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The Psychology of Parenting Programme (PoPP) is funded through NHS Education Scotland (NES)’s Parenting workstream, which covers various programmes of work (including PoPP) to support the social, emotional and behavioural development of infants, children, young people and their families. In financial year 2023-24, the Scottish Government allocated £633,040 to NES to support the Parenting workstream, with a further £571,542 issued in 2024-25.

The Scottish Government recognises the need for effective partnership working across all relevant sectors, including health, to optimise the outcomes of secure care placements and to ensure children have continued access to the care and support in environments that are best suited to their individual needs.

The Scottish Government’s response https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-response-reimagining-secure-care-report/pages/8/ to the reimagining secure care report, published 26 June, sets out the government’s long-term focus to improve the coordination and integration between different parts of the child care system, including mental health. Page 22 of the response sets out a range of actions underway to strengthen the provision of mental health support for children, including:

• Funding of just under £3.5 million in 24-25 across the West, East and North of Scotland to support the planning and development of regional elements of the CAMHS Service Specification. This includes the development of a four-bed Adolescent Intensive Psychiatric Care Unit (IPCU) in the West of Scotland and the development of Learning Disability, Forensic CAMHS and Intensive Home Treatment CAMHS services and regional pathways.
• This includes funding to the West of Scotland, led by NHS GGC, to establish regional CAMHS pathways for those children and young people with forensic needs, in line with the requirements set out in the National CAMHS Service Specification. This funding will support the planning and development of community Forensic CAMHS and CAMHS in Secure Care services and regional pathways.
• As part of this, the West of Scotland regional planning team have developed a regional specification supporting both the FCAMHS and FCAMHS to secure care pathways and will progress to implementation stage once governance and financial arrangements are agreed in coming months.
• The development of the National Secure Adolescent Inpatient Service (NSAIS), known as Foxgrove commissioned by National Services Division, will initially provide four beds for children and young people aged 12-18 years who require psychiatric care in an inpatient setting with medium levels of security. Foxgrove is due to open at the end of 2025.

These will be vital additions to children and young people’s mental health services in Scotland, providing appropriate care and treatment in the right place at the right time, which in turn will support improved mental health care for children and young people in secure care facilities and could reduce psychiatric admission to non-specialist wards and avoid unnecessary admission to psychiatric inpatient care.

By learning from existing local authority and regionalised multidisciplinary models, Scotland could develop a network of community-based hubs that provide effective, rights-respecting alternatives to secure accommodation.

Our recently-published response to reimagining secure care confirms that the Scottish Government agrees with this proposal in principle. Further exploration will be necessary with COSLA – and with wider partners - regarding the scalability, impact and value of this model. That exploration and testing will feature in Phase 2 of our planned actions in this area.

The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) is the regulator for the social work, social care and early years workforce in Scotland. The Council protects the public by registering workers in social services; setting standards for their conduct and education. While the SSSC will set the minimum level of qualification required for an individual to maintain their registration, it is the duty of employers to ensure their workers are equipped with the appropriate specialist skills to safely and effectively carry out their role.

Ensuring a sustainable, skilled and supported workforce is fundamental to the future of secure accommodation and other care settings where children with complex needs require care and protection. Pages 16-17 of the Scottish Government’s response to reimagining secure care, published on 26 June, sets out a number of actions the Government is taking to support this:

• a commitment to continuing to pay for up to 16 beds across the secure estate in 2025-26 and 2026-27, to maintain capacity and to provide a level of financial security and resilience to secure providers.
• a commitment to raise the status of children’s social care as a profession, which is key to delivering quality care to vulnerable children.
• a further investment of £1.4 million in 2025-26 to the secure care workforce as part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to Fair Work in children’s social care. This investment will continue to address recruitment and retention challenges in the sector and contribute to its sustainability now and in the future.
• supporting improved implementation of national policy informed by frontline practice, and oversight of social work and the issues affecting the workforce through the establishment of the NSWA by April 2026.
• bringing both national and local government together to address workforce issues through the establishment of the Scottish Social Work Partnership.
• uplifting the value of the social work postgraduate bursary administered by the Scottish Social Services Council to £11,000 per year of an eligible qualifying course, from academic year 2025-26.
• working at pace with industry leaders and Skills Development Scotland to introduce a Graduate Apprenticeship, a new work-based professional social work qualification for academic year 2025-26.

The current system requires a fundamental review to ensure equity, transparency and efficiency. Piloting, testing and evaluating possible new resourcing models will be essential. To gather evidence as to what would work best to deliver a reliable, high quality range of services within, and related to, secure care, the Scottish Government will consult in 2025-26 to assess viability and effectiveness of some of the proposed options.

Page 18 of the recently-published response to reimagining secure care confirms that position: The Scottish Government will work in partnership with Scotland Excel, secure providers and commissioning authorities to consult on and co-design a new national commissioning model that reflects our shared aspirations for the future of secure care. This process will consider potential changes in funding and commissioning arrangements to better serve the needs of children across Scotland.

Local authorities are responsible for meeting the statutory guidance requirements in relation to cross-boundary and are further encouraged to work together to ensure families’ choice of provider is not limited by local authority boundaries through joint Funding Follows the Child guidance developed by COSLA and the Scottish Government. The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (Section 50) also requires local authorities to consult with families in their area about how they should make ELC available.

The Scottish Government has an outcomes-based evaluation strategy for the national ELC expansion, which will look at accessibility. We published an interim report in August 2024, with the full report due to be published next by the end of 2025.

A further national Parent and Carer Survey took place in May 2025, building on the surveys previously undertaken in 2017 and 2022. Findings from the survey will be published later in the year and will provide a useful insight into parents' and carers' current experiences of 1140.

Local authorities hold the statutory duty to make 1,140 hours of funded ELC available to eligible children residing within their own area, and are also responsible for meeting the statutory guidance requirements in relation to cross-boundary placements.

Statutory guidance is clear that, wherever possible, education authorities should make arrangements that ensure families accessing cross-boundary placements are treated on the same basis as families accessing provision in their own local authority area.

To ensure families’ choice of provider is not limited by local authority boundaries, we encourage local authorities to work with neighbouring areas through Funding Follows the Child guidance, developed jointly by COSLA and the Scottish Government.

The Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise continues to engage with local government representatives on this issue to encourage Councils to work together to find cross-border solutions that support children, families and providers.

The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 is the key legislation on contact, residence and parental responsibilities and rights. When the court is deciding whether to make an order under section 11 of the Act (e.g. a contact order) the driving principle of the legislation is that the welfare of the child must be the court’s paramount consideration.

The court must also – taking into account the child's age and maturity – have regard to any views the child wishes to express and have regard to the need to protect the child from any abuse (including domestic abuse), or the risk of any abuse, which affects or might affect the child.

It is for the court to decide what information and evidence it needs to make a decision about what is best for a child. The court may request a range of reports and information before reaching a decision and may appoint a child welfare reporter to get the child’s views or report on the best interests of the child.

The court can order that contact must take place at a child contact centre. This can either be supervised contact, when a trained member of staff observes the contact to ensure the safety of those involved, or supported contact, facilitated by staff who will support children and non-resident parent to meet and spend time together.