The Church of Scotland’s social care arm is encouraging anyone who suffered or witnessed abuse in residential care between 1930 and 2014 to speak to the current Scottish Government inquiry into such crimes.
The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, which started work in 2015 and is chaired by Lady Smith, is intended to provide an opportunity for the public acknowledgement of the suffering of these children and a forum for validation of their experience and testimony.
It will also help identify any policy and practice changes needed to protect children in care from such abuse in the future.
More than 100 locations including 60 residential institutions are under investigation, including three residential care establishments run by the Church through its social care council, CrossReach, and its predecessors: Ballikinrain School, Geilsland Residential School, and the Lord and Lady Polwarth Home for Children in Edinburgh. Of these, only Ballikinrain is still open.
The Inquiry chair will decide which people and organisations have the most significant roles in the investigation and will designate them core participants. CrossReach does not yet know whether they will be asked to be core participants in the inquiry.
Viv Dickenson, Director of Children and Family Services for CrossReach, said the church is co-operating fully with the Inquiry.
“The Church of Scotland is actively participating in the Inquiry and is providing all the information requested as we are legally required to do,” she said.
“We believe that the way in which we work today is in line with current best practice for protecting children in residential care.
“However, as an organisation invested in continuous improvement we will be interested in the findings of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, which will examine practice as far back as the 1930s, and anything we learn during this process will be used to help us strengthen and improve our safeguarding policies going forward.
“We encourage anyone who suffered abuse or witnessed it to come forward and speak confidentially to Lady Smith and her team.”
You can contact the Inquiry, confidentially, on information@childabus einquiry.scot or 0800 0929 300.