Children's Social Work Statistics, 2011-12

Main Statistics

Each figure represents approximately 11,000 of the one million^[1] children under 18 in Scotland. In July 2012:

2% of children in Scotland were looked after by local authorities or on the child protection register

16,248 children were looked after

2,706 children were on the child protection register of who

730 were also looked after

84 young people were in secure care accommodation

Children who are looked after by local authorities can either be looked after at home (e.g. supervised by the local authority but living at home) or looked after away from home (e.g. living in residential accommodation, in the community or with family/friends). There has been a 49 per cent rise in the number of children looked after since 2001, mainly driven by the increase in children looked after away from home. Since 2001 there has also been a less steep but steady 35 per cent increase in the number of children on the child protection register.

Chart 1: Children looked after or on the child protection register, 2000-2012

In 2011-12 individual-level data on the children who were on the child protection register at 31 July 2012 is available for the first time, letting us see the extent to which looked after children overlap with children who are on the child protection register. Of the 2,706 children who were on the child protection register at 31 July 2012, almost one in three (31 per cent) had also been looked after at some point during 2011-12 and 27 per cent (730 children) were both looked after and on the child protection register at 31 July 2012.

Across Scotland two per cent of under 18s are looked after or on the child protection register, but there is variation across local authorities. The rate is highest in Glasgow, with closer to four per cent of children looked after or on the child protection register (37.8 children per 1,000 under 18s) and lowest in Orkney, with less than one per cent of children looked after or on the child protection register (7.4 per children per 1,000 under 18s). In general rates are higher in the West of Scotland and urban areas.