Newsletter - October 2025
National Missing Persons Framework and Missing Adults Awareness Raising Sessions
In September 2025 the Scottish Government published The National Missing Persons Framework for Scotland( 2025) (opens new window)
The Framework provides updated roles and responsibilities of respective agencies, standardising key practice from a wealth of good practice across Scotland, that aims to help and safeguard those who go missing through multi-agency working.
As part of the National Missing Person's Framework Implementation Project, the charity Missing People are undertaking some work with the Missing Adult's Review Group in West Lothian to support implementing the Framework.
Missing People will be facilitating online awareness raising sessions for staff across all agencies to increase knowledge around missing adults and explore how we can build on good practice in West Lothian.
Missing People
Missing Adults Awareness Raising Sessions:
Tuesday 2nd December 10am-12pm; or Wednesday 4th March 2026 2pm-4pm
To sign up email: emma.wynack@missing people.org.uk
SAVE THE DATE: Adult Support and Protection Awareness Day 2026
National Adult Support and Protection Awareness Day will take place on Friday 20th February 2026.
The national theme for this year's awareness day will be Adult Support and Protection in Supportive Settings. Members of the Adult Protection Committee's Learning and Development subcommittee are exploring plans to raise awareness and offer learning opportunities on Adult Support and Protection Awareness Day. Further information will be circulated once this has been finalised.
There will also be a national ASPire session on the morning of Thursday 19th February and the link for this will be circulated once it has been distributed by the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (IRISS).
Gender-based Violence: 16 Days of Action
16 Days of Action is an annual international campaign to raise awareness about gender-based violence. Gender based violence is any act of violence that is directed at a person because of their gender, or that affects people of a particular gender disproportionately. Gender-based violence can include:
Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Female genital mutilation, Stalking, forced marriage, Honor based abuse, and Commercial sexual exploitation
Every year, partners of the Gender Based Violence Committee look to engage West Lothian in the annual 16 days of action campaign to raise awareness about gender-based violence and challenge it.
A calendar of events will be taking place locally throughout the 16-day period. More details can be found here 16 Days of Action
Self-Evaluation of Appropriate Adult Services
Appropriate Adults provide communication support to vulnerable victims, witnesses, suspects and accused persons, aged 16 and over, during Police investigations. Police are required under section 42 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 to request support for vulnerable individuals in their custody. This support is provided by an Appropriate Adult .
Local authorities are responsible for ensuring that of Appropriate Adult are available to Police under the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2106 (Support for Vulnerable Persons) Regulations 2019. In West Lothian, the Appropriate Adult Service is carried out by employees of the council and NHS Lothian who have completed the required training and undertake the role in addition to their existing posts. There is a rota-based system for both daytime and out of hours which ensures that of Appropriate Adult are available to attend when Police request support.
A Quality Improvement Framework (opens new window) was published in October 2024 and in December 2024 the Care Inspectorate issued a core assurances document to local authority areas asking each area to undertake an exercise in self-evaluation and to report on this.
In July 2025 the Care Inspectorate published their Appropriate Adult Services: summary of self-evaluation report (PDF, 647 KB)(opens new window) . This report summarised findings within a national context. Key areas of confidence both nationally and in West Lothian include:
- Safe recruitment practices help to protect people who require support from potential abuse and other harm.
- Leadership - Regular multi-agency forums supported effective collaboration, communication and sharing of feedback between colleagues and Police Scotland partners; and
- Public Protection - access to Adult Support and Protection training and knowledge was recognised as a significant strength by almost all areas.
Key areas for improvement nationally and in West Lothian include:
- Strengthening performance reporting using Key Performance Indicators to assure sufficient oversight and ensure routine quality assurance was highlighted by some areas;
- A need to carry out a training needs analysis with a view to supporting development of a structured and targeted training programme (this has since been completed in West Lothian).
A report on the local and national findings was recently presented to the Social Work and Health Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel and this can be accessed on COINS (opens new window)
What we have been reading, watching and listening to
Reading
Published in September 2025: 'Meaningful Connection, Supporting Meaningful Connection: Good Practice Guidance for Care Homes'.
Videos
Warning: the following videos cover some sensitive topics that may be triggering to some people. Wellbeing support can be found on the WESTSPACE (opens new window) website
The BBC recently covered sextortion in their documentary: BBC Documentary - Blackmailed: The Sextortion Killers (opens new window)
BBC Disclosure: Care Home Undercover - BBC Documentary- care home undercover (opens new window)