SCOTLAND needs dedicated centres to house traumatised girls who have been sexually exploited, according to leading social workers.

Research with two-thirds of council chief social work officers (CSWOs) found many were concerned about girls with serious mental health issues as a result of abuse, neglect, or child sexual exploitation ending up in secure care.

Young people can be sent to secure care, where they are locked up if they regularly run away, or put themselves or others at risk of serious harm. But a report has highlighted a lack of specialist services to guarantee the safety of vulnerable girls.

It also found senior social workers were often ignorant of how the five secure units in Scotland worked. Many chief social workers were confused about whether secure units were designed to punish or protect children and there were “gaps in knowledge and awareness” about the system, according to the report by the Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice (CYCJ).

Staff at the centre, which is funded by the Scottish Government and based at Strathclyde University, spoke to 21 of the country’s 32 local authority CSWOs. These senior workers have the ultimate say over whether a young person is deprived of their liberty in secure care – but many had not visited any of the country’s secure units, and in some cases named other centres run by charities, unaware that they were not secure facilities.

Scotland has five such centres: the Good Shepherd Centre, Bishopton; Kibble Safe Centre, Paisley; Rossie, Montrose; St Mary’s Kenmure, Bishopbriggs; and Edinburgh Secure Services, the only unit run directly by a council. They comprise 84 places, of which 80 are currently full.

One of the most serious concerns identified by the report was that all the existing units accept both boys and girls. The social work chiefs said there was a need for a specialist centre for young women, who could otherwise be “re-traumatised” by being housed in a secure environment that was seen by some as too “macho” to meet their needs.

Claire Lightowler, director of CYCJ, said the report aimed to shine a light on the way decisions are taken for a highly vulnerable children going into the most restrictive care available.

She said: “There was a recognition that there is a particular issue about girls at high risk, who we are not necessarily responding to appropriately. There is a tendency for boys to externalise the harm they have suffered while girls internalise it. That means they may need a different approach.”

She said the gaps in knowledge of the system from some CSWOs interviewed might reflect the increased complexity of their role in recent years.

Alain Baird, former government chief social work adviser, said the report was important.

“It presents opportunities for CSWOs as well as secure care providers to build more effective partnerships to help meet the needs of some of our most troubled young people,” he said.