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 2002-03
31/10/2003
This publication pulls together
statistics on child protection, children looked after,
children in residential accommodation, social care staff
and finance in Scotland covering the year ended 31 March
2003. Headline messages are:
Almost 11,400 children were
looked after by local authorities at 31 March 2003.
This represents one per cent of all
children under 18, and is a similar figure to the
previous year.
Of 16 and 17 year old care
leavers in 2002-03, six out of ten did not achieve
any qualifications - a similar proportion to the
previous year, and compares 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. This compares to 14 per
cent of all 16-19 year olds in Scotland.
There was a slight drop
(four per cent) in the number of children in
residential accommodation. This was due to the fall
in numbers resident in homes for children with a
disability: 40 per cent lower than 2002.
There were 2,289 children on
local child protection registers at 31 March 2003,
an increase of 13 per cent on the previous year.
The largest increase was in the
category of 'emotional abuse', from 264 children in
2002 to 408 in 2003.
Social care staff numbers
were similar in 2002 to 2001, however the level of
vacancies increased by around a third. This
suggests a four per cent increase in posts - mainly
in fieldwork.
Overall spending by local
authorities in 2001-02 amounted to £300 for each
child aged
0-17 in Scotland.