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