There are calls to establish expert support

It follows a recommendation made last week by social work inspectors who investigated the collapsed Western Isles child abuse case.

Local MSP Alasdair Morrison said the same recommendation was made after the Orkney child abuse case 13 years ago and should be acted on this time.

Three girls in the Western Isles case had been sexually assaulted.

Nine adults were charged with sexual abuse but the Crown Office subsequently dropped all the cases.

Expert agency

However, the Social Work Inspection Agency (SWIA) found all three had suffered severe and prolonged abuse.

One of their key recommendations for the future was the setting up of a multi-agency national resource for those working on child protection, with experts on call.

Mr Morrison has written to Minister for Young People Peter Peacock expressing concerned that Lord Clyde's 1992 Orkney recommendation had not been implemented.

Let's not wait another 13 years Anne Black Consultant to Lord Clyde

A spokeswoman for the executive said Mr Peacock had asked officials to bring forward early proposals based on the recommendations.

She added that the matter would be discussed at Holyrood's child protection steering group next week.

Mr Morrison told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: "It's one thing being sympathetic and empathising, it's another putting in the resources and establishing an agency, as recommended last Friday, but worryingly as was exactly recommended 13 years ago by Lord Clyde, after the Orkney inquiry."

Colin Mackenzie, president of the Association of Directors of Social Work in Scotland, said the recommendation came from a panel of social work, health and police experts.

Accountability concerns

He said: "I think we can be confident that it has been thought out in terms of the additional things it would bring to those people working at the front line."

Anne Black was a consultant to Lord Clyde, looking into the Orkney case.

She said: "Clearly the anxiety that we had was that a very small authority couldn't have all the experience, expertise and skills needed for such a very complex situation.

"We felt that if you could draw together, not on a permanent basis, but on an as-and-when basis, a group of people that had that expertise, that they would be a resource to small authorities or indeed to large ones."

She said it may not have been adopted in the 90s because of concerns that experts would take over from local social work staff, but she insisted the role was to advise, guide and support local agencies.

"Let's not wait another 13 years," she added.