The Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act, 2007 defines an adult at risk as a person aged 16 or over who:

• Is unable to safeguard their own well-being, property, rights or other interests
• Is at risk of harm; and
• Because they are affected by disability, mental disorder, illness or physical or mental infirmity, is more vulnerable to being harmed than adults who are not so affected.

This is commonly known as the three-point test. For an adult to be at risk in terms of the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act, 2007, the adult must meet all three points above.

It should be noted that the three criteria above make no reference to capacity. Capacity is not, and never should be a consideration in the three-point test.

In practice, this means that the following groups of people may sometimes be at risk of harm:

• People with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, autism, ADHD or mental health difficulties
• Older people
• Those who are homeless or affected by addictions

While child protection procedures may be considered for a person up to the age of 18, the legal boundaries of childhood and adulthood are variously defined and there are overlaps. For example, the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 Part 1 defines a child as someone under the age of 18. However, other parts of the same Act define a child as someone who has not yet attained the age of 16 years.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child applies to anyone under the age of 18. However, Article 1 states that this is the case unless majority is attained earlier under the law applicable to the child.

The  Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 defines a child as someone who has not attained the age of 18.

Section 67 of the same Act inserted a new section, 26A, into the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. The current law provides that a young person born on or after 1 April 1999 who is looked after in foster, kinship or residential care is generally eligible to remain in their current placement, and be provided with accommodation by the local authority, until they turn 21 years.

The local authority has a duty to provide advice, guidance and assistance to looked after children until they reach the age of 26 years.

The Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act, 2007 can be applied to over 16’s where the criteria are met.

Where a young person between the age of 16 and 18 requires support and protection, services will need to consider which legal framework best fits each person’s needs and circumstances.

The key message in this guidance is the following: “Although the differing legal definitions of the age of a child can be confusing, the priority is to ensure that a vulnerable young person who is, or may be, at risk of significant harm is offered support and protection”.

Emotional abuse is persistent emotional neglect or ill treatment that has a severe and persistent adverse effect on a child’s emotional development. It may involve:

• Conveying to a child that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person
• The imposition of age or developmentally inappropriate expectations on a child
• Causing children to feel frightened or in danger, or exploiting or corrupting children.

Some level of emotional abuse is present in all types of ill treatment of a child. It can also occur independently of other forms of abuse.

Signs of emotional abuse

• Pressure exerted by another person to do something that they do not want to do
• Depression, withdrawal, noticeable or uncharacteristic changes in behaviour, less communicative
• Fear of another person
• Hostile or rejecting behaviour by the caregiver
• Kept isolated from other people or depriving them of health or social care services.

Neglect is the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely resulting in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development.

It may involve a parent or carer failing to provide adequate food, shelter and clothing; failing to protect a child from physical harm or danger or to ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment. It may also include neglect of, or failure to respond to, a child’s basic emotional needs.

Neglect may also result in the child being diagnosed as suffering from “non-organic failure to thrive”, where they have significantly failed to reach normal weight and growth or development milestones and where physical and genetic reasons have been medically eliminated.

In its extreme form, children can be at serious risk from the effects of malnutrition, lack of nurturing and stimulation. This can lead to serious long-term effects such as greater susceptibility to serious childhood illnesses and reduction in potential stature.

With young children in particular, the consequences may be life-threatening within a relatively short period of time.

Signs of neglect

• Constant hunger, sometimes stealing food from other children
• Constantly dirty or “smelly”
• Loss of weight, or being constantly underweight
• Inappropriate clothing for the conditions.
• Complaining of being tired all the time
• Not requesting medical assistance and/or failing to attend appointments
• Having few friends
• Mentioning being left alone or unsupervised

There is no universally agreed definition of “child abuse”. The types of behaviour defined as abusive, and the range of people deemed to be perpetrators of abuse, are continually expanding. They are defined by society’s changing awareness and attitudes.

For the most recent Scottish Government child protection guidance, see The Scottish Government’s National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland, 2021.

Organised, multiple or institutional abuse: Abuse by organised groups of people targeting children. Such abuse can occur both as part of a network of abuse across a family or community and within institutions such as residential settings, in day care and in other provisions such as youth services, sports clubs and voluntary groups. There may also be cases of children being abused via the use of the Internet.

Child trafficking: A crime involving the movement of children for the purpose of their exploitation

Online Abuse: Any type of abuse that happens on the web, whether through social networks, playing online games or using mobile phones. Children and young people may experience cyberbullying, grooming, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation or emotional abuse. Children can be at risk of online abuse from people they know, as well as from strangers. Online abuse may be part of abuse that is taking place in the real world (for example, bullying or grooming). Or it may be that the abuse only happens online (for example, persuading children to take part in sexual activity online). Grooming is when someone builds an emotional connection with a child to gain their trust for the purposes of sexual abuse, sexual exploitation or trafficking.

Fabricated or induced illness (FII): A rare form of child abuse that occurs when a parent or carer exaggerates or deliberately causes symptoms of illness in the child. FII is also known as “Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy”.

Domestic abuse: Domestic abuse can seriously harm children and young people. Witnessing domestic abuse is child abuse, and teenagers can suffer domestic abuse in their relationships. Children living in a home where domestic abuse is happening are at risk of other types of abuse too. For more information on domestic abuse, see chapter 7.

Foetal abuse: The foetus may be damaged in utero by the mother’s tobacco, alcohol or drug use or harmed by another person physically assaulting the mother.

Substance misuse: Children affected by drug abuse and addictions of parents/carers.

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM): This comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. Religious, social or cultural reasons are sometimes given for FGM. However, FGM is child abuse. It’s dangerous and a criminal offence. There are no medical reasons to carry out FGM. It doesn’t enhance fertility and it doesn’t make childbirth safer. It is used to control female sexuality and can cause severe and long-lasting damage to physical and emotional health.

Forced marriage: Marriage involving a child who is under 16 years old.

Physical abuse is the causing of physical harm to a child or young person. Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning or suffocating. Fabricated or induced illness is physical harm that may be caused when a parent or carer feigns the symptoms of, or deliberately causes ill health to a child they are looking after.

Signs of physical abuse:

• Unusual or unexplained injuries
• Misuse of medication: giving too much, too little, withholding or giving the wrong medication, or giving it late
• Fear of another person, disturbed behaviour
• Physical or electronic barriers to freedom of movement and choice; medication which limits physical movement or behaviour.

There are some children who need protection from themselves. Their intention may be to injure themselves but not to endanger their lives, or it may be to attempt suicide.

Signs of self-harm

• Deliberate self-harm including self-cutting, burning, hitting (to damage) parts of body
• Attempted suicide including overdosing, use of ligatures
• Refusal to eat or drink
• Drug/alcohol/substance misuse
• Calculated and dangerous risk-taking.

Sexual abuse is any act that involves the child in any activity for the sexual gratification of another person whether or not it is claimed that the child either consented or assented or is aware of what is happening.

The activities may involve physical contact, including penetrative or non-penetrative acts. They may also include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of indecent images or in watching sexual activities, using sexual language towards a child or encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways.

Harmful sexual behaviour between children and young people

Some children and young people can develop harmful sexual behaviour which harms others and themselves. Indications of abuse include a lack of consent between the children involved; inequalities of age, development age or size; and the use of force or threats.

Signs of sexual abuse

• Sexual acts or actions involving genital contact or no physical contact
• Talking in sexual language that is inappropriate or uncomfortable
• Touching or attempting to touch in a sexual way against the person’s will or understanding
• Sexual intercourse or attempted sexual intercourse
• Lewd or libidinous practices towards a child
• Non-contact sexual activity e.g., exposing sexual parts to the child or having them witness adult sexual acts
• Rape, sodomy, incest, sexual assault and inappropriate touching of genitals.

Child sexual exploitation

The sexual exploitation of children and young people under 18 is an often-hidden form of child sexual abuse, with distinctive elements of exploitation and exchange.

For example, this might involve them being coerced, manipulated, forced or deceived into performing sexual activities in exchange for receiving some form of material goods.

Signs of child sexual exploitation

• Staying out late and going missing
• Multiple callers
• Excessive use of a mobile phone or multiple mobile phones
• Expressions of despair
• Disclosure of abuse followed by withdrawal of allegation
• Sexually Transmitted Infections  (STIs) and unwanted pregnancies
• Drug and alcohol misuse
• Truancy or exclusion
• High number of sexual partners and/or older boyfriends
• Unexplained amounts of money or other material items
• Marked change in appearance.

As included in the 14 Articles of the Human Rights Act 1998. For example, the prohibition of torture (article 3) and forced labour (article 4), the right to liberty and security (article 5), respect for family and private life (article 8) and freedom from discrimination (article 14).

Signs of abuse of human rights

• Absence of information or not knowing rights
• Being misinformed about rights

Most forms of harm will be covered by the abuse of one of these Human Rights.

Theft, fraud, exploitation, pressure to hand over or sign over property or money, misuse of property, possessions or welfare benefits.

Signs of financial or material abuse

• Unexplained debt; not paying bills for services
• Sale of property, possessions, misuse of bank account by the perpetrator
• Pressure on the person to comply with the wishes of another about wills, property, inheritance or money.

Hate crime is the term used to describe behaviour which is both criminal and rooted in prejudice. Hate crime can be verbal or physical and can be online or face-to-face. It has hugely damaging effects on the victims, their families and communities.

Current hate crime legislation in Scotland allows any existing offence to be aggravated by prejudice in respect of one or more of the protected characteristics of race, religion, disability, sexual orientation and transgender identity.

Prejudice or hostility also lies at the heart of some other offences which are recognised as hate crimes. These include racially aggravated harassment and stirring up of racial hatred. The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 consolidates, modernises and extends hate crime legislation in Scotland. It adds age as an additional characteristic and creates a new offence of ‘stirring up of hatred’, that will apply in relation to all protected groups protected by current hate crime laws. The Act includes a regulation-making power to enable the characteristic of ‘sex’ to be added to the lists of protected characteristics by regulations at a later date.

The term ‘historical abuse’, often referred to as non-recent abuse, refers to reports of neglect, emotional, physical and sexual abuse which took place before the victim was 16 (or 18, in particular circumstances) and which have been made after a significant time lapse.

The complainant may be an adult, but could be a young person making reports of abuse in earlier childhood.

The reports may relate to a person’s experience in the family home, community or while they were a looked after and accommodated child in a residential, kinship or foster care setting.

See the Historical Abuse Policy in Appendix 2

Can include not being given the correct medication or care, not allowed to see a doctor or other health professional, or restricting access to educational services, appropriate medication, food or heating.

Signs of neglect

• Person is found alone at home or in a care setting in a situation of serious risk
• Unexplained or sudden deterioration in health e.g., weight loss, infections or pressure sores
• Rushing a person with eating their meal or not cutting up their food so that they can easily eat it
• Failure to give the correct dose of medication and at the right time
• Undue delay in getting medical care for illness or injury
• Deprived of adequate food or heating, resulting in avoidable weight loss or hypothermia.

Hitting, slapping, pushing, inappropriate touching, kicking, being threatened with a weapon, burned, scalded or bitten, inappropriate sanctions or holding the person down.

Includes inappropriate restraint that is not part of an agreed plan. Restraint can be chemical (medication) or physical.

Signs of physical harm

• Unusual or unexplained injuries
• Misuse of medication: giving too much, too little, withholding or giving the wrong medication, or giving it late
• Fear of another person, disturbed behaviour
• Physical or electronic barriers to freedom of movement and choice; medication which limits physical movement or behaviour.

Threats, abandonment, humiliation, intimidation, bullying, harassment, verbal abuse, controlling behaviour, name-calling, insults, preventing the person from seeing others, misuse of authority or power over the adult at risk.

Signs of psychological or emotional harm

• Pressure exerted by another person to do something that they do not want to do
• Depression, withdrawal, noticeable or uncharacteristic changes in behaviour, less communicative
• Fear of another person
• Hostile or rejecting behaviour by the caregiver
• Kept isolated from other people or from receiving health or social care services.

The intention may be to injure self but not to endanger own life, or it may be to attempt suicide.

Signs of self-harm

• Refusal to eat or drink
• Drug/alcohol/substance misuse
• Cutting, burning, hitting etc. parts of the body
• Calculated and dangerous risk taking.

Can include any sexual activity that the person does not understand or want, as well as degrading or inappropriate photographs.

Signs of sexual harm or abuse

• Sexual acts or actions that are not wanted or understood and to which the adult could not, or did not, consent
• Talking in sexual language that is inappropriate or uncomfortable for the service user (non-contact sexual harm)
• Touching or attempting to touch in a sexual way against the person’s will or understanding
• Sexual intercourse or attempted sexual intercourse against the person’s will

Religious abuse is abuse administered under the guise of religion, including harassment or humiliation, which may result in psychological trauma.

Religious abuse is the control of one individual by another and may include manipulation and exploitation, enforced accountability, censorship of decision making, requirements for secrecy and silence, pressure to conform, misuse of scripture or using the pulpit to control behaviour, requirement of obedience to the abuser, the suggestion that the abuser has a ‘divine’ position.

Spiritual abuse is no less harmful or difficult to endure than any other kind of abuse, as a person’s spiritual life is deeply personal. However, it can be very difficult to identify, as many victims may not recognise they are being abused.