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Analysis of External Consultation on, and the Scottish Executive's response to, 'Reducing the Risk: Improving the Response to Sex Offending', the report of the Expert Panel on Sex Offending

ANALYSIS OF CONSULTATION AND SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE'S RESPONSE

CHAPTER ONE

Chapter One: Recommendations 1-3

Recommendation 1: The Scottish Executive, with the local authorities, should issue guidance to ensure that each local authority has in place personal safety programmes that include addressing the risk from sex offending.
The Scottish Executive & Local Authorities

Recommendation 2: Learning and Teaching Scotland and Community Learning Scotland should prepare comprehensive personal safety materials that are specific to Scotland and include material which addresses issues of child sexual abuse and child safety.
Learning and Teaching Scotland & Community Learning Scotland

Recommendation 3: As an important preventative measure and to assist early identification of, and intervention with, sexually aggressive behaviour, schools should provide information, education and support to pupils on safe and healthy relationships.
Local Authorities

12. Consultees supported these recommendations. Many emphasised the importance of getting these materials right: a variety should be produced so that suitable ones are available for children of all ages, at all stages of development. Central co-ordination and consultation on the development of materials was recommended by many and it was recognised that it was important to make use of existing expertise.
13. Since the Expert Panel reported, the functions of Community Learning Scotland have been taken over by Community Scotland and Youth Link. Some consultees mentioned specific existing projects, materials and other agencies that could help with the preparation of these materials. The Safe Strong and Free project (which can be undertaken by nursery children) and the 'Stop it Now' project (a North American project which is currently being piloted in Derby, England), materials prepared by the Young Women's Centre in Dundee and the 'Who Cares?' project were mentioned in this context. Teachers, other educational professionals, health care providers and other relevant agencies should also be consulted. It was suggested that the Scottish Executive report "Promoting Personal Safety and Child Safety in the Curriculum" could be useful.
14. Multi-agency Child Protection Committees, Community Safety Forums and Children's service planning processes might be involved in developing and delivering relevant aspects of this work.
15. It was pointed out a very broad approach should be taken to an information strategy facilitated through schools. All types of educational establishment and the needs of a wide range of children would need to be accommodated including private, public and special needs schools, children with learning disabilities and those not attending schools for official or unofficial reasons. It was suggested that the Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS) should be involved in any national discussion. It was also important to accommodate the values and beliefs of all families and communities. Guidance might helpfully be produced for professionals who may come across sexually aggressive behaviour in other sorts of educational establishments, or those working in the voluntary sector.
16. Queries were raised about the status of centrally produced guidance and information, but the intention would be that it is not enforced on a mandatory basis and is available for those schools who wish to make use of it. The use of other materials would not be prohibited.
17. The Scottish Secondary Teachers Association warned that the distribution of material on the methods used by sex offenders might be useful to offenders in avoiding detection. The Association also suggested, in relation to recommendation 3, that care was taken not to focus on the contrast between abusive relationships and 'normal' family relationships as this might exacerbate feelings of deprivation for those in less loving families. They also said that any consideration of 'normal' relationships should recognise same sex relationships.
18. Childline Scotland pointed out the importance of highlighting, in any material that is produced, that sexual abuse can take place within the family setting.
19. To aid the implementation of recommendation 3, one local authority suggested that child protection staff, allied to area child protection teams, could be recruited. Although this would reduce the need for teaching staff to be trained in these matters, it would reduce individual schools' overall skill level on this issue.
20. Some consultees warned about potential sensitivities to the concept of education on sex offending in the light of the response to the repeal of section 2A of the Local Government Act 1986.
21. As with many of the recommendations, it was recognised that aspects of these ones, particularly recommendation 3, might require training.
22. The Scottish Executive accepts these recommendations and plans to draft a Child Protection circular for issue to local authorities and will work with agencies to produce personal safety materials to fill any significant gaps in provision.

