Tag: Children and Families

Over 3,000 child abuse crimes were recorded by Police Scotland in 5 years

  • NSPCC urges UK Government to seize last opportunity to strengthen Online Safety Bill so it creates online spaces for children safe from pervasive abuse

More than 3,100 child abuse image offences were recorded by Police in just five years, the NSPCC reveals as it calls for a more robust Online Safety Bill.

Last year, 662 crimes including the sharing and possession of indecent images of children were recorded by Police Scotland.1

The NSPCC warns that unregulated social media is fuelling online child sexual abuse and behind every offence could be multiple child victims who are continually revictimized as images are shared. 

They said the issue of young people being groomed into sharing images of their own abuse is pervasive and tech bosses are failing to stop their sites being used by offenders to organise, commit and share child sexual abuse.

The charity is calling on the UK Government to give children, including victims of sexual abuse, a powerful voice and expert representation in future regulation by creating a statutory child safety advocate through the Online Safety Bill.

This would ensure that children’s experiences are front and centre of decision making, building safeguarding experience into regulation to prioritise child protection. 

NSPCC analysis of data obtained by FOI from England and Wales police forces shows Snapchat is the social media site offenders most used to share child abuse images where platform data was provided. The app, popular with teens, was used in 43% of instances. Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, which are all owned by Meta, were used in a third (33%) of instances where a site was flagged.

And for the first-time virtual reality environments and Oculus headsets, used to explore the Metaverse, were found to be involved in recorded child sexual abuse image crimes.

The NSPCC said committing to a statutory child safety advocate is crucial to act as an early warning system to identify emerging child abuse risks and ensure they are on the radar of companies and the regulator Ofcom.

The advocate would reflect the experiences of young people and be a statutory counterbalance the power of the big tech lobby to help drive a corporate culture that focusses on preventing abuse.

Holly* called Childline in despair when she was 14. She said: “I am feeling sick with fear. I was talking with this guy online and trusted him. I sent him quite a lot of nude pictures of myself and now he is threatening to send them to my friends and family unless I send him more nudes or pay him.

“I reported it to Instagram, but they still haven’t got back. I don’t want to tell the police because my parents would then know what I did and would be so disappointed.”

Sir Peter Wanless, Chief Executive of the NSPCC, said: “These figures are alarming but reflect just the tip of the iceberg of what children are experiencing online.

“We hear from young people who feel powerless and let down as online sexual abuse risks becoming normalised for a generation of children.

“By creating a child safety advocate that stands up for children and families the UK Government can ensure the Online Safety Bill systemically prevents abuse.

“It would be inexcusable if in five years’ time we are still playing catch-up to pervasive abuse that has been allowed to proliferate on social media.”

Online Safety Bill amendments

The NSPCC is seeking amendments to the Online Safety Bill as it passes through the House of Lords to improve its response to child sexual abuse.

They are asking Lords to back the creation of a child safety advocate which would mirror statutory user advocacy arrangements that are effective across other regulated sectors.

The amendment would give Ofcom access to children’s voices and experiences in real time via an expert child safety advocate akin to Citizen’s Advice acting for energy and postal consumers.

And after the UK Government committed to holding senior managers liable if their products contribute to serious harm to children the charity says this must also include where sites put children at risk of sexual abuse.

The move would mean bosses responsible for child safety would be held criminally liable if their sites continue to expose children to preventable abuse – which is backed by an overwhelming majority of the public.

Meta Encryption

In response to the latest data, the NSPCC also renewed calls on Meta to pause plans to roll out default end-to-end encryption of Facebook and Instagram messenger services in order to comply with future requirements of the Online Safety Bill.

They said Meta will turn a blind eye to child abuse by making it impossible to identify grooming and the sharing of images making the importance of external bodies such as a child safety advocate even more paramount.

However, the charity said the Online Safety Bill should be seen as an opportunity to incentivise companies to invest in technological solutions to end-to-end encryption that protect adult privacy, the privacy of sexual abuse victims and keep children safe.

Letters: Government must reconsider proposed mental health budget cuts

Dear Editor

As a coalition of organisations that support vulnerable children and young people, many of whom have mental health problems, we share the concerns of many over a proposed £38 million cut to mental health spending in today’s final vote on the Scottish Budget (Tuesday 21st February).

It should be noted that we were already experiencing a mental health emergency in Scotland, even before Covid-19 and the cost-of-living crisis took hold. These have worsened an already devastating situation for many children and young people, resulting in a perfect storm of challenges.

