Agencies that keep children safe must not be swamped

THE number of high risk offenders being monitored in Scotland under public protection arrangements is staggering. By last year there were more than 5,000 registered sex offenders, while such schemes already cover mentally disordered offenders released from settings such as HMP Carstairs.

The addition to police databases of serious violent offenders, mostly those posing a risk to women such as serial domestic abusers, has increased pressure on the system.

The so-called Mappa scheme (multi-agency public protection arrangements) now covers all the above. Recognition of a need to plan for the future lay behind a 2015 report from inspectors that called for change. The same inspectors – from the Care Inspectorate and police watchdog HMICS – say that, two years on, progress is limited and in some cases slow.

Crucially, many criminal justice social workers remain unable to access the UK-wide ViSOR database of violent or sexual offenders. Workarounds ensure records are kept up to date, with police inputting information from social work. But it is unacceptable that this problem continues, especially as a wariness among social workers about being vetted by police is one of the issues blamed for the delay; so much for multi-agency collaboration.

Meanwhile, social workers who lack the skills, software or confidence to gather evidence from computers, laptops and phones rely on police to do so.

The Scottish Government was to do more to help staff to monitor the social media use of registered offenders but, after two years, a lack of progress is blamed on a vacancy for the role of specialist social work adviser. This, too, is not good enough and suggests a lack of urgency.

But the increasing numbers being monitored under Mappa raise a bigger issue, according to lead inspector for HMICS Stephen Whitelock: whether all those we place on the sex offenders register need to be there.

This is a difficult but important question. As the numbers being monitored expand, it becomes harder to be confident that those who really pose a risk are being properly managed. Logically, we know that not everyone on the sex offenders register is dangerous. There have been celebrated examples of teenagers placed there for sending a naked picture to a boy or girlfriend; reprehensible, but hardly calling for lifelong monitoring.

But there are also adults for whom downloading images appears to be a compulsion. As police point out, every picture is a crime scene and their actions are not victimless. However, treating them as a paedophile who will physically abuse children might not necessarily be the best approach. Many people would baulk at the suggestion by Mr Whitelock that such offenders might be better dealt with by health services than the police.

But the question is worth asking. We must be sure that numbers that can seem overwhelming do not overwhelm the agencies responsible for keeping children, families and communities safe.