State-funded child care was a lottery, inquiry told

STATE-FUNDED childcare was yesterday branded a ‘lottery’ at Scotland’s child abuse inquiry.

James Peoples, QC, senior counsel to the statutory probe, suggested that years of patchy, ‘light touch’ regulation meant children had faced a ‘lottery’ when they were sent to foster or children’s homes.

Some had permitted corporal punishment while others had banned it – but a lack of consistent rule-making meant any child entering the system had no way of knowing what lay ahead.

Mr Peoples was referring to state-funded childcare in the postwar period.

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

Lesley Irvine, a Scottish Government lawyer giving evidence yesterday, conceded it was ‘fair to say’ there had been inconsistencies in the state’s regime.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) is exploring central government’s role in childcare provision historically, in the run-up to more detailed hearings in coming weeks. Last week, the Catholic Church and Church of Scotland were among religious groups which issued apologies to abuse victims in their care.

Yesterday Mr Peoples suggested vulnerable children had been subjected to a ‘lottery’ over the regime they would face in facilities provided for them by the state.

He said looking back at the historical set-up, ‘some settings have detailed rules and regulations and some settings don’t’.

Miss Irvine said it was ‘not a lottery as to how they [children] ended up’ in particular homes. But Mr Peoples said: ‘A girl might go into a setting where corporal punishment is banned, while a girl of the same age might go into a different setting and find she could be punished by corporal punishment?’

Advocate Miss Irvine said: ‘Yes, that’s fair.’ The inquiry continues.