Children's Social Work Statistics, Scotland 2020-21

Looked After Children

13,255 children were looked after – an 8% decrease from the previous year (14,458).

↓ The number of Looked After Children has decreased from 16,231 in 2011, and the lowest this figure has been since 2006.

Placement type

There are several types of placements in which children and young people can be looked after. In 2021, the majority of Looked After Children (90%) were placed in the community. This included 33% of children and young people who were placed with Kinship Carers, 24% placed with Foster Carers provided by local authorities, and 22% were looked after at home. In addition to this, 10% of Looked After Children were placed with Foster Carers purchased by local authorities.

A smaller proportion of Looked After Children (10%) were placed in residential accommodation, including 4% placed in a local authority home.

Table 1.1: Number of Looked After Children at 31 July, in each type of placement

	2011	2020	2021
In the community	14,770	13,022	11,969
At home with parents	5,476	3,563	2,859
With Kinship Carers: friends/relatives	3,910	4,456	4,399
With Foster Carers provided by LA	3,871	3,315	3,160
With Foster Carers purchased by LA	1,197	1,429	1,307
With prospective adopters	267	185	156
In other community	49	74	88
Residential accommodation	1,461	1,436	1,286
In local authority home	615	556	525
In voluntary home	88	130	96
In residential school	460	329	323
In secure accommodation	86	59	38
Crisis care	13	0	0
In other residential [1]	199	362	304
Total looked after children	16,231	14,458	13,255

^[1] The bulk of the ‘other residential’ placements are private/independent residential placements for young people with complex needs.

Changes over time

Broadly, the number of Looked After Children has declined over the past decade (Chart 1a). In 2021, the number of children placed at home with parents (2,859) was around half that of 2011 (5,476; Table 1.1). The number of looked after children placed in the community, away from home, has decreased slightly between 2011 (9,294) and 2021 (9,110).

Care plans for Looked After Children

95% of children who were looked after had a current care plan, a 1 percentage point reduction from the previous year.

Of those looked after at home, 94% had a current care plan, and of those looked after away from home, 95% had a current care plan (Table 1.2). These figures were comparable for children placed with Kinship Carers (95%), Foster Carers (95%), in Residential Care (94%), and for those placed with prospective adopters/other community placements (93%).

Table 1.2: Looked After Children with and without a current care plan, at 31 July 2021 ^[1]

	At home	Away from home	Away from home - breakdown by category				Total
			With Kinship Carers: friends/relatives	With Foster Carers	With prospective adopters/ other community	In Residential Care
With a current care plan	2,686	9,873	4,193	4,240	227	1,213	12,559
Without a current care plan	173	523	206	227	17	73	696
Total	2,859	10,396	4,399	4,467	244	1,286	13,255
With a current care plan	94%	95%	95%	95%	93%	94%	95%
Without a current care plan	6%	5%	5%	5%	7%	6%	5%
Total %	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%

^[1] Some children without a current care plan may have one in progress on this date; local recording may differ with regard to when a care plan is recorded as being in place.

Children starting and ceasing to be looked after

↓ The number of children starting to be looked after was down by 22% since the previous year.

↑ The number of children ceasing to be looked after was up by 16% since the previous year.

Between 2013 and 2019, the number of children ceasing to be looked after was consistently greater than those starting to be looked after (Chart 1b). This pattern changed in 2020, when slightly more children started to become looked after than ceasing to be looked after. In 2021 this pattern changed again, with substantially fewer children starting to be looked after than ceasing to be looked after.

Comparisons with previous year

Monthly breakdowns of the number of children starting and ceasing to be looked after in 2020 and in 2021 are provided in Chart 2. There was a steep decrease in the first full month of the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2020) in the number of children starting and ceasing to be looked after. Between April 2020 and July 2020, more children started to become looked after than ceased to be looked after. This pattern changed between August 2020 and July 2021, however, during which there were consistently more children ceasing to be looked after than starting to become looked after.

Episodes of care starting

2,738 episodes of care began in 2021 – a large decrease from 3,490 episodes in the previous year.

The age distribution of children becoming looked after has remained