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Child protection statistics 2007-08
24/09/2008
Scotland's Chief Statistician today published Child Protection Statistics 2007-08. This publication presents new statistics obtained from the child protection survey which was completed by all local authorities in Scotland.
The main findings are:
- In 2007/08, there were 12,382 child protection referrals, an increase of 4 per cent compared with the previous year. Forty-six per cent of these referrals were for boys, 50 per cent were for girls, and 4 per cent were for children whose gender was not known (largely due to being unborn)
- Thirty-five per cent of child protection referrals resulted in an inter-agency case conference in 2007/08. This compares to 39 per cent in 2006/07 and 38 per cent in 2005/06
- Seventy-nine per cent of children who were subject to a case conference were living at home prior to being referred, compared with 83 per cent the previous year
- For 86 per cent of children who were subject to a case conference, the primary known/suspected abuser was the child's natural parents (where this was known), the same as in the previous year
- Of the 4,298 case conferences, 65 per cent resulted in the child being placed on the local child protection register. This compares to 68 per cent in 2006/07 and 70 per cent in 2005/06
- The total number of registrations on to child protection registers between 1st April 2007 and 31st March 2008 was 2,814, a fall of 11per cent compared with the previous year. The number of registrations on to child protection registers as a result of emotional abuse were up by 12 per cent, for sexual abuse were down by 30 per cent, for physical neglect were down by 17 per cent, and for physical injury were down by 8 per cent
- Sixteen per cent of registrations on to child protection registers in 2007/08 were of children who were known to have been previously on a child protection register. This compares with 12 per cent in 2006/07 and 14 per cent in 2005/06
- The total number of de-registrations from child protection registers between 1st April 2007 and 31st March 2008 was 3,197, an increase of 4 per cent compared with the previous year. Seventy-five per cent of these de-registrations were for children who had been on the register for less than one year compared with 79 per cent in the previous year
- Twenty-six per cent of all de-registrations from child protection registers were because of an improved home situation. A further 13 per cent were because the child was taken into care and risk reduced, 7 per cent were because the child was with other carers, 4 per cent were because the perpetrator was removed, and 5 per cent were because the child moved away and there was no continued risk or the child was transferred to another local authority. The remaining 45 per cent were because of an 'other' reduced risk
- As at 31 March 2008, there were 2,437 children on Child Protection Registers, a decrease of 6 per cent compared with the previous year. A similar number of boys and girls were on child protection registers, and 83 per cent of children were under the age of 11 years old (including unborns)
- At 31st March 2008, 48 per cent of all children on local child protection registers were registered because of physical neglect (down 1 percentage point compared with the previous year), 23 per cent because of emotional abuse (up 5 percentage points compared with the previous year), 21 per cent because of physical injury (down 2 percentage points compared with the previous year) and 7 per cent because of sexual abuse (down 2 percentage points compared with the previous year)
National statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff.