The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry: 5 years and 5 case studies in, where next?

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry opened in October 2015, with an initial term of four years.

Since then the timeframe has been removed, and reporting has been changed to "as soon as reasonably practicable".

Now the Inquiry is into its fifth year with no confirmed end date and costs of £46,874,090 so far.

So, where are proceedings at right now – and what is likely to come next?

The story so far

The Inquiry recently published its fifth case study findings, which addressed religious and non-religious residential care.

More are underway, and there is still a significant volume of work to be undertaken by the Inquiry.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in line with other judicial bodies, the Inquiry has suffered certain delays with paused proceedings, moving to video-evidence, and other appropriate measures.

While these necessary changes explain some of the delay, the extension of the Inquiry’s term is largely as a result of the volume of evidence ingathered, which continues to be provided, and the large number of participants.

As late as March 2020, nearly five years into the term, further core participants were added.

One of the Terms of Reference for the Inquiry is:

To consider whether further changes in practice, policy or legislation are necessary in order to protect children in care in Scotland from such abuse in future. 

As yet, the Inquiry has not included recommendations for future changes when publishing its findings in relation to specific entities or institutions.

It is understood the final report will see recommendations be issued.

Where to next?

While the Inquiry may be far from producing its recommendations, measures have been introduced by the Scottish Government to provide redress to survivors of child abuse in care.

At present the Governmental developments have been:

• the Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Act  23 April 2021. Please note this scheme is not yet open for applications, but work is underway to ensure that it will open as soon as possible - by December 2021 at the latest (subject to the agreement of Redress Scotland);
• the Advance Payment Scheme opened on 25 April 2019 and provides redress payments for those age 68 and over or those who have a terminal illness.  It is intended that it will remain open until the statutory scheme opens;
• Future Pathways is providing person-centred support to survivors of historical child abuse in care;
• a change to the law which removed a barrier preventing child abuse survivors from accessing civil justice - The Limitation (Childhood Abuse) (Scotland) Act 2017; and
• the Apologies (Scotland) Act 2016 which promotes a change in culture and attitudes towards making an apology.

The raft of legislation shows the Scottish Government’s willingness to legislate in this area.

It is likely the Scottish Government will continue to be both proactive and reactive as further case studies are published and the Inquiry continues its work.

It is also understood the Inquiry is presently considering the evidence in relation to boarding schools, and the case study for this will be the first in relation to private (rather than non-profit) institutions.

In England, the equivalent inquiry (Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse) is due to publish its findings into residential schools shortly.

The findings in relation to residential schools are likely to create scrutiny around best practices and recommendations.

While the Inquiry in Scotland might not produce recommendations for future changes, this does not mean that the Scottish Government will not carefully consider what measures might be appropriate to further regulate this area and introduce new safeguards.