Children's Social Work Statistics Scotland: 2021 to 2022

Child protection

Child Protection refers to a range of processes involved in considering, assessing, planning, and taking necessary action to protect a child from abuse or neglect. Child protection processes start when a concern about harm or risk of harm from abuse or neglect to a child has been raised, and police or social work have been notified. The route of child protection processes is summarized in Figure 1.  

Figure 1 Children included in child protection statistics

Concern about harm or risk of harm reported may lead to an investigation (or no investigation) which may in turn lead to a case conference (or no case conference).  A case conference may lead to a registration (or no registration) and may also lead to a referral to the Reporter. If a registration takes place, there will be regular reviews until de-registration.

Child Protection Register

On 31 July 2022, 2,031 children were on the Child Protection Register. This is a 4% decrease since 2021 and the lowest this figure has been since 2002 (see Chart 1).

Chart 1 Number of children on the Register by age, 2000-2022 [Note 1]

[Note 1] Prior to 2010/11 figures are as at 31st March. From 2010/11 onwards figures are as at 31st July.

Characteristics of children

Of those children on the Register on 31 July 2022, 50% were male, 45% were female, and 5% were not yet born, as seen in Table 1.1. The proportion of children on the Register aged under 5 years has decreased from 52% in 2021 to 48% in 2022, while the number of children aged 5 years and over has increased from 48% in 2021 to 52% in 2022.

Table 1.1 Number and percentage of children on the Child Protection Register by sex and age, on 31 July [Note 1]

[Note 1] Some totals may not exactly equal the sum of their parts due to the effects of rounding.

[Note 2] Unborn children with both a known and unknown sex.

Table 1.2 Number and rate per 1,000 children on the Register by local authority, on 31 July [Note 1], [Note 2]

[Note 1] Rate per 1,000 for 2021 and 2022 calculated using NRS mid 2021 population estimates (0-15 years). Rates may vary slightly from previous publications due to updated Mid-Year Population Estimates.

[Note 2] The rate shown in this table includes unborn children who are on the Register.

Table 1.3 continued

[Note 1] Rate per 1,000 calculated using NRS mid 2021 population estimates (0-15 years).

[Note 2] The rate shown in this table includes unborn children who are on the Register.

[Note 3] Case Conferences with no investigation recorded within 90 days are cases where no investigation was recorded in the data provided to Scottish Government in the 90 days preceding the Case Conference.

Concerns identified at Child Protection Case Conferences of children registered during the year

In total, 9,274 concerns were identified at Case Conferences of all children registered during 2021-22. Of the total number of concerns identified, the most common concerns were: domestic abuse (16%), neglect (15%), parental mental health problems (14%), parental substance use (15%), and emotional abuse (13%; see Chart 2). This statistic is reported here for the first time, in previous years concerns identified were reported for children on the Register on 31 July – this information is available in Additional Table 1.2.

The number of concerns identified at Case Conferences as a proportion of all registrations during the year can be found in Additional Table 1.5. The highest proportion of concerns recorded were: domestic abuse (46%); neglect (43%); parental substance misuse (42%); parental mental health problems (41%); and emotional abuse (37%).

Chart 2 Concerns identified at Case Conferences of children registered during the year, 2021-22 [Note 1]

[Note 1] Multiple concerns can be recorded (rather than just the main category of concern). This means that the total number of concerns will be greater than the total number of registrations.

Table 1.4 Number and percentage of registrations during the year following an initial, pre-birth or transfer-in Case Conference by length of time since previous de-registration [Note 1]

[Note 1] Some totals may not exactly equal the sum of their parts due to the effects of rounding.

De-registrations

If and when the practitioners working with the child and family decide that the risk of significant harm to the child has been sufficiently reduced and the child or young person is no longer in need of a Child Protection Plan, the child may be de-registered from the Register.

During 2021-22, a total of 3,364 children were de-registered from the Register – a 15% decrease since 2020-21. More than half of de-registrations (55%) were due to an improved home situation while 84% of de-registrations were for children on the Child Protection Register for less than one year.

Although patterns fluctuate year on year, over the last decade the overall pattern remains the same, with the highest proportion of de-registrations relating to children registered for less than 6 months and the lowest proportion of de-registrations relating to those who spend 2 years or more on the Register (see Chart 3).

Chart 3 Percentage of de-registrations by length of time on the Register, 2007-2022 [Note 1]

[Note 1] Prior to 2010/11 figures are as at 31st March. From 2010/11 onwards figures are as at 31st July.

Cross UK Comparisons

As at 31 March 2022, Scotland’s rate of children on the Register was 22 per 10,000 children – the lowest this figure has been since 2006 (see Chart 4). Although this is considerably lower than England (42 per 10,000), Wales (47 per 10,000), and Northern Ireland (53 per 10,000), UK nations operate under different legislative frameworks, and as such are not directly comparable. For further information on the comparability of national data see UK Comparability of Children's Social Services Statistics.

Chart 4 Cross UK comparisons of rate per 10,000 of children on the Register 2004-2022 [Note 1], [Note 2], [Note 3], [Note 4]

[Note 1] Scotland data is as at 31st March for comparability purposes with other UK countries. The exception to this is between 2011 and 2014 where figures were published as at 31 July. Please refer to Cross-UK comparability background notes for further information. Scotland rate per 10,000 for 2021 and 2022 was calculated using NRS mid 2021 population estimates. Rates may vary slightly from previous publications due to updated Mid-Year Population Estimates.