Information on Children in Residential Accommodation in the Year to 31^st March 1998

1.INTRODUCTION

Background to residential care for children in Scotland

The main purpose of residential care for children is to provide good quality care, support and opportunities for development in a safe environment. It may also provide education or specialist care. Residential care is an important element in children’s services. For some children looked after away from home, it will be the most appropriate option for meeting their particular needs.

Legislation

At 31st March 1998, children may have been residing in a residential establishment under a voluntary care arrangement, under a supervision requirement made by a children’s hearing, where a parental responsibilities order had been obtained by the local authority or as a requirement made by a Court.

These placements were made under two statutes: the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 and the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. The provisions of the former were superseded by those in the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 from 1st April 1997.

The types of residential establishments

There are various types of residential accommodation to which children and young persons may be admitted. The main types of establishments are children’s homes, assessment centres, residential schools, hostels and homes for disabled children. There are also some establishments which provide secure accommodation.

The data

This note contains information at Scotland level about children in residential accom-modation, and is based on returns received from all children’s residential establishments i.e. those owned by local authorities as well as those run on a private or voluntary basis. The note mainly provides details about the patterns of usage of the accommodation, the characteristics of the resident children, the types of establishments and their staffing levels.

Information is also included in this note for the years 1988, 1993 and 1997 to enable comparisons to be made over time. Please note that the figures for 1997 presented in this Information Note may differ slightly from those which were originally published on 30^th September 1998. This is due to the receipt since the date of publication of further returns from a small number of establishments.

Corresponding tables to those in past statistical bulletins are available on request (see contact details at the end of this note).

Information about the position at 31^st March provides a ‘snapshot’ view of the children in residential care whereas information about admissions and discharges provides a view over the whole year. This Information Note illustrates both of these viewpoints in order to provide a full picture of the current use of residential care. In addition, it also aims to identify changes over the last ten years.

2. PROFILE OF CHILDREN IN RESIDENTIAL ESTABLISHMENTS

Table 1 contains a summary of trends over recent years. It shows that the number of children in residential accommodation has declined in the last 10 years from around 2,300 in 1988 to approximately 1,700 in 1998, a fall of some 26 per cent.

In each of the years shown, more boys than girls were in residential accommodation. The percentage of residents who were boys has remained steady at between 60 and 65 per cent in these years.

The pattern in the percentage of children resident at 31^st March by length of stay has remained relatively steady in the past ten years. Generally, around two fifths were resident for less than 6 months and two fifths were resident for a year or more.

Table 1: Children in residential accommodation at 31^st March

Table 2 shows that the average length of stay for those resident at 31^st March 1998 was 14 months. As expected, the average length of stay varied significantly across the differing types of accommodation from an average of around 5 months for young people in hostels to 35 months for those in homes for disabled children. The average stay for those in other homes (a category which includes, for example, children’s homes, assessment centres and residential schools) is around 11-12 months.

Table 2: Number of children resident at 31^st March 1998 by length of stay & type of accommodation

The majority of children in residential accommodation at 31^st March are in the 11-15 year age range (see Table 3). This age group accounts for around two thirds of those resident. A further quarter are aged 16 or over. The percentage of children in each age group has remained relatively consistent over the years.

Table 3: Children resident at 31^st March by age at 31^st March (percentages)

3. ADMISSIONS AND DISCHARGES

It can be seen in Table 4 that the number of admissions and discharges during the year is much higher in 1998 than in 1988 and this is despite the fact that the number of children in accommodation at 31^st March has been falling. This is a reflection of the increasing use of short term placements many of which are planned episodes to provide respite care.

Table 4: Admissions and discharges

Figure 1 illustrates that the number of admissions to residential care for holiday/ respite care has increased significantly in recent years. In the year to 31^st March 1998, there were a total of over 5,600 admissions for this reason (69 per cent of all admissions). This compared with only 700 such admissions in the year to 31^st March 1993 (17 per cent of the total).

The age of children who were admitted to residential establishments has shown some changes between 1988 and 1998 (Table 5). In the year to 31^st March 1988, 17 per cent of the children who were admitted to residential homes were aged 10 years or less. The corresponding figure for the year to 31^st March 1998 was significantly higher at 30 per cent. This changing age pattern for admissions is in contrast to the relatively unchanged age pattern for children actually resident at 31^st March (Table 3).

Table 5: Admissions to residential estab-lishments during the year to 31^st March by age of child on admission (percentages)

The greater use being made of short term placements is illustrated in Table 6. In the year to 31^st March 1993, 44 per cent of those discharged had been resident for less than a month. However, in the year to 31^st March 1998, the corresponding figure was 77 per cent.

Table 6: Discharges in the year to 31st March by total length of stay (percentages)

An increasing proportion of discharges are to the child’s own home. This too is a reflection of the increasing use of short term placements for holiday/respite care or other reasons. In 1988, just over half of discharges were to the child’s own home but by 1998, this proportion had risen to three quarters of all discharges (Table 7).

Table 7: Discharges from residential estab-lishments during the year to 31^st March by placement of child on discharge (percentages)

4. PLACES AND STAFFING

In the ten year period from 1988 to 1998, the picture with regard to the number of places in residential accommodation and the number of staff working there changed significantly. The actual number of residential establishments for children rose by 10 per cent from 163 to 180. The number of "whole time equivalent" staff increased by 16 per cent in the same period to reach almost 3,600 at 31^st March 1998.

By contrast, however, over the same period, the number of places available for children decreased from over 2,900 to less than 2,100. This drop of 28 per cent is in line with the fall in the number of residents over the same period. The average number of places per establishment fell, over this period, from 18 to less than 12.

Table 8: Numbers of establishments, places and staff at 31^st March

5. SECURE ACCOMMODATION

Children in secure accommodation are included in the earlier tables. This section provides some information on each establishment offering this type of facility as well as more detailed information on secure units as a whole.

Table 9: Number of children resident in secure units at 31^st March

It can be seen in Table 9 that 59 (just over 70 per cent) of the 83 children in secure accommodation at 31^st March 1998 were boys. This is noticeably different from 31^st March 1993, when 87 per cent of the residents were male.

Table 10 shows that the most common age for the children resident in each of the years 1993, 1995, 1997 and 1998 was 15. Almost half of the residents at 31^st March 1998 were aged 15 while nearly a quarter were aged 16 or over.

It can be seen in Table 11 that 70 per cent of the children resident at 31^st March 1998 had been in their current establishment for less than 6 months while 13 per cent had been resident for at least a year.

The breakdown by length of stay for those children discharged between 1^st April 1997 and 31^st March 1998 is detailed in Table 12. The table shows that 77 per cent of these children had stayed for less than 6 months and only 3 per cent for 1 year or more.

Table 10: Number of children resident in secure units at 31^st March by age on that date

Table 11: Children resident in secure units at 31^st March 1998 by length of stay

Table 12: Discharges from secure units in the year to 31^st March 1998 by total length of stay

Correspondence and enquiries

Mr. Alan D. Fleming
Scottish Executive Education Department
Room 52
James Craig Walk
Edinburgh
EH1 3BA

Telephone: 0131-244-3745 or Fax: 0131-244-5315.

E-MAIL alan.fleming@scotland.gov.uk

A Publication of the Government Statistical Service

The information contained on this WWW site is Crown Copyright but may be reproduced without formal permission or charge for personal or in-house use. © 1999