23. Chapter One: Recommendations 4-6

    Recommendation 4: Young people looked after by local authorities should receive more targeted support. The Association of Directors of Social Work and the Scottish Institute for Residential Childcare should convene a joint working group to develop a strategy for, and supporting materials on, safe and healthy relationships and assertiveness skills.
    Association of Directors of Social Work & the Scottish Institute for Residential Childcare

    Recommendation 5: The strategy for early intervention with young sex offenders and those at risk of sex offending should take account of the needs of those young women who are particularly vulnerable to this group of sex offenders. These young women should also be a priority for more targeted intervention. For those vulnerable young women in a care setting, materials and a programme should be developed which promote healthy relationships and provide information about sexual health.
    Association of Directors of Social Work & the Scottish Institute for Residential Childcare

    Recommendation 6: Remedial and more intensive programmes and materials should be developed separately for:
    (i) Children and young people looked after by local authorities
    (ii) Children and young people with special educational needs or in special schools and
    (ii) Children identified as living with or affected by domestic violence.
    Association of Directors of Social Work & Scottish Institute for Residential Childcare

24. The Association of Directors of Social Work (ADSW) and the Scottish Institute for Residential Childcare (SIRCC) have accepted these recommendations.
25. Other consultees showed a very high level of support for these recommendations. They recommended that other groups should be involved in these developments such as education (to ensure that work produced is consistent with that mentioned in the first three recommendations) and health interests. They also suggested that the National Foster Care Association (NFCA) and British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) should also be consulted. The Scottish Domestic Violence Partnership could be involved with recommendation 6.
26. As with the first three recommendations, multi-agency child protection committees and children's service planning processes might be involved in developing and delivering relevant aspects of this work.
27. Resource and training implications for the implementation of these recommendations were identified.
28. Aberdeen Council Housing and Social Work department thought that it would be valuable to allow young abusers to be 'fast tracked' through the legal system to allow them to enter intervention programmes sooner and tackle any inappropriate value system they might have. Supporting these recommendations, one consultee reported that targeted work with young offenders is potentially more effective than work with older offenders.
29. In implementing recommendation 5, it is important to recognise that vulnerable young men are also at risk from sex offenders.
30. The Scottish Executive accepts these recommendations and the Education Department will work with the Association of Directors of Social Work and the Scottish Institute for Residential Care to develop special materials.

Chapter One: Recommendations 7-11

Recommendation 7: The Scottish Executive and the local authorities, in consultation with community organisations, should devise a public information strategy on child sexual abuse and prepare and publish information on the following topics:

• the incidence of sex offending
• the behaviour of sex offenders
• the operation of the Sex Offenders Act 1997
• the responsibilities of statutory agencies to monitor and supervise offenders
• government policy on disclosure
• information about the risks which result from the provision of uncontrolled information to the public about individual sex offenders and their whereabouts.

Local authorities and other agencies should draw upon existing expertise in child protection to provide supplementary information.
Scottish Executive & Local Authorities

Recommendation 8: As part of the wider information strategy, the Scottish Executive should publish a leaflet, based on the draft text prepared by the Expert Panel on Sex Offending which provides parents with information on which to base decisions about child safety in groups. It should be widely circulated to parents and carers.
Scottish Executive

Recommendation 9: The Scottish Executive should sponsor a national conference and a series of workshops on reducing risk from sex offending. These should help to facilitate discussion between communities and agencies. Workshops might be integrated into existing child safety awareness initiatives and should include providing information about how to keep children safe from sex offenders. Attention should be paid to accessibility, targeted publicity and low-cost admission to enable community participation.
Scottish Executive

Recommendation 10: As part of their community safety plan, each local authority should develop a corporate approach (involving all the relevant departments) to the management of sex offenders in the community. This corporate approach should reflect the particular contribution each council department can make to enhancing public safety through the effective management of sex offenders. The plan should also draw on the skills and expertise of other stakeholders, including registered social landlords, voluntary sector agencies, the police and local people.
Local Authorities

Recommendation 11: The Scottish Executive should provide information and guidance about undertaking a police criminal record check on those adults who work with children in either a paid or voluntary capacity. If the proposed Index of adults unsuitable to work with children is compiled, the Scottish Executive should issue accessible information about its use and interpretation. Information should also be given on the link between the Index and the Scottish Criminal Record Office.
Scottish Executive

30. Consultees welcomed these recommendations and all but one consultee congratulated the measured approach the Expert Panel proposed. One authority suggested that the Executive's recent campaign on domestic abuse, which included television adverts, was a good example of an information strategy that could be followed in this instance.
31. Consultees wanted to ensure full consultation as appropriate on recommendations 7-10. Health and Education interests were mentioned. Several local authorities commented that local aspects of a national strategy could be driven by multi-agency public protection (particularly child protection committees who could have a large role in implementation) and community safety forums. The Law Society pointed out that criminal justice agencies also had responsibility for many of these issues.
32. Some organisations suggested that the 'Stop it Now' campaign should be considered as a model. The Scottish Council for Single Homeless reported that this campaign has been successful in the USA and is about to be piloted in Derby.
33. Consultees expressed concern that it might be difficult to ensure the success of the public information strategy. One local authority mentioned the difficulties of constructive engagement with communities given the 'panic' that can arise on the issue of sex offending. The media can be very influential and it would be important to encourage their co-operation with the strategy.
34. Although the suggested campaign methods were broadly welcomed, it was mentioned that a one-off campaign might not be enough, for instance, the leaflet mentioned in recommendation 8 could be circulated annually.
35. In relation to recommendation 8, consultees were keen to ensure that the content of the leaflet was agreed between the relevant concerns, which would include parents. One authority suggested that the leaflet was sponsored by interested agencies to give the public added confidence in it. Some consultees mentioned that information on police checks for volunteers should be included in the leaflet. Following consultation on a document 'Protecting Children, Securing their Safety' the Executive is in the process of preparing a leaflet which suggests questions that parents can ask about clubs and their leaders, this leaflet will be modified to include the information suggested by the Expert Panel.
36. Consultees pointed out the importance of making the national conference and series of workshops accessible to all, both in terms of inclusively of all communities, and on a more practical level, to keep them affordable. Some consultees wanted to ensure that local events would follow the national conference.
37. In relation to recommendation 10, local authorities and the Association of Directors of Social Work (ADSW) were keen to ensure that clear boundaries were set for inter-agency working and that all involved knew their roles and responsibilities, particularly with regards to disclosure issues. Some consultees felt that Executive guidance was needed to clarify these issues.
38. Responding to recommendation 11, many consultees pointed out that there was no compulsion on voluntary sector organisations to undertake checks on employees or volunteers. Volunteer Development Scotland pointed out that someone unsuitable to volunteer to work with children should not be ruled out from other volunteer work.
39. The Scottish Executive accepts these recommendations and plans to update the guidance on the implementation of the Sex Offenders Act 1997, revised in 2000, as appropriate, following the joint Scottish Executive/Home Office consultation on a review of the 1997 Act. A leaflet for parents on child safety will be published ahead of the 2002-03 school year. Legislation to set up a new system establishing an Index of adults unsuitable to work with children will be introduced during the current parliamentary session.

40. Chapter One: Recommendation 12

    Recommendation 12: The Scottish Prison Service should actively develop a robust protocol to address the issue of the protection of child visitors to convicted sex offenders in prison.
    Scottish Prison Service

41. This was accepted by consultees and the Executive. One Health board suggested that, in addition, a protocol was needed for children visiting known sex offenders in psychiatric settings, secure units and Intensive Psychiatric Care Units (IPCUs). Many consultees recommended that a full risk assessment formed part of any protocol. They also suggested that other agencies were allowed to contribute to the process of creating these protocols, including local authorities and childcare agencies.
42. The Scottish Executive accepts these recommendations. The Scottish Prison Service has already issued guidance to Governors on the matter.

43. CHAPTER TWO

    Chapter Two: Recommendations 13-15

    Recommendation 13: In all cases prosecuted on indictment where an offender is convicted of a sexual offence, or an offence with a significant sexual element, the court should be required to obtain both a social enquiry report and a psychological assessment. A social enquiry report should also be mandatory for offenders convicted at summary level of a sexual offence, or an offence where there is evidence of a sexual element or motivation; sheriffs dealing with summary cases should be alert to the possible need for psychological as well as social enquiry reports.
    Scottish Executive

    Recommendation 14: Report writers should consult with each other in order to reach an informed view about the degree of risk presented by the offender and about how best to address and manage the risk.
    Scottish Executive, Court Service, Association of Directors of Social Work & Local Authorities

    Recommendation 15: The provisions of section 201(3) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 should be amended so that in sexual offence cases the single period during which the court may adjourn the hearing of the case after conviction and before sentence for the purpose of enabling inquiries to be made is increased. The current maximum of 3 weeks, where an accused is remanded in custody, and 4 weeks where he is remanded on bail or ordained to appear, should be increased to 6 weeks in all cases.
    Scottish Executive

44. These recommendations were generally accepted by consultees. One suggested that the reports should be specifically forensic in nature. Consultees identified many other types of information that could usefully assist requests for reports, such as victim or witness statements and police reports. They also identified other agencies that could be consulted for the purposes of report writing such as SACRO.
45. A small number of consultees were concerned about increasing the delay before sentencing to prepare reports. But the majority of consultees accepted this as a consequence of improving and increasing the information available to sentencers. Others suggested that it was not necessary to make reports mandatory, but this was not the majority view.
46. There might be legal difficulties for some professionals involved in sharing information fully, for example from ECHR. One local authority expressed concern about the use of psychological reports by the defence. They felt that these reports can portray the offence from the offender's perspective.
47. One consultee suggested that a disclosure package with statements from both the victim and offender would be valuable, both for report writing and future work on offending behaviours.
48. The Scottish Executive accepts these recommendations and has included provisions in the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill to provide the necessary legislative powers. This Bill was introduced on 25 March 2002.

49. Chapter Two: Recommendations 16-21

    Recommendation 16: All agencies involved in work with sex offenders should adopt the structured clinical approach to risk assessment and should use recognised structured tools as part of this approach. Each agency should undertake a regular audit of the use of such tools by its staff.
    All agencies working with sex offenders

    Recommendation 17: Use of the risk assessment framework promulgated by Social Work Services Inspectorate (SWSI) should be rigorously audited to ensure that it is modified in the light of experience and in the light of future research.
    Local Authorities & Social Work Services Inspectorate

    Recommendation 18: Criminal Justice Social Workers must receive appropriate training in risk assessment procedures.
    Local Authorities

    Recommendation 19: The Scottish Executive should issue a national protocol outlining principles of good practice in risk assessment to be binding on all of the key agencies involved in such work with sex offenders.
    Scottish Executive

    Recommendation 20: Additional resources should be provided to recruit, train and employ more clinical or forensic psychologists and more forensic psychiatrists.
    Scottish Executive, Scottish Council for Post Graduate Medicine & Dental Education

    Recommendation 21: The Scottish Executive should provide guidance in relation to what constitutes high, medium and low risk.
    Scottish Executive

50. Although consultees accepted these recommendations, many were concerned that some existing risk assessment materials were not reliable, that some might not be suitable for young sex offenders and that some had other limitations.
51. Some consultees suggested that it might be helpful if the Scottish Executive were to provide:

• Regulation and guidance (for health staff in particular);
• Central training and guidance on (the most effective) risk assessment tools; and,
• The universal use of an accredited risk assessment tool across Scotland.

