High Level Summary of Statistics: Key Trends for Scotland 2006

8. Children

Growth and Development

Childcare

Between January 2004 and January 2005 the number of pre-school education and childcare centres grew by 2%, while the number of childminders declined by 1%.

The average cost to parents of a nursery place is £28 per day. Other childcare is less expensive, with childminders charging parents £21 per day, and crèches £24 per day. The number of women with dependent children working full time increased by 1.9% between 2003 and 2004. The increase was higher for single women with dependent children (3.8%).

In September 2005, approximately 82% of staff who worked directly with children in pre-school and childcare centres had a relevant qualification at any level, and 71% had a childcare qualification at SVQ level 2 or above.

Publication
Pre-School and Childcare Workforce Statistics 2005 (Published 2006)

Nursery Places

In January 2005, 81% of three year olds and 97.8% of four year olds in Scotland attended pre-school education. This compares to 85.4% of three year olds and 100% of four year olds the year before.

There are 2,836 providers of pre-school education in Scotland, employing 12,573 staff of which 17.3% are qualified teachers.

Internationally, Scotland has a relatively high proportion of 3 and 4 year olds attending pre-school (8 ^th from 28 OECD countries).

Source: Pre-school and Childcare Statistics 2005

Publication
Pre-School and Childcare Statistics 2005 (Published 2005)

Community Involvement

In 2003, 18% of 16-24 year olds were engaged in some form of voluntary activity. This was lower than for other age groups. However, of those who did some voluntary work, a quarter spent more than 16 hours per week doing this, higher than for older people.

Almost one third of a million young people, aged 5-25 years, were reported to have participated in voluntary and statutory youth work across Scotland in 2001-02. This represents 25% of the youth population.

Almost 40,000 adults support youth work at local level. One fifth of the youth work workforce is employed by local authorities. Of the total workforce, 17% is paid, with 83% being volunteers. Two thirds of the workforce is female.

Local authorities spend £35.1 million per year collectively on youth work. This represents 1.26% of the total local authority education budget.

Child Safety and Wellbeing

Spending

There have been increases in spending on children's social work by local authority areas.

Source: Local Government Financial Statistics, Scottish Executive, Mid-year population estimates, General Register Office for Scotland

Child Protection

Between April 2004 and March 2005, the number of child protection referrals has increased by 9%, the number of children subject to an initial case conference has decreased by 1% and the number of children added to child protection registers has decreased by 6%.

The number of children on child protection registers at 31 March 2005 has decreased by 4% from the previous year, and is equivalent to two children per 1,000 children aged under 18. A similar number of boys and girls are on child protection registers and over 80% of them are under the age of 11.

Source: Children's Social Work Statistics 2004-05, Scottish Executive

Publication
Children's Social Work Statistics 2004-05 (Published 2005)

Looked After Children

Over 12,000 children were looked after by local authorities in 2005, an increase of 4% from the previous year. A further 2,000 received short-term respite care. The majority (57%) were looked after at home with their parents or with family and friends. Approximately 29% were looked after with foster carers or prospective adopters, and 13% were in residential accommodation.

Care Leavers

Social work departments were no longer in touch with 25% of care leavers who were eligible for aftercare support, up from 22% in 2004. Of those care leavers still in touch with social work departments, 59% were not in employment, education or training.

This proportion of care leavers with qualifications at SCQF level 3 or above increases by 3% from the previous year. Thirty-seven per cent of children looked after at home and 55% of children looked after away from home achieved at least one qualification at SCQF level 3 or above.

Eleven per cent of young people still in touch with local authorities experienced a period of homelessness in the year after leaving care and 8% had moved accommodation more than three times.

Source: Children's Social Work Statistics 2004-05, Scottish Executive

Publication
Children's Social Work Statistics 2004-05 (Published 2005)

Secure Accommodation

The average cost of secure accommodation per person per week was £3,458 in 2004-05, making the estimated annual cost for secure accommodation £16.6 million, an 8% increase on the previous year.

There were 273 admissions to secure accommodation in 2004-05. an increase of 13% from the previous year. There was an average of 87 residents in secure accommodation throughout the year, ranging from 76 to 95.

Almost half of children admitted during the year were 15 years old.

Of all young people discharged during the year, 31% had been in secure for less than one month, 4% had been in secure for more than a year

Publication
Children's Social Work Statistics 2004-05 (Published 2005)

Social Work Services Staff

Workforce

There were 42,953 whole time equivalent ( WTE) staff employed by Scottish Local Authority Social Services in October 2005. This represented an increase of 4% from the 2004 total and an increase of 26% since 1999.

Source: Staff of Scottish Local Authority Social Work Services, 2005

Publication
Staff of Scottish Local Authority Social Work Services, 2005 (Published 2005)

Workforce by Client Group and Gender

Thirty per cent of staff employed by Scottish Local Authority Social Work Services in October 2005 were fieldwork staff and 28% were domiciliary staff (mainly home carers). A further 15% worked in residential establishments for adults and 9% were located in day care centres for adults.

Sixty one per cent of staff provided services for adults, a further 17% provided services for children and 4% provided services for offenders. Ten per cent of staff provided generic services for more than one client group.

The majority (84%) of all staff in 2005 were female. This proportion was highest for staff providing services for adults, where 89% were female, and lowest for staff providing services for offenders (63%).

Source: Staff of Scottish Local Authority Social Work Services, 2005

Publication
Staff of Scottish Local Authority Social Work Services 2005 (Published 2005)

Vacancies

There were 2,874 WTE vacancies in Scottish Local Authority Social Work Services in October 2004. This has remained quite consistent since vacancies were first collected in 2002. Vacancy rates were highest in children services (10%) and management/administration (9%) and lowest in services for offenders (6%).

The chart below shows that 45% of the 2,874 WTE vacant posts were in adult services and a further 25% were in children services.

Source: Staff of Scottish Local Authority Social Work Services, 2005

Publication
Staff of Scottish Local Authority Social Work Services, 2004 (Published 2005)

Social Workers Posts and Vacancies

The total number of filled social worker posts has increased by 24% between October 2001 and April 2006, from 3,873 whole time equivalent ( WTE) to 4,787 WTE.

The total number of vacant social worker posts has also increased slightly by 7% from October 2001 (471 WTE) to April 2006 (504 WTE).

Source: Social Worker Posts and Vacancies: April 2006

Publication
Social Worker Posts and Vacancies: April 2006 (Published 2006)