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Debate on Scotland's child protection system urged
Scottish Labour's Iain Gray challenges First Minister to do more to help vulnerable children in wake of Brandon Muir case and damning report.
25 June 2009 13:33 PM
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Labour has called on the First Minister to launch a national debate and inquiry into Scotland's child protection system following the death of a Dundee toddler and a damning report into that city's support network.

Iain Gray, Scottish Labour leader in Holyrood, challenged Alex Salmond to "change the orthodoxy which underpins our system".

Mr Gray indicated as many as 20,000 children in Scotland were living with a parent addicted to drugs. He urged faster action to remove these youngsters, saying: "We need to change the balance between leaving these children with their family and keeping them safe".
In First Minister's Questions at Holyrood on Thursday, Mr Salmond defended the child protection services and said a rigorous inspection system had identified five areas, including Dundee, where there had been "serious deficiencies."
He told Mr Gray: "We have a very good child protection system in Scotland which is identifying deficiencies, authority by authority, and remedying these deficiencies."

Mr Salmond would not accept suggestions the Scottish Government is "doing anything other than improving protection for the children".

The calls from Labour came after a critical report into child protection services in Dundee. The report, issued on Tuesday and based on findings before the case of toddler Brandon Muir, found vulnerable children only received help once they reached "crisis point". Inspectors warned of "major weaknesses" in identifying children who needed protection.

BRANDON

Twenty-three-month-old Brandon died last year at the hands of one of his caretakers. Robert Cunningham, 23, was subsequently convicted of the toddler's culpable homicide. Brandon's mother, Heather Boyd, was acquitted.
Mr Gray added: "His mother was a heroin addict, and Brandon's short life brutal and chaotic."
Mr Salmond said former Fife chief constable Peter Wilson was conducting an independent inquiry into the Brandon case, and there was also an independently chaired "significant case review".

"Off the strenuous and stringent system of inspections being carried out of all local authorities, we have identified five where there are serious deficiencies, of which Dundee has been one," the First Minister said.

Mr Gray said it was known that between 10,000 and 20,000 children in Scotland lived with drug-addicted parents - and perhaps up to 100,000 lived with parents addicted to alcohol.
"We have heard these same figures from the Scottish Government for two years now," said Mr Gray. "I have been saying for months now that we don't need to count them but to find them, and find them quickly so we can protect them."

Morayshire and Aberdeen City councils have also received harsh reports on their social services departments in the past year. A follow-up inspectors' report on Aberdeen released on Wednesday found "substantial" progress had been made.

"Not just in one tragic case where an inquiry is pending, but across social work protection for children across Scotland, this government and I hope all of this Parliament applaud the action being taken to make the children of Scotland safer," Mr Salmond said.
He agreed with Mr Gray that social workers were hard-pressed but cited newly released figures that show a "record" number of social workers - 5,072, up 126 on the previous year.
There was also a record number of social workers in child protection services, up 59 to 2,349, while vacancy rates for social workers had dropped to a six-year low.

APOLOGY

During Question Time, the Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie called for Mr Salmond to apologise to the nation over the SNP's "broken promises". She brandished a copy of the SNP manifesto and said: "This is evidence, hard evidence of Alex Salmond's broken promises over the last two years."

The First Minister, however, insisted the recent European election results showed that Scots were happy with his party's performance.

The Conservative said Mr Salmond's Nationalist administration had failed to fulfil election promises on a number of issues, including class sizes, ditching student debt, grants to first-time buyers, and scrapping the council tax.

Mr Salmond responded by listing some of the commitments his government has achieved, including freezing the council tax, reducing rates for small businesses, abolishing tolls on the Forth and Tay bridges, funding 1,000 more police officers and reversing the decision to close accident and emergency units at Monklands and Ayr hospitals.
Last updated: 25 June 2009, 14:44