Abuse & Neglect blog - An update and overview of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, Frank Hughes

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) resumed hearing evidence on foster care on 1 November 2022. Separately, on 31 October 2022, SCAI named 39 establishments that it will focus on during a later case study on residential accommodation for young offenders and children and young people in need of care and protection. Further detail on this development is given in the link here.

SCAI was established under the Inquiries Act 2005. It began work on 1 October 2015. To 30 June 2022 it had cost around £58m, with updated cost details due to be published shortly. SCAI was originally due to complete its work and report to Scottish Ministers by October 2019. The timescale for completion and reporting is now “as soon as reasonably practicable”. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England & Wales was also set up under the 2005 Act and ran from 12 March 2015 to 20 October 2022 when it published its final report, link here.

When first set up, SCAI was chaired by Susan O’Brien QC. From July 2016, SCAI has been chaired by a Scottish Judge, Lady Smith. From February 2017, Lady Smith has been the sole member of the panel. She is supported by a secretariat, a legal team and counsel to the inquiry.

The overall aim of SCAI is to raise public awareness of the abuse of children in care (under the age of 18) for the period “within living memory” of any person who suffered such abuse to no later than 17 December 2014. In particular, SCAI is directed to:

consider the extent to which institutions with legal responsibility for children failed in their duty and, in particular, to identify any systemic failure in duty;
create a national public record; and
consider the extent to which failures by state and non-state institutions (including the courts) to protect children in care from abuse have been addressed by changes in practice, policy or legislation and what further changes are required.

To date, SCAI has published ten research reports (or sets of reports), link here, on a variety of topics, some dating back to 1900, for example on the legislative and regulatory framework for children in care in Scotland. The child migration research goes back further in considering practice in the 1800’s.

SCAI publishes transcripts of all evidence heard in public sessions, redacted in places to preserve anonymity where that has not been waived, link here.

SCAI has also published eight sets of findings on evidence heard. Links to these findings are included in this table, which gives additional detail both on public sessions to date and those yet to come.

Phase of public hearings	Subject	When held / to be held	Findings on this subject published to date
Phase 1	Background and contextual	May 2017 - November 2017 November 2020 - December 2020 (on Scottish Government matters) March 2022 (expert roundtable on “the psychology of individuals who abuse children”)	On Scottish Government matters, link here On the roundtable sessions, link here
Phase 2	Residential care establishments run by religious organisations	November 2017 - July 2018	Two sets of findings, links here and here
Phase 3	Residential care establishments run by non-religious and voluntary organisations	October 2018 - February 2019	One set of findings, link here
Phase 4	Residential care establishments run by male religious orders	June 2019 - November 2019	Three sets of findings, links here, here and here
Phase 5	Child migration	December 2019 -October 2020 (with certain evidence having been heard from abroad by video-conference in November 2018 and January 2019)	No findings published yet
Phase 6	Boarding schools	March 2021 - February 2022	No findings published yet
Phase 7	Foster care	From May 2022 and continuing	Phase still ongoing
Phase 8	Residential accommodation for young offenders and children and young people in need of care and protection	From the second half of 2023	Phase yet to start
Further phase(s) of public hearings might follow