This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
Listen
Child protection statistics
05/11/2002
Statistics on child protection covering the year ended 31
March 2002 have been published today.
The main points are:
- There were 2,018 children on local child protection
registers at 31 March 2002; this is an increase of 18 on
the number one year previously. Of these, just over half
were boys and eight in ten were under the age of 11.
- Just under 7,200 children were referred to local
authorities for child protection inquiries in 2001-02: 8
per cent higher than the previous year.
- Of those children referred to local authorities, 40 per
cent were the subject of an inter-agency case
conference.
- In 84 per cent of instances where children were subject
to a case conference, the children in question were living
at home prior to being referred.
- Of these case conferences, almost 70 per cent resulted
in the child being placed on the local child protection
register (1,979 children).
- In over three quarters of all case conferences, the
primary source of abuse/risk to the child was known or
suspected to be the child's birth parent(s).
- Almost three quarters of children placed on the child
protection register during the year were identified as
being at risk of physical injury or physical neglect.
- 70 per cent of children removed from child protection
registers during the year had been on the register for less
than a year, with 7 per cent having spent at least 2 years
on the register.
The following tables are available:
Table 1 - Children referred for child protection inquiries:
gender and age group.
Table 2 - Children who were subject to a case conference:
placement of children prior to referral.
Table 3 - Children who were subject to a case conference: by
child's primary known / suspected abuser.
Table 4 - Children registered following a case conference :
by category of abuse / risk identified by conference.
Table 5A - Children de-registered: by category of abuse/risk
identified at conference.
Table 5B - Children de-registered: by length of time on
child protection register.
Table 6 - Number of children on child protection registers:
by gender and age group.
Table 7 - Number of children on child protection registers
and rate per 1,000 population aged 0-15: by local authority
area.
Table 8 - Numbers of children referred, subject to a case
conference, registered during the year, and on child protection
registers: by local authority area.
The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 places certain duties on
local authorities in relation to the wellbeing of children in
their area. These include a general duty to promote and
safeguard the welfare of children in need and a specific duty
to cause inquiries to be made into the case of a child who may
be in need of compulsory measures of supervision due to lack of
parental care, abuse or neglect. Arising from these duties,
Local Authority Social Work Departments will have received
reports about children who may have been abused or who may be
at risk of abuse. These children may have been referred by
relatives, neighbours, professionals or other sources. In
practice there are differences in interpretation between Local
Authorities as to what constitutes a referral. For example, an
initial observation by a neighbour may not be counted as a
referral until after further preliminary investigations have
taken place.
Social Work Departments decide whether there is a need to
initiate child protection inquiries and the subsequent steps to
follow. National guidance sets out a framework for
collaboration between Social Work Departments and other
agencies in child protection cases (Protecting Children - A
Shared Responsibility : The Scottish Office 1998).
At the initial stage of inquiries, practitioners will assess
whether the child is at immediate risk of serious harm. If so,
they may seek to secure the safety of the child by applying for
a child protection order or an exclusion order under the 1995
Act. Inter-agency child protection case conferences may be
convened to consider the nature and extent of any future
identified or potential risk and to decide what action should
be taken to reduce the risk. Interim measures of support,
supervision or care (e.g. voluntary social work involvement,
placing the child with a foster family) may be put in place in
order to alleviate the risk to the child.
A case conference will decide whether any child(ren) should
be placed on the local child protection register. A child
should be registered when his/her safety and welfare is
considered to require an inter-agency protection plan. An
inter-agency plan provides a framework for inter-agency
assessment, case work and review. The purpose of a protection
plan is to reduce any perceived risk to the child and to
safeguard and promote his/her welfare.
If the child is registered, a review case conference will
normally be held within three months and at six monthly
intervals thereafter. The review conference will review the
progress of the inter-agency work to protect the child and
consider any continuing risk. The conference will also consider
whether there is a need for continued registration or to update
the child protection plan.
When professionals who are working with the child and family
decide that the risk to the child has been eliminated or
reduced, the local authority should remove the child's name
from the child protection register. This decision should
normally be made by a review case conference.
The statistics in this News Release have been derived from
returns provided by local authorities about children who have
been referred to authorities because of concerns that they may
have been abused or may be at risk of abuse. For this purpose,
abuse is defined under the following categories:
Physical injury
Sexual abuse
Non-organic failure to thrive
Emotional abuse
Physical neglect
A child may also be referred for child protection inquiries
if he or she is the known or suspected perpetrator of
abuse.
All 32 local authorities were able to provide the Scottish
Executive with child protection data. Some authorities were,
however, able to produce some but not all of the data
requested. Where this was the case, the remaining data was
estimated for these authorities and these estimates were then
subsequently used in the calculation of Scotland level data.
There may be differences in the recording and interpretation of
child protection data across Local Authorities, and so some of
the apparent variation between Local Authorities may reflect
reporting procedures rather than actual child protection
practice.
Supporting tables are on the Scottish Executive web site at
www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00198-00.asp , and are also available on request.
This is a National Statistics publication. National
Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out
in the National Statistics Code of Practice. They undergo
regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet
customer needs. They are produced free from any political
interference.
Enquiries about the information contained in this release
should be addressed to Angus MacDonald, Scottish Executive
Education Department, Area 1-A, Victoria Quay, Edinburgh, EH6
6QQ. Telephone 0131 244 3551 or e-mail angus.macdonald
@scotland.gsi.gov.uk.