CAMPAIGNERS have claimed the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry is “barely scratching the surface” in investigating historic abuse in care.
Janine Rennie, chief executive of Falkirk-based counselling charity Wellbeing Scotland, said her own organisation’s files contained allegations made by past residents of upwards of 140 children’s homes.
Meanwhile statistics suggest that over the period covered by the inquiry tens of thousands of children in care are likely to have been abused, she said, and claimed Wellbeing Scotland alone was in touch with 1,500 people who had suffered as children in care.
However the child abuse inquiry plans to investigate only 60 homes and is thought to be in touch with around 300 survivors, she claimed.
“The inquiry is saying it will investigate 60 homes but we are dealing with more than double that and that is only sampling a third of our records,” she said. “They are only scratching the surface.”
The claims came as survivors of childhood abuse in state care held an event in Glasgow’s George Square calling for more of those affected by abuse to come forward.
They also follow a week of evidence at the child abuse inquiry in which former Scottish Government Chief Social Work Adviser Professor Angus Skinner told its chair Lady Smith that the scale of abuse had been vastly underestimated, admitting: “We just didn’t believe that there could be so much.”
Ms Rennie said many of those in touch with Wellbeing Scotland (formerly Open Secret) were unwilling to participate in the inquiry. “We are trying to get as many people as possible to come forward, but they lack trust in the Scottish Government, she said. “There is still a perception the inquiry isn’t independent. We have four years to get more people involved, or the opportunity will be lost.”
Dave Sharp, who is alleged to have been physically abused in childhood while living in in the notorious St Ninian’s home run by the Christian Brothers in Fife, said survivors from across the UK had come together to encourage fellow abuse victims to come forward.
“The Scottish Government has not been encouraging people enough. They have been discouraged by negativity around the inquiry. We want to see more investigation into historical sex trafficking and abuse,” he said.
A Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry spokesman said 69 institutions are being examined as part of its initial investigations.
He said: “The Inquiry is undertaking a far-reaching public awareness campaign and is working closely with a number of organisations to encourage those with relevant information to come forward.
"We have been pleased with the response to date but as work of the Inquiry progresses, we continue to actively encourage anyone who has relevant information to get in touch.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel