Leading figures in the child protection sector are warning of deep concerns that the sexual abuse of children is no longer a priority for many councils and social work departments.
Eight national abuse experts claim a change of emphasis towards other types of abuse such as emotional and physical neglect and away from Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is misguided.
In a letter to The Herald, they suggest a lack of basic awareness and a shortage of resources may be contributing to the problem.
Martin Henry, manager of national abuse prevention charity Stop It Now Scotland and Laurie Matthew – manager of Dundee-based charity 18 and Under – are among signatories.
Other high-profile figures putting their name to the letter include Anne Houston, chief executive of the charity Children 1st.
Sarah Nelson, of Edinburgh University, is a co-author. She wrote in The Herald's Society page last week that social workers had told her CSA was seen as yesterday's issue.
She said they were "right back to the 1980s in terms of training and awareness" and staff are "afraid to ask families at risk about it because they would have to do something".
In the joint letter they write: "At the very time the Savile revelations have rightly raised expectations for better protection of children in future, we are deeply concerned that sexual abuse is being allowed to disappear off the statutory radar."
The experts blame a trend away from giving social workers the time to listen and form relationships with clients, and say that this makes it difficult to build up a trusting relationship.
As a result, the letter says, it is hard for victims who might otherwise reveal claims of past or current abuse to do so, and to feel confident they will be taken seriously if they do. They add it is misguided to treat CSA in isolation and argue a history of such abuse has been linked to many other social problems –including mental illness, crime and alcohol and drug abuse – that it should not be neglected.
They say: "Different types of child maltreatment should not be in competition with each other for resources, but approached on the basis of need."
The letter calls on the Scottish Government to reverse a decline in prominence for CSA and ensure frontline social workers have sufficient time built into their working day to listen to those who may have suffered child sexual abuse.
Peter MacLeod, president of the Association of Directors of Social Work said: "I don't believe children in Scotland are not being listened to by social work professionals or that allegations of sexual abuse are not being dealt with appropriately.
"But I'm committed to ensuring we do anything we can to make children in Scotland as safe as possible, and as part of that to listen to concerns outlined in this letter."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article