March 28, 2017

Executive Summary

At 31 July 2016, there were 15,317 looked after children – a decrease of 83 (or less than one per cent) from 2015. This is the fourth consecutive year the numbers have decreased following a peak of 16,248 in 2012, although this year’s decline is small, numbers in care are stabilising.

There were 2,723 children on the child protection register in 2016, a small decrease from last year, and the first time since 2005 that there have been two consecutive years of decline.

There were an average of 85 residents in secure care accommodation throughout 2015-16, an increase of four per cent from 82 residents in the previous year and reversing the recent downward trend (Table 3.2). However, this increase was driven by an increase in placements from the rest of the UK – there was a five per cent decline in residents from Scotland. http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/03/6791

Children’s Social Work Statistics Scotland 2015/16

Downloadable documents:  

• Children’s Social Work Statistics – Main tables 2015-16 [XLSX, 445.4 kb: 30 Mar 2017]  Open | Open in new window
• Children’s Social Work Statistics Scotland, 2015-16 [PDF, 4658.0 kb: 29 Mar 2017]  Open | Open in new window

SOURCE http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/03/6791/downloads

Additional tables are available at  http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Children/PubChildrenSocialWork

Illustration 1    Infographic showing all children in Scotland and relative number being looked after and on the child protection register at 31 July 2016
Table 1.1   Number of children looked after by type of accommodation, 2009-2016	Table 1.1a    Number of children looked after by type of accommodation, 1971-2016
Table 1.2    Children looked after with and without a current care plan, at 31 July 2016	Table 1.3      Number and percentage of children starting to be looked after by age and gender, 2003-2016
Chart 2    Percentage difference by destination between 2010 and 2016	Table 1.4  Number and percentage of children ceasing to be looked after by length of time looked after and age, 2003-2016
Table 1.5   Percentage of children ceasing to be looked after, by destination, 2002-2016	Illustration 2  Infographic showing proportional representation of post-care destinations (based on table 1.5)
Table 1.6   Pathway plans and nominated pathway co-ordinators of young people who were beyond minimum school-leaving age on the date they ceased to be looked after, during 1 August 2015 to 31 July 2016	Table 1.7  Number and percentage of young people eligible for aftercare services, at 31 July 2016, by age and economic activity
Child protection
Table 2.1   Number of children on the child protection register by gender, 2000-2016	Table 2.1a    Number of children on the child protection register by age and gender, 2000-2016
Table 2.2   Number of children on the child protection register and rate per 1,000 population aged 0-15 by local authority, 2007-2016	Table 2.3  Number of registrations following an initial, pre-birth or transfer-in case conference by length of time since previous de-registration, 2007-2016
Table 2.4    Number of deregistrations from the child protection register by length of time on register and reason for deregistration, 2007-2016	Table 3.1 Secure care unit bed complement at 31 July 2016
Table 3.2   Secure care accommodation capacity and usage, 2013‑2016	Table 3.3    Young people in secure care accommodation by gender, age, disability and length of stay, 2015-2016
Table 3.4   Number of secure children’s homes/secure care accommodation units, places approved and children accommodated at year end across the United Kingdom, 2015-16