those identified as being seldom heard, furthest from their rights, or vulnerable because of factors related to their personal development, features of their family life, or because of wider influences that impact on them within their community. Any engagement with children and young people around child protection policies and services will follow the principles of the CYP Participation Framework.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

The following table details average number of days to process disclosure applications, by application type, from 2016 to 2023:

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

The following table details processed disclosure applications, by application type, from 2016 to 2023:

Keeping children safe from child sexual abuse and exploitation, including online abuse, is a key priority for the Scottish Government.

We are committed to ensuring that our young people are safe online and our response is multi-faceted. It involves equipping children with the tools and skills they need to stay safe online, and supporting parents and carers to ensure that they have the information to guide children and recognise when a child is at risk. We equip professionals with the knowledge and skills to build children’s resilience, to recognise abuse and exploitation and respond with high quality support. This is accompanied by work to detect, disrupt and prosecute perpetrators and reduce re-offending.

In our schools, teachers deliver the technology experiences and outcomes area of the curriculum to provide learning on internet safety and cyber resilience. These help teachers support children to learn about the safe and responsible use of technologies, including the internet and social media, as part of their broad general education under our Curriculum for Excellence.

We are also committed to ensuring all children and young people receive high quality relationships and sexual health education to help them build safe and positive relationships as they grow older.

Public messaging is key in preventing online abuse. In March 2023, we re-ran our successful public awareness campaign which supported parents and carers to keep children safe online, emphasising the importance of talking regularly to children about online safety, setting safety measures and agreeing boundaries. The campaign had a strong impact on behaviour. Nine in ten of those who had seen the campaign reported taking action as a result of it, the highest rate of any Parent Club campaign.

This campaign linked to an Online Safety Hub on the SG Parent Club website, which provides information and advice on how to keep children safe from online harms.

Cross-Government workstreams collectively take action to prevent and protect children in Scotland from child sexual abuse and exploitation and provide appropriate support to victims and survivors of such abuse. This includes funding for a range of activity and programmes with a particular focus on prevention and early intervention. In particular, we provide funding to the Lucy Faithfull Foundation Scotland, to deliver online child sexual abuse prevention work.

The National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021, updated in 2023 supports frontline workers in their prevention roles by defining and clarifying the roles and responsibilities for everyone working with children and young people, setting out the foundation for protective action to keep young people safe from harms including sexual abuse and exploitation.

In terms of those that seek to cause harm online, we are working with Police Scotland to find effective ways to deter potential perpetrators from committing online abuse in the first place.

Though regulation of the internet is a reserved matter and falls to the UK Government, the Scottish Government is committed to securing the online safety of our children and young people which is why the First Minister urged the UK Government to include additional measures in the Online Safety Act 2023 to protect children and vulnerable adults online and go further to encourage tech firms to design out illegal and harmful material.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Disclosure Scotland leads the Scotland Works for You group. The group includes organisations from the public, private and third sector to improve access to employment for people with convictions.

Scotland Works for You offers advice for people with convictions, help with disclosure applications required for employment, education or volunteering, and training for employers to help them assess people's convictions. This guidance sets out that most disclosure periods and, in relation to standard, enhanced and PVG scheme record disclosures, the additional period a spent conviction can be disclosed is halved where a person was convicted aged under 18. Separate guidance is not provided specific to children.

As part of our responsibilities as a Corporate Parent, Disclosure Scotland has worked with Who Cares? Scotland and have produced some short videos providing information on key areas that have caused concern such as application completion and what the consideration for listing (barring) process is. This information is available on the "disclosure scotland" - Who Cares? Scotland (whocaresscotland.org) .

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of children and young people who are home educating in Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-25783 on 11 March 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .