This report was funded by The Promise Partnership, of which the Scottish Government is the principal funder. The Scottish Government recognises that it raises important issues about how children and young people are supported to enforce their rights, and welcomes that Clan ChildLaw commissioned this work. Many of the report’s findings align with The Promise, particularly that Scotland must consider the creation of an accredited legal specialism to set standards for legal professionals representing children.

Through legal aid, children and young people can access legal support for a wide range of matters including children’s hearings, criminal proceedings and to resolve civil disputes. The Legal Aid Fund pays for legal advice and representation, but it is not designed to fund wider support needs. The young people’s statements of their ideal legal services, as captured by the report, extend beyond the traditional model of service delivery by law firms, and the scope of the current legal aid system.

As the report has highlighted, “There may be a need for the development of initiatives, partnerships and funding bids focused on specific issues and needs” and officials will continue to engage on how to best to support such work.

The average length of time between date of death and FAI completion date in days is 1,067.

This figure is based on COPFS figures rather than the published FAI Statistics (the difference being that COPFS records the FAI as concluded when evidence is concluded, not when the Determination is issued) and accordingly it relates to 42 cases and not the 44 on the FAI statistics. Of those 42, the shortest length was 322 days and the longest 3,440 days. 32 out of the 42 (76%) of the FAIs related to deaths which occurred in 2018, 2019 and 2020. As stated above, once a First Notice has been lodged with the Sheriff Clerk, the Crown has limited control over the timescale for commencing and concluding an FAI.

Whilst it is accepted that the average timescale has increased, this can be explained by COPFS progressing its oldest cases and ensuring that the FAI process is commenced. It should also be recognised that FAIs have been progressed and concluded in 2021-22 and the preceding year notwithstanding the considerable effect on COPFS and court business placed by the COVID pandemic, including courts being closed for a number of months and thereafter a phased reintroduction of court business. Court users quickly and successfully adapted to new ways of working including the use of WebEx to conduct FAIs online to ensure cases were progressed.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of people reported missing from NHS hospitals or other healthcare settings, as there is no specific variable within Public Health Scotland’s data to highlight where a patient is reported missing.

Some information is available from Police Scotland on incidents of a person going missing from the NHS (covering those cases that were reported to the police). This is provided in the following table. The data is drawn from the Missing Person’s Database and is available on a consistent basis from April 2019 onwards. The figures relate to a count of incidents (and their associated investigations) rather than a count of people going missing. As such, the same person may appear multiple times within any year if they have been reported missing on more than one occasion during that period.

It should also be noted that the data covers all NHS grounds and not just hospitals.

Missing Person Investigations, “Missing From The NHS”, Police Scotland

Responsibility for the management of the police estate sits with the Scottish Police Authority and the Chief Constable.

However, Police Scotland has confirmed that 15 police stations have been closed since 2013 across Ayrshire, Renfrewshire and Inverclyde with the majority of them been moved to a new modern co-located accommodation within the same towns or officers were moved to new police stations nearby.

The Police Scotland Estate Strategy, approved by the SPA in May 2019, provides a framework for planning the future of the police estate to support the long term vision of policing which includes enhanced partnership working, and seeks to respond to the changing needs of communities while maintaining public visibility and confidence.

This information is publicly available and can be found on the website of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service - https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/search-judgments/fatal-accident-inquiries

Delivery of the police 101 and 999 services and the recruitment and deployment of resources are operational matters for the Chief Constable, with oversight provided by the Scottish Police Authority.

The Scottish Government will continue to support the Chief Constable, who along with the Scottish Police Authority, will ensure the capability and capacity of Police Scotland.

Police Scotland’s call handlers continue to work hard to ensure that calls to the service are answered as quickly and as safely as possible. Figures published by the Home Office for July 2022 show that Police Scotland was well above the UK average for 999 call answer times with 79.9% of calls answered in under 10 seconds, compared to 68.3% for the rest of the UK.

The Scottish Government provides annual funding to Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). It is a matter for the Chief Constable and the Chief Fire Officer to determine the most appropriate allocation of resources and operational approach to preparing for, and responding to incidents during, bonfire night.

Since 2018 Operation Moonbeam has been the national multi-agency response to the bonfire night period. The well-established operation is running again this year, with the planning and preparation involving Police Scotland, SFRS, local authorities, COSLA, Scottish Community Safety Network, Scottish Ambulance Service, British Fireworks Association and Trading Standards. The Scottish Government has engaged with senior officers from Police Scotland and SFRS who have advised that robust multi-agency systems are in place again this year.

In terms of legislative change, on 10 October two key measures of the Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Act 2022 came into force – a proxy purchase and supply offence criminalising people who purchase fireworks for, or make fireworks available to, under 18s; and a statutory aggravation for attacks against emergency workers involving fireworks and pyrotechnic articles. The statutory aggravation requires courts to take this into account when determining the most appropriate sentence. This provides an important reassurance to emergency workers that the Scottish Government is committed to such behaviour being firmly addressed.

Through the Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports and Services Framework, we are providing local authorities with £15 million per annum to fund community-based mental health supports for children, young people, their families and their carers. North Ayrshire Council’s share of this year’s funding is £360,000 and Inverclyde Council’s is £192,000.

In North Ayrshire, the following supports and services for children and young people are delivered through the funding:

• Family-Centred Wellbeing Service: A multi-agency, strengths-focussed, community-based assessment and support service for families with children aged 5-12.
• Aberlour Sustain Service: Offers support to families with children aged 5-12 experiencing a range of challenges, including poverty, isolation, mental health and wellbeing issues, self-esteem, and anxiety.
• Crisis Counselling: Works with children and young people aged 5-24 who need very specific response methods to permit them to relate their emotional and mental health difficulties in age-specific ways and enable them to develop coping strategies and support them through challenging situations.
• Therapeutic Services For Care-Experienced Children And Young People: Play therapy, music therapy, dance therapy and art therapy for children and young people aged 5-26. These approaches have proved successful in addressing significant trauma and have enabled young people to develop coping strategies, self-regulate and develop sustainable skills.
• Mental Health And Wellbeing Project Delivery Officers: ‘Your Resilience’ sessions for multiple youth groups and positive mental wellbeing sessions alongside youth workers, via the mobile youth centre, ensuring young people who are geographically isolated have access to supports and services.
• Penumbra Self-Harm Project: Supports primary schools to continue to embed the ‘My Body My Way’ resource, runs parent support groups and workshops on how to deal with self-harm, and provides therapeutic support for children and young people displaying self-harming behaviours. For those aged 10-24.
• Bespoke Mental Health And Wellbeing: Delivering bespoke co-produced intervention with families who are currently under either voluntary or statutory measures with social work or the children and families team.

In Inverclyde, the following supports and services for children and young people are delivered through the funding:

• Inverclyde Emotional Wellbeing Triage Team: An inter-agency team of children and young people’s mental health services. Children, young people and families only tell their story once as the referral is handled by professionals on their behalf.
• Action For Children Wellbeing Service: This is a preventative mental health service aimed at P7 pupils at risk of non-attendance due to anxiety-based issues through transition to secondary education.
• Barnardo’s Wellbeing Support Worker Service: This service works with children and young people with additional support needs and their families to build parental capacity in response to the child’s developmental, social, and emotional needs.
• Cygnets Programme: This programme is aimed at parents and carers who are supporting children and young people experiencing difficulties due to autism spectrum condition.
• Children And Young People’s Participation Service: Workshops are being piloted in education establishments to gain the views of children and young people who have completed or are undergoing work with mental health and wellbeing services.

It is not possible for us to break down the amount spent on each of the above supports and services as local authorities are not required to provide us with this information under the terms of the grant.

In the first year of the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults in 2021-2022, we funded 38 projects supporting adults living in North Ayrshire and 20 projects supporting adults living in Inverclyde.

In North Ayrshire these were:

Applicants have six months from receipt of offer of payment to accept or decline the offer. As of 31 October 2022 payments totalling £8,570,168 have been made to survivors or their next of kin.

The most recently available data for payment breakdown, as of 30 September 2022, shows that redress payments of £3,464,900 have been attributed to organisations contributing to the scheme. The NHS boards contribution is included in this figure, however, for survivor data privacy reasons further breakdown of the data to the level of individual organisations would not be appropriate at this time.

There are 16 contributors, with potential contributions agreed reaching £122m. The live list has been published online since 8 December 2021.

On 26 October 2022 16 case workers were employed, working to 15.4 full time equivalent (FTE).

From the 14 November 2022, 23 case workers are expected to be in post, with a FTE of 22.2.