49. Some consultees said that the structured clinical approach to risk assessment and the framework promulgated by the Social Work Services Inspectorate (SWSI) were not ideal. Recommendation 17 should improve the performance of this framework. Others pointed out that they had access to tools locally that they found successful. One authority suggested that the Risk Management Authority could monitor use of these tools.
50. There were several suggestions of other agencies that could be involved in the drawing up of a protocol, including Housing and Education interests, SPS and children's organisations such as 'Who Cares', SCRO (the Scottish Criminal Records Office), SCRA (the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration), SACRO, an independent consultant and various local authorities. The protocol should align with the standards set by the Risk Management Authority.
51. Consultees recognised the pressing need for additional psychologists and psychiatrists and welcomed the proposals to increase the numbers. The number of forensic adolescent psychiatrists and child and adolescent psychiatrists and psychologists in particular should be increased. Some pointed out that the increase might take time to affect the numbers in employment. A suggested short term solution would be to assist criminal justice social workers to undertake post qualifying training to help them assess sex offenders. As well as training for more clinical or forensic psychologists and more forensic psychiatrists, training might be needed for those using and interpreting risk management tools. Several consultees suggested multi-agency training. The Scottish Council for Post Graduate Medicine and Dental Education said that they supported recommendation 20. The Council has since merged to form the new Special Health Board, NHS Education for Scotland. The Executive and the new Health Board are in discussion about increasing the provision of psychological services to NHS Scotland in general.
52. Although most consultees welcomed the definitions suggested in recommendation 21, some said it might be difficult to enforce and use these definitions as there are many tools available, some of which have specific and sometimes differing definitions built into them.
53. The Scottish Executive accepts recommendations 17-20, and will give further consideration to recommendations 16 and 21. Provisions to set up a Risk Management Authority (RMA) which will have responsibility for accrediting risk management tools and standards and for promulgating best practice guidance are included in the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill. The Executive plans to work with local authorities and SPS to strengthen existing arrangements for risk assessment and management. It will look to the RMA to advise on whether to adopt the structured clinical approach to risk assessment and the use of recognised structured tools.

54. CHAPTER THREE

    Chapter Three: Recommendations 22-24

    Recommendation 22: All local authority criminal justice social work services should make available specialist intervention programmes for those sex offenders who are subject to supervision in the community and are deemed suitable. All criminal justice social work services should review the skill mix of staff involved in the management of sex offenders and make formal arrangements with adjacent authorities to ensure that specific sex offender programmes are available as close as possible to the offender's domicile. A directory of personal change programmes for sex offenders should be collated, regularly updated and made available to all relevant agencies.
    Local Authorities

    Recommendation 23: Local authorities and the Scottish Executive should produce an agreed 'core' intervention manual for use with sex offenders in the community based on cognitive behavioural principles. STOP 2000 could form the basis for the manual but would require modification for community use and for different types of sex offender.
    Scottish Executive & Local Authorities

    Recommendation 24: Local authorities should establish arrangements for joint training in programme delivery with the aim of ensuring that, within each local criminal justice social work service, there is sufficient expertise to deliver the core components of personal change programmes based on a cognitive behavioural approach. This identified group should be responsible for developing:
    (i) minimum training standards for workers involved in the delivery of personal change programmes for sex offenders
    (ii) a strategy for ensuring adequate supervision and support for programme facilitators and
    (iii) a strategy for continuing professional development to ensure skills are retained and enhanced on a regular basis.
    Local Authorities

55. Consultees welcomed these recommendations although many consultees were not content with the proposal to base a 'core' intervention manual on the STOP 2000 programme. Some consultees mentioned certain community based intervention programmes they ran or were aware of, some suggested that these could be used as a basis for the manual instead of the STOP programme. Some suggested that the Criminal Justice Social Work Development Centre might be able to play a role in developing the core manual.
56. Difficulties of ensuring continuity and compatibility between SPS and community intervention programmes might be eased if the SPS is involved in the development of the core manual. This manual should take into account the needs of all offenders including those with learning disabilities or other mental health problems. Intervention programmes, both in the community and in prisons, should be age appropriate.
57. Complying with the first of these recommendations is going to be difficult for smaller local authorities, those that are sparsely populated and those with island populations. Several local authorities pointed out the resource implications of many of the recommendations in this chapter.
58. One local authority expressed concern about the difficulties of allocating which authority has duties to a particular person (a difference between the Housing Act definition of "local connection" and the Community Care definition of "ordinary residence" was mentioned as a possible cause for this). They hoped that these concerns might be addressed by recommendation 52.
59. ADSW and about half of the authorities that responded, suggested the development of post-qualification training in working with sex offenders (and potentially dangerous offenders) as part of recommendation 24.
60. Several consultees mentioned that health agencies could be more closely involved in many of the recommendations in this chapter.
61. The Scottish Executive accepts these recommendations and has included work with sex offenders in its guidance on National Priorities for criminal justice social work for the next 3 years. It will explore whether the accreditation of sex offender programmes is a better way to proceed than the introduction of a core manual.

62. Chapter Three: Recommendation 25 and Recommendations 33

    Recommendation 25: Sentencers and the Parole Board should be provided with regularly updated information about the available provision of community based programmes for sex offenders.
    Local Authorities

    Recommendation 33: Sentencers and the Parole Board should be provided with regularly updated information about the programmes available for sex offenders in a custodial setting.
    Scottish Prison Service

63. Consultees welcomed these proposals. They felt that the information should be provided centrally and should be available electronically. They felt that the information provided should include an account of the aims and objectives of programmes and an assessment of their effectiveness. In addition, central government or the National Development Centre might collate and disseminate relevant information to national bodies and circuit judges.
64. The Scottish Executive accepts these recommendations and is developing 'Information for Sentencers' to improve information on the availability of programmes. This is being piloted in Edinburgh and Lothians.

Chapter Three: Recommendation 26

Recommendation 26: Consideration should be given to identifying and securing funding for risk assessment and personal change programmes for:

• individuals who have admitted sexually offending behaviour but without providing sufficient information to secure a conviction
• individuals who admit concerns that they may be at risk of sexual offending and convicted sex offenders who remain at risk but are not subject to statutory supervision and who require ongoing support/intervention to reduce the risk they present to the public.
  Scottish Executive

63. Consultees approved of this idea but felt that it would be difficult to implement this on a non-mandatory basis. In particular, people might be reluctant to do so as it might jeopardise future court action (and indeed a solicitor might advise them not to take part). One authority suggested that this could be addressed as a public health issue.
64. Another authority suggested that research was carried out into voluntary treatment in other countries. Childline Scotland said that it had received a few calls from concerned adult abusers and they suggested that a helpline could be available, with a referral system to these programmes, attendance on which could be kept confidential.
65. The Scottish Executive accepts this recommendation.

66. Chapter Three: Recommendations 27-32

    Recommendation 27: HM Inspectorate of Prisons should, towards the end of 2002, undertake a thematic inspection of the current availability and provision of personal change programmes for sex offenders who are in custody.
    HM Inspectorate of Prisons

    Recommendation 28: The Scottish Prison Service should ensure the availability of sex offender intervention programmes for every convicted sex offender including those given a custodial sentence of 2 years or less. The Scottish Prison Service should also set out a timetable for achieving this and key performance indicators should be put in place to monitor progress towards achieving this target.
    Scottish Prison Service

    Recommendation 29: The Scottish Prison Service should build on its existing training strategy for staff involved in the delivery of personal change programmes for sex offenders by developing a strategy for continuing professional development. The Scottish Prison Service should also develop enhanced training to support those delivering programmes to sex offenders who deny their offending or who refuse to accept any responsibility for their behaviour.
    Scottish Prison Service

    Recommendation 30: The Scottish Prison Service should identify an individual (or group of individuals) to take responsibility for co-ordinating all the intervention programmes which are available to sex offenders. This should take place both at a central strategic level and within individual prisons. The role should include the following responsibilities:
    (i) identifying which interventions are required and which should take priority
    (ii) monitoring waiting lists
    (iii monitoring completion and drop out rates
    (iv) monitoring the overall effectiveness of the programmes through the use of standard psychometric tests.
    Scottish Prison Service

    Recommendation 31: The Scottish Prison Service should develop a strategy for the management of offenders who deny their sex offending and/or refuse to participate in personal change programmes.
    Scottish Prison Service

    Recommendation 32: The Scottish Prison Service should establish a working group to consider how best to monitor personal change and, with external agencies, how best to disseminate that information.
    Scottish Prison Service

