Children's Social Work Statistics, Scotland 2020-21

Children's Social Work Statistics for Scotland for 2020 to 2021, including data on children and young people looked after, on the child protection register and in secure care accommodation.


Secure Care Accommodation

Bed complement

There were 84 beds available in five secure units in Scotland for children and young people under the age of 18 (Table 3.1). This remains unchanged from the previous year. All units, with the exception of Edinburgh Secure Services, reported having at least one emergency or short-term use bed.

Table 3.1: Secure care unit bed complement at 31 July 2021 [1]
Unit Number of secure care beds
Edinburgh Secure Services 6
Good Shepherd Secure Unit 18
Kibble 18
Rossie Secure Accommodation Services 18
St Mary's Kenmure 24
All units 84

[1] Excluding emergency or short-term respite beds

Capacity and usage

The average number of residents decreased to 76 from 82 in the previous year.

↓ The average number of nights that emergency beds were used was 40 –a significant decrease from 209 since the previous year.

↓ The number of residents using emergency beds was 17 – a decrease from 28 in the previous year.

↓ The average number of residents from within Scotland decreased to 47, while residents from outside Scotland (i.e. England and Wales) increased slightly to 29.

Table 3.2: Secure care accommodation capacity [1] and usage, 2014-2021
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 % change 2020-21
Places at year end 90 90 90 84 84 84 84 84 0%
Admissions during the year 232 249 256 248 210 217 194 177 -9%
Discharges during the year 226 245 253 257 213 210 194 178 -8%
Average number of residents during the year 74 82 85 76 80 79 82 76 -7%
Residents from within Scotland 67 76 72 56 45 53 53 47 -11%
Residents from outside Scotland 7 6 13 19 35 26 28 29 4%
Minimum number of residents during the year 60 71 77 67 73 71 75 64 -15%
Maximum number of residents during the year[1] 84 89 90 87 86 88 88 84 -5%
Number of nights emergency and short term beds used during the year[2],[3] 5 146 50 90 284 398 209 40 -81%
Number of residents emergency and short term beds used for during the year[2],[3] 3 13 11 25 42 55 28 17 -39%

[1] Capacity: Young people can be admitted and discharged more than once during the year.

[2] Four units reported having at least one emergency/ short term bed: Rossie School; Good Shepherd; Kibble; and St. Mary's Kenmure (see background notes for definition of an emergency bed).

[3] The large drop in the use of emergency beds may have partly been due to a decrease in average occupancy rates and/or impacts of COVID-19.

Resident characteristics and length of stay

56% of residents were male

44% of residents were female

72% of residents were over the age of 15

23% of residents had at least one disability

Table 3.3: Young people in secure care accommodation by sex, age, disability and length of stay, 2014-2021[1]

Sex of residents [2]
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 % of 2021 total
Male 52 59 65 46 39 60 44 44 56%
Female 29 26 23 34 43 24 37 34 44%
Age of Residents
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 % of 2021 total
13 years old or under 5 7 9 14 12 * 5 9 12%
14 years 12 18 18 18 18 * 13 13 17%
15 years 31 28 27 26 25 21 26 16 21%
16 years or over 33 32 34 22 27 55 37 40 51%
Residents with disability
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 % of 2021 total
Yes - - 34 27 39 27 7 18 23%
No/unknown - - 54 53 43 57 74 60 77%
Length of stay of residents at year end
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 % of 2021 total
Less than 1 month 13 17 20 26 10 21 17 17 22%
1 month to under 2 months 14 16 14 13 14 16 14 10 13%
2 months to under 3 months 14 13 14 12 13 9 6 5 6%
3 months to under 6 months 23 26 24 25 27 22 18 29 37%
6 months to under 1 year 9 * 10 * 14 11 16 14 18%
1 year or more 8 * 6 * 0 5 * * *
Total 81 85 88 80 82 84 81 78 100%

[1] As at 31 July of each year.

[2] Trans, intersex and non-binary individuals are grouped with males for the purposes of maintaining confidentiality.

* Cells represent numbers that are suppressed to maintain confidentiality.

Cross-UK comparisons

Cross UK comparisons for Secure Care Accommodation data for Scotland, England, and Wales can be found in Table 3.4.

Table 3.4: Secure children's homes/units, places approved, and children accommodated at year end across the UK, 2014-2021

England [1],[2],[3]
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Number of secure homes 16 14 14 14 14 14 13 13
Places approved 276 232 232 232 233 237 232 231
Children accommodated 211 194 192 184 189 162 171 130
Wales [1],[2],[3]
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Number of secure homes 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Places approved 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22
Children accommodated 18 11 18 19 15 10 13 12
Scotland [4],[5]
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Number of secure units 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
Places approved 90 90 90 84 84 84 84 84
Children accommodated 80 85 84 81 81 84 82 72

[1] Source for England and Wales: Statistics: secure children’s homes

Please note that the legal routes into secure care can vary between the UK countries.

[2] For Northern Ireland, official/national statistics are not produced on secure care accommodation

[3] The figures from outside Scotland include children placed on welfare grounds only.

[4] Please note that Scotland totals may include young people who are from elsewhere in the UK. Similarly, the totals for England and Wales may include some children from other parts of the UK – these numbers are not published separately.

[5] To allow for comparison with England and Wales Scotland's data within this table is 'at 31 March' for all years with the exception of 2020 for which it is 'at 29 February'.

Contact

Email: childrens.statistics@gov.scot

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