Authorities took action to ‘insulate’ vulnerable children

Scotland’s child abuse inquiry has heard the state had a “very judgmental” attitude towards children in poverty in the first half of the 20th Century.

Professor Kenneth Norrie, of Strathclyde University’s law school, was the first witness to give evidence in public at the inquiry in Edinburgh.

More than 60 residential institutions, including several top private schools, are being investigated.

Professor Norrie guided the hearing through developments in legislation surrounding children, juvenile offenders and child protection from the early to mid-20th Century.

Giving an overview of the first four decades of the 20th Century, he said there was a “developing idea” among authorities that the law needed to “insulate” certain children from “bad influences”.

He said: “It’s perceived that children are products of their environment, so the way to protect children is to protect them from their environment and that means removing them from their family.

“Actually, in the early years of the 20th Century, this hardens.

“One of the really noticeable features of the regulation we’ve been looking at is what isn’t there. What isn’t there is any contact with parents – that’s virtually absent.

“And indeed, as the years go by before the Second World War, it becomes almost official policy to discourage parental visits.”

The witness said authorities also sought to restrict the influence not just of parents, but the wider family, on certain children.

“The whole idea was that a child would be insulated from the bad influences, they would have better, new role models to become productive members of society away from their original family.”