67. These recommendations were welcomed by consultees. It was suggested that the inspection of personal change programmes for those in custody should include: unannounced visits; observation of programme delivery; consideration of prisoners' progress; the recording of such progress and how these records are handed on when a prisoner goes back into the community; and, inspection of prisoner warrant files.
68. Consultees were keen to ensure that like community interventions, those delivered in custodial settings could meet the needs of all; they must be able to cater for the differing levels of ability of prisoners. Some felt that an inter-agency approach might improve the development of programmes.
69. Again, many consultees suggested the development of post-qualification training in working with sex offenders.
70. Consideration of a pilot project aimed at offenders who deny offending behaviour, might be useful in taking forward recommendation 31. This recommendation will require staff training. These recommendations will have resource implications for the SPS which can be met out of current funding.
71. The Scottish Executive accepts these recommendations. SPS is setting up a Sexual Offender Strategy and Implementation Group to take forward these recommendations and the availability and provision of personal change programmes will be inspected.

72. Chapter Three: Recommendation 33

    See Recommendations 25.

    Chapter Three: Recommendations 34-39

    Recommendation 34: The Scottish Executive should review current provision in relation to assessment and intervention programmes and provision for children and young people who have committed a sexual offence or who are displaying sexually aggressive behaviour.
    Scottish Executive

    Recommendation 35: The Scottish Executive should develop a national strategy for a specialist assessment and intervention service for children and young people who offend or who display sexually aggressive behaviour.
    This service should include access to a robust and comprehensive risk and needs assessment and to offence-specific personal change programmes to be available both in the community and in secure and non-secure residential settings. The national strategy should specify the skills mix of staff which would be required to deliver the service and should set out rigorous standards for training, competence, supervision, continuity of professional development and programme content and evaluation.
    Scottish Executive

    Recommendation 36: All children and young people identified as at risk of sex offending or who are displaying sexually aggressive behaviour should have access to an appropriate personal change programme.
    Local Authorities

    Recommendation 37: The Scottish Executive should produce a specialist resource pack following the review for use with sexually aggressive young people. This pack should be piloted in a few centres.
    Scottish Executive

    Recommendation 38: Local authorities should examine the interface between children and family services and criminal justice services to ensure that those children and young people who are sexually aggressive or at risk from sex offending get a service determined by their need and not by their point of access to the system.
    Local Authorities

    Recommendation 39: There should be a national programme of training for staff in young offenders institutions and Secure Units who deliver personal change programmes. The programme should build on the proposed universal developments in schools and community education.
    Scottish Prison Service

73. These recommendations were supported by consultees, although some of them raised concerns. One local authority education department suggested that teachers do not have the counselling and psychiatric support skills to intervene with pupils whose behaviour is causing concern. One consultee questioned the use of the term 'sexually aggressive behaviour', saying it was not broad enough to include all inappropriate or problematic behaviour which may not be aggressive in nature.
74. One local authority said that the national strategy should be developed with the input of children's groups and other authorities said that it should take account of local services, children's service planning and that it should be integrated into child protection procedures and training.
75. Barnardo's pointed out that it might be worthwhile to engage with a problem pupil's family, that any intervention should take a wide approach to consider the possible causes of behaviour, and that social workers might be able to contribute to this process. They emphasised that local authority intervention programmes used for children should be specifically geared towards youngsters rather than being adapted from adults programmes, and pointed out that the strategy needed to consider how to deal with young people who do not co-operate with or respond to programmes. Barnardo's thought it might be useful to study the outcomes of young people's intervention programmes. Others added that research should be done about any links between domestic violence (involvement in or witnessing of) and future offending.
76. One local authority pointed out that a multi-disciplinary approach to youth crime advocated by the Youth Crime Review and accepted by the Scottish Executive (which covers preventative measures) might aid the implementation of recommendation 38.
77. Three local authorities suggested that the training described in recommendation 39 should lead to a recognised qualification. One suggested that the qualification could be incorporated in the new residential childcare qualification. Another said that the training should be available to staff in schools for children and young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties.
78. SPS have agreed to take forward this training in young offenders institutions. It is the SIRCC's responsibility to take this forward in secure units.
79. The Scottish Executive accepts these recommendations. The Education Department and Social Work Services Inspectorate will be responsible for developing this part of the strategy.

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