Children's Social Work Statistics Scotland, 2013-14

Secure Care Accommodation

	Average number of residents continues downward trend
	Emergency bed usage is at lowest recorded level

This section presents 2013-14 data on secure care accommodation.

Secure care normally refers to accommodation for vulnerable young people who are likely to abscond and they are at risk of harm to themselves or others. They are usually placed in secure care on welfare grounds by the Children's Hearing System. Children can also be placed on offence grounds by the Hearings System or the Criminal Justice System.

As secure care accommodation is in place for a very specific group of individuals, numbers will be much smaller than for those who are looked after or on the child protection register. There is no apparent connection between trends - while increases have been seen for children on the child protection register over the last year, decreases have been experienced by those who are looked after or in secure care accommodation. The average number of young people in secure care has been decreasing since 2010.

Bed complement

Table 3.1: Secure care unit bed complement at 31 July 2014

There were 90 secure places available in five secure units excluding emergency beds on 31 July 2014 (Table 3.1). There were an additional 6 beds available across these units for emergency and respite use - these would only be used if required and on a very short-term basis. The average cost per week of a secure bed during 2013-14 was £5,328.

Capacity and usage

There was an average of 74 residents in secure care accommodation throughout 2013-14, a decrease of four per cent from 77 residents in the previous year and continuing the downward trend (Table 3.2). The number of young people in secure care accommodation throughout the year ranged from 60 to 84.

Table 3.2: Secure care accommodation capacity⁽¹⁾ and usage, 2011-2014⁽³⁾

(1) Capacity: Young people can be admitted and discharged more than once during the year.
During 2010/11, St. Mary's Kenmure reported overcapacity for 9 periods which was due to using their 'mothballed' unit.
During 2010/11, St. Philip's reported overcapacity for 9 periods which was most likely due to using their 'mothballed' unit.
St. Philip's 'wound down' from 1 July 2011 and closed on 5 August 2011.
From 2011/12, St. Mary's Kenmure provide a care services to 24 children and young people in secure accommodation. In addition the service had 3 short term / respite beds which could be used when the service is at capacity.
The Elms Secure Unit closed on 20 December 2012.
During 2012/13, Rossie School reported 2 periods of overcapacity which was due to use of the emergency bed because of internal reorganisation rather than a new person coming into the unit. If excluded, the maximum number of residents during the year would be 89.
(2) Three units reported having an emergency bed: Rossie School, Good Shepherd & Kibble (see background notes for definition of an emergency bed).
(3) Change in reporting period from 2010/11 (from August to July). Previous years were from April to March.
(4) Data revised for 2012/13.
There were 232 admissions in secure care accommodation between 1 August 2013 and 31 July 2014. This was an increase of eight per cent compared with 2012-13, although similar to the 2011-12 figure. There were 226 discharges over the same period (a decrease of only two from 2012-13) - this is the fourth consecutive year these have fallen. Use of emergency beds decreased significantly (by 90 per cent) from the previous year as did the number of young people the emergency bed was used for (down by 80 per cent). This may be partly because the secure estate was never at full capacity during 2013-14.

Chart 11 shows that total occupancy reached its highest capacity of 84 residents in secure care accommodation during one date in May. Total occupancy was at its lowest during a period of three days in November. Timings of these high and low points are not consistent with last year, suggesting the time of year does not have an impact on the demand for secure care accommodation.

Chart 11: Daily occupancy of secure care accommodation 1 August 2013 - 31 July 2014

Table 3.3 shows that the number of young people in secure care accommodation on 31 July 2014 was 81. Following a three year decrease from 2009-10, this has increased by nine per cent since 2012-13.

Sixty-four per cent of young people in secure care accommodation on 31 July 2014 were male and just over 40 per cent were aged 16 years and over. Young people in secure care accommodation tend to be older than those looked after and on the child protection registers. Due to the specialist nature of secure accommodation, it is only appropriate for older children. The data shows the vast majority (79 per cent) of young people in secure care accommodation are 15 years or older. This is a very different pattern from what is seen in the child protection and looked after children data where the majority of children are under five and 11 respectively.

Ninety-four per cent of young people in secure care accommodation on 31 July 2014 had at least one additional support need and by far the most common category of additional support need was "other social, emotional and behavioural difficulties" (79 per cent). This is much higher than the proportions reported for children who are looked after or on the child protection register.

Table 3.3: Young people in secure care accommodation by gender, age, additional support needs and length of stay, 2011-2014⁽¹⁾

Information no longer collected

Information on close support was collected from 2010 to 2013. The statistics ceased to be collected in 2013-14. For information on close support, please see previous publications. In addition, information on staffing is no longer collected as this is available from other sources. Please see Background Notes 2.5 to 2.8 for further details on these.

Cross-UK secure care accommodation comparisons

The additional tables on secure care accommodation include a table on secure children's homes/secure care accommodation units, places approved and children accommodated across the United Kingdom. This shows a downward trend in places approved and children accommodated in Scotland and England since 2007. However, in Wales, there is a light upward trend, although numbers are smaller and so even more susceptible to fluctuation. These are available at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Children/PubChildrenSocialWork