It therefore beggars belief that, in the face of a mental health tsunami, the Scottish Government is set to cut the mental health budget. Combined with this, an already tight budget will have to stretch even further to keep pace with soaring inflation.

With the resultant personal cost to those concerned and their families, as well as to the economy overall, we need to invest more, not less, in our mental health services. The situation we are currently in could potentially lead to a lost generation of vulnerable children and young people who are missing out on the support they vitally need.

To address this, we must ensure our mental health services are protected and would urge the Scottish Government to reconsider these cuts and commit to increasing investment, ensuring that our children and young people receive the high-quality care they need when they need it.

Yours faithfully

The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition:

Kenny Graham, Falkland House School

Lynn Bell, LOVE Learning

Stephen McGhee, Spark of Genius

Niall Kelly, Young Foundations

4 Queen Street, Edinburgh EH2 1JE

COSLA publish good practice principles for managing school meal debt

A set of good practice principles for the management of School Meal debt have been published by COSLA.

The principles, which are a first for Scotland, and have been developed by COSLA, with partners from across Local Government, have been produced to promote good practice in the management of school meal debt, whilst retaining a level of flexibility to enable local authorities to design and implement approaches which align with the unique needs and circumstances of their communities.

Decisions around school meal debt management, including all aspects of policy and practice, remain at the discretion of each local authority. However these principles may be useful for supporting the review and development of local authority school meal debt policy and practice, as well as supporting effective implementation on an ongoing basis.

The intended audience for these principles is local authority staff across a range of departments (including, for example, education, catering, finance and debt collection) as well as Head Teachers, class teachers and other school staff.

Commenting as he launched the principles COSLA’s Children and Young People Spokesperson Councillor Tony Buchanan said: “As Local Government we’re committed to tackling child poverty and ensuring that all children and young people can engage fully in their education, free from barriers. This has never been more important than now, as families continue to face the impact of rising costs.

“COSLA recognises that school meal debt is an emotive issue but one that is complex. We’ve worked closely with colleagues in the third sector in response to the research they’ve highlighted, and have developed an agreed set of principles for councils to consider when making decisions on local policy and practice.

“I’m pleased that these new principles will support councils to reflect good practice in their management of school meal debt, as part of their own, locally responsive, approaches to supporting children, young people, and families.”

Martin Canavan, Head of Policy and Participation at Aberlour children’s charity, said: ““The level of school meal debt in Scotland is concerning and has been rising due to the cost of living crisis.

“Low income families not eligible for free school meals are struggling to feed their children, and many are accruing school meal debt as a result. We need to respond better, with compassion and empathy, to those families and make sure that no child will go hungry at school or is stigmatised by the processes in place for any child to access a meal in school.

“We welcome these school meal debt good practice principles that Cosla has published. These can help councils and schools respond to the issue of school meal debt consistently, sensitively and in a way that recognises the financial pressures and anxiety that low income families face.

“Embedding these principles in practice will help further Scotland’s commitment to the UNCRC and every child’s right to healthy and nutritious food.”

Read COSLA’s Good Practice Principles for Management of School Meal Debt here.

Helping families with their living costs

Extra funding to help offset UK Government benefit cap

The Scottish Government is providing £8.6 million in direct support for people affected by the UK benefit cap as part of its work to tackle child poverty.

An estimated 4,000 families with around 14,000 children are now able to apply for extra financial support through their local council’s Discretionary Housing Payments scheme.

Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison said: “We are increasing funding to help bridge the gap between what people need in benefits from the UK Government and what they actually receive. Eligible households could be £2,500 better off on average per year as a result.

“We will spend up to £84 million in 2023-24 on Discretionary Housing Payments to mitigate not only the UK Government’s bedroom tax and the on-going freeze to Local Housing Allowance rates, but now also the benefit cap which is pushing families into hardship.

“Our child poverty targets are ambitious and that is why we are choosing to invest significantly more in social security than the funding we receive from Westminster and helping to mitigate the damaging impact of UK Government welfare cuts.”

John Dickie, Chair of the Child Poverty Action Group, said: “Mitigating the UK benefit cap is absolutely the right thing to do. Support for struggling families shouldn’t have an arbitrary limit that pushes children into deeper poverty.

“It’s now vital that everyone affected by the benefit cap applies to their local authority for a Discretionary Housing Payment to replace as far as possible the cash support removed by the cap. The Scottish Government has done the right thing, now the UK Government must act to scrap the cap altogether.”

Laura Millar, Strategic Manager at charity Fife Gingerbread, which helps lone parents and families in need, said: “Last year Fife Gingerbread supported the ‘Scrap the Cap’ campaign calling on Westminster to end the benefit cap and the financial hardship this causes.

“Therefore, the Scottish Government’s commitment to empower local authorities to mitigate the impacts of the benefit cap using Discretionary Housing Payments is a positive step.

“Although the number of households affected across Scotland may be relatively small this is an important measure. The greatest risk is that households may be unaware of their entitlement, and every year millions of pounds of benefits go unclaimed. Therefore, we must all raise awareness of this announcement to ensure those most in need of support receive it.”



Funding for benefit cap mitigation by Scottish local authorities through Discretionary Housing Payments is as follows:

2022-23£2.6 million
2023-24£6 million
Total£8.6 million

The benefit cap is a UK Government policy which limits the total amount of benefit that most working age people can receive, even if their full entitlement would be higher.

Discretionary Housing Payments are administered by Local Authorities to support with housing and living costs.

Further information about support available for people during the cost of living crisis can be found at gov.scot/costoflivingsupport.

Scottish Labour Party pledge support for deaf children in crucial early years

The National Deaf Children’s Society is delighted the Scottish Labour Party yesterday unanimously passed a motion pledging crucial support to deaf children during their early years.

If deafness is not identified early enough, deaf children may miss out on vital early language development, the opportunity to learn British Sign Language (BSL) from a young age or the chance to have a hearing aid or implant fitted. This can have a lifelong impact on the ability of deaf children to communicate.

The National Deaf Children’s Society wants to ensure no deaf child in Scotland waits more than six weeks from referral to audiology to getting a hearing test, as set out in the current Scottish Quality standards for Paediatric Audiology. However, in some parts of Scotland the average wait time can be a year.

Welcoming the support of the Scottish Labour Party, Mark Ballard, the National Deaf Children’s Society’s Head of Policy and Influencing for Scotland, said: “If we fail to get paediatric audiology services right for deaf children when deafness is first identified we then risk failing deaf children for life.

“Because of the delays some families face, we can end up with the shocking scenario where children who might have benefited from using hearing aids from the very earliest years miss out simply because of delays in testing and treatment.

“Unfortunately, opportunities to learn language in this vital period of development once missed cannot be reversed.”

Scottish Labour councillor Ben Smith (Paisley Northwest, Renfrewshire), who put forward the motion, said: “We were all shocked learn how deaf children were failed by audiology services at NHS Lothian.

“This cannot be allowed to happen again. Waiting times for deaf children to access audiology testing and treatment are still too long. Early support is crucial to help deaf children thrive.

“Scottish Labour is proud to support deaf children and young people in Scotland.”

Mr Ballard added: “Every deaf child should get the high-quality support they need from the earliest years. We need robust quality assurance mechanism to make sure there can be no more scandals like NHS Lothian.

“With the right support deaf children can get best opportunities to develop language skills and should be able to make informed choices around hearing aids, implants and learning BSL.”

250,000 Baby Boxes delivered

Supporting parents with cost of living

A quarter of a million Baby Boxes have been delivered to expectant parents – providing them with more than £400 worth of essential items for their newborn.

The milestone was reached ahead of the popular scheme’s sixth anniversary in the summer.

Children’s Minister Clare Haughey said: “The Baby Box is part of our commitment to ensure every child has the best start in life, and I am heartened that so many families have benefitted from this fantastic scheme.

“Clearly household budgets remain under extreme pressure from the cost of living crisis, so it is reassuring to know that all expectant parents in Scotland, regardless of their circumstances, have access to essential items needed for the first six months of their newborn’s life.

“The Baby Box also contains items to support positive parenting, benefitting infants as well as parents.”

One Parent Families Scotland Chief Executive Satwat Rehman said: “With rising costs, single parent households are under increasing pressure to meet the costs of looking after their children.

“Having just one income, with costs associated with a newborn, is very difficult and the essentials contained within the Baby Box go a long way to easing that for single parents. We have seen first-hand how much difference this has made to the families we work with.”

Drumbrae Library Family Fun Day

On Saturday 18th Feb we are gonna be EVEN MORE Family Fun than usual!

We will have BOOKBUG, with a visit from the Bug of the Book themselves, a SLIME WORKSHOP, you can make your own BADGE, there will be LIVE MUSIC, a CRAFT event, INFO POINTS from several local organizations, plus TEA & BISCUITS!!!

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/…/warm-and-welcoming…

26,240 families in Scotland saved on costs with Tax-Free Childcare

More than 26,000 families in Scotland saved on childcare costs in December thanks to Tax-Free Childcare and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is urging those yet to sign up not to miss out. 

The latest figures revealed by HMRC show an increase of 6,390 families in Scotland using the scheme compared to December 2021. 

Tax-Free Childcare is a financial support for working families with children up to the age of 11, or 16 if their child has a disability. The government top up can be used to pay for any approved childcare including holiday clubs, breakfast and after school clubs, child minders and nurseries.  

A total of £41.5 million in government top-up payments were made to working families across the UK in December 2022 with each family saving up to £2,000 a year per child or £4,000 if their child is disabled. 

Families who have not yet signed up should check their eligibility and apply online today.

Opening a Tax-Free Childcare account is quick and easy and can be done at any time of the year.

Myrtle Lloyd, HMRC’s Director General for Customer Services, said: “We want to help families get the most out of their finances and Tax-Free Childcare can help pay towards their childcare costs. Search ‘Tax-Free Childcare’ on GOV.UK to get started.” 

For every £8 paid into the Tax-Free Childcare account, families automatically receive an additional £2. Families can save up to £500 every three months (£2,000 a year) for each child or £1,000 (£4,000 a year) if their child is disabled. 

More than one million families in the UK are entitled to some form of government childcare support and the government is encouraging those eligible not to miss out on their entitlements.  Families can find out more about Tax-Free Childcare via the Childcare Choices website. 

The government is offering help for households. Check GOV.UK to find out what cost of living support, including help with childcare costs. 

How to feed your kids on a budget this half term

With food prices going through the roof, parents and carers are being provided helpful ways to feed their children on a budget during half term.

The frugal experts at NetVoucherCodes.co.uk have looked at affordable ways to plan family meals throughout the week-long break.

Many supermarkets, pubs and restaurants are once again offering free or discounted meals for children but there are also ways to help reduce the cost at home.

Going meat free, doing a family meal plan and having a fun picky tea are among the tips for savvy parents.

Ellie Macsymons, online consumer expert from NetVoucherCodes.co.uk said: “We wanted to give parents a helping hand during this half term.  Many will feel the pinch of rising food costs in their weekly expenses.

“There are numerous schemes available during the week holiday with a wide range of pubs and supermarket restaurants offering special discounts for kids to eat out.

“But we also wanted to provide simple ways for parents to save money on making meals at home for their children during the holidays.”

Here are NetVoucherCodes.co.uk’s budget-friendly ways to feed your kid on a budget this half term:

Picky tea

This is all about taking what you find in the fridge, freezer and cupboard and turning it into a help yourself meal. There could be some leftover chicken, oven chips, a few fish fingers – anything goes. Also means avoiding a last minute dash to the supermarket to pick up something for dinner.

Shop around for half term deals

If the local supermarkets are near one another, visit each store to work out which has the best offers. There could be some decent half term deals on.

Discounted pub meals

Local pubs are providing a variety of discounts for kids to eat cheaper this half term. Head down and find out which are available.

Cheap meals at supermarket restaurants

Just like during the summer holidays, many supermarket chains are offering further discounts on kid’s meals to help with the rising food costs. Have a look at who’s offering what.

‘Once a week’ rule

Set some time aside for a family meal out by using the ‘once a week’ rule where you either dine out weekly or you get a takeaway of your choice as a family treat. This way you can plan around your food shops so less food will be wasted.

Social media budget recipes

Everyone has a favourite social media recipe which has become a weekly make. But if you’re unsure of any meals which can be added to your cookbook, explore social media apps for simple recipes which will cost less than a fiver to make.

Family pizza making

Instead of the Saturday night takeaway, try making your own homemade pizzas. It’s a great way to get kids in the kitchen too and experiment with making their own food.

Family meal plan

It’s best to be organised when planning meals to save the extra pennies. To make this more creative, mark each day with a different colour pen and decorate with stickers when it’s time for a special dish or a day when you’re dining out.

Try veggie days

Meats typically cost the most on weekly meals. If you decide to swap the meat for veggie choices it can save around a third on select meals during the week. Have a look at meals which don’t involve meat or try out some delicious veggie options for half the price.

For budget-friendly ways to feed the kids during half term, head over to NetVoucherCodes.co.uk.