6 minute read
International redress
Scotland: Still leading the way
Scotland continues to lead the way with its compassionate and comprehensive national response to survivors of historical institutional child abuse and neglect. The Scottish Government commenced an advance payment redress scheme in April 2019, and continues to provide other forms of practical support to survivors, as the work of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) continues. Unfortunately, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the Inquiry’s Child Migration Case Study was temporarily postponed in March 2020. SCAI Chairperson Lady Smith is currently assessing whether it can be completed via remote hearings. Tuart Place has contributed to this case study via a formal submission on Scottish child migration, available at https://www.tuartplace.org/about-us/reports-andThe Scottish Advance Payment Scheme (APS) is available to survivors who are terminally ill or aged 68 and over, and provides access to a fast-tracked redress prepayment of UK£10,000. In its First Anniversary Statistics, the APS reported that, as of 25 April 2020, a total of 417 advance payments had been made to survivors of institutional child abuse or neglect in Scotland. Thirteen per cent of applications were from survivors living abroad, most of them in Australia, with 34 applications received from former child migrants. The great majority of these applications have been supported by Tuart Place and, by the end of July 2020, Tuart Place Admin Assistant Natalie Tonking had helped 28 Scottish former child migrants to receive an advance payment from the scheme. Every APS claim requires proof of residency in a Scottish orphanage, and many have been complex. A number have involved applicants under Power of Attorney arrangements, requiring considerable liaison with case managers and authorised guardians.
Advertisement
Following its Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry
(2014-16), a long-awaited redress scheme commenced in Northern Ireland at the end of March 2020. From 2016 onwards, Tuart Place and FACT Board member Ann McVeigh, along with other former child migrants, worked alongside Professor Patricia Lundy of Ulster University, and Rosetta Trust Chairman Gerry McCann, to advocate for improvements to the NI redress scheme, many of which were adopted in the final model. Northern Ireland’s scheme is open to eligible former child migrants and the family members of those who have died since April 1953. Tuart Place has responded to many calls and inquiries about Northern Ireland’s new scheme, and Admin submissions/scottish-child-abuse-inquiry/, and through video-conference evidence provided to the Inquiry by former child migrants, and Tuart Place Director Philippa White. The Redress for Survivors Bill, currently being considered by the Scottish parliament, seeks to establish a financial redress scheme as an alternative to the civil courts. People who were abused or neglected in residential care settings before 1 December 2004 (or in some cases their next of kin) will be able to apply for a redress payment with a UK£80,000 upper limit. Further information on the Bill is available at https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/
CurrentCommittees/115852.aspx The POA applications prepared by Tuart Place were the first received by the Scottish scheme, and our advocacy and liaison has resulted in sensible protocols being established for the acceptance of international documents in the future. Natalie’s diligent work was nicely acknowledged by the APS Team in June 2020, when they approved an advance payment to a very unwell client: “The speed that we were able to process this application was very much down to the excellent work on your part with the quality of the application and supporting documentation, so thank you for that”. Natalie is also the ‘go to’ person for the Scottish Future Pathways program, and, as of 30 July 2020, had helped 20 former child migrants to access many different forms of assistance from this scheme. Examples include: a gas hot water system; security screens; electrical wiring and bathroom safety railings; payment of vet bills; travel costs to connect with family; a reclining chair; electronic devices such as iPads, smart phones and computers; and - as you’ll read in our story
opposite - a brand new mobility scooter.
News from Northern Ireland
Assistant Natalie Tonking has done a great job in gathering and relaying the necessary information. Natalie has been working closely with Ian Thwaites of the Child Migrants Trust, to whom Natalie has referred many inquiries. If you wish to contact the scheme directly, call +44-28-9089-3977; email info@hiaadvocate.org.uk; or visit www.hiaredressni.uk To contact the Child Migrants Trust office in Perth, phone (08) 9472-7582.
Scotty Hoban: Riding high
Seeking contact
Scotty Hoban would love to chat with anyone who was at Ian ‘Scotty’ Hoban is a former child migrant
who was born in Scotland and placed at Nazareth House in Lasswade, Edinburgh when he was three years old. He was sent to Australia in 1939, as a nine-year-old, and lived at Bindoon, being briefly evacuated to Tardun during the war. Scotty now lives in NSW and celebrated his 91st birthday in December last year. His daughter Maxine visited Tuart Place in 2019, and has remained in touch. Maxine tells us that her dad still plays golf, looks after the church, and does a lot himself. With help from Natalie at Tuart Place, Scotty has been able to access support from programs currently underway in Scotland. Maxine emailed us in September to say that her dad is thrilled to bits with the new mobility scooter he received through the Scottish Future Pathways Scheme. Maxine sent us this picture of Scotty on his new scooter with his little canine friend Digger, who is nine years old.
the same places as he was in his younger days: Lasswade in Edinburgh Scotland, and Bindoon in WA. Please contact
Tuart Place if you would like to be put in touch with Scotty.
We especially like Scotty’s cap, which reads: ‘Old with Attitude’. Go Scotty!
Message from an English Migrant
I receive The Tuart Times regularly and enjoy reading all the news. The obituaries are especially important to me and I guess to your other readers too, as time rolls on and our numbers dwindle. I look forward to the stories and am always delighted at the reunion of so many of our members with family overseas. I myself was placed in a Birmingham Orphanage at the tender age of two and was reunited with my English family in 1973. I was 30 years old when this happy event occurred. I was surprised however that there were no stories in response to the UK£20,000 given to us by the British Government. There must be many good stories of how members spent this windfall. I thought it a generous grant with no conditions attached. I arranged a trip home to see my family, but unfortunately that all fell through with the Virus problem sweeping the world. The story of the ‘Redress Stadium’ was brilliant and certainly worth its place on your cover. Keep the good work up and let all your readers know that life it meant to be lived with joy despite the shortcomings of our upbringing. There comes a time when we must decide that what the past holds cannot be changed, and we have no real control of the future for it is not ours and may never be. We do however own completely the present moment and it is all we have, so I suggest we treasure it and enjoy it. Yours sincerely,
