This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Children's Social Work Statistics 2003-2004
26/10/2004
The latest Children's Social Work statistics presents findings from a range of statistics to paint an overall picture of demand for, supply of and outcomes from children's social work services.
The main points are:
- A number of indicators suggest an increasing number of children being looked after for their own care and protection - a continuing trend of increasing numbers of child protection referrals; the average age of a child in care falling and higher numbers of looked after children being placed away from their parental home.
- Almost 11,700 children were looked after by local authorities at March 31 2004: one per cent of all children under 18, continuing a modest growth in the number in recent years.
- Of 16 and 17 year old care leavers in 2003-04, six out of ten did not achieve any qualifications at SCQF level three or above compared to less than ten per cent for Scotland as a whole. Around 60 per cent of young people leaving care were not in education, employment or training compared to 14 per cent of all 16-19 year olds in Scotland. There has been little change in these proportions since the previous year.
- Over the past five years, the numbers of child protection referrals, case conferences and registrations have increased. However, the number of children on child protection registers has remained fairly constant because children are now spending less time on child protection registers. There have been increases in the number of children added to child protection registers because of emotional abuse and physical neglect and decreases in the number of children registered because of sexual abuse and physical injury.
- There were 468 adoptions in Scotland in 2003. While there has been an increase of over 20 per cent in adoptions between 2002 and 2003, over the past twenty years, there has been an overall decline in the number of adoptions
- Children's social care staff numbers increased by 11 per cent between 2002 and 2003, and the level of vacancies increased by two per cent. Most of the increase in the number of posts was for fieldwork staff. Overall spending by local authorities in 2002-03 amounted to £360 for each child aged 0-17 in Scotland.
Children's Social Work Statistics 2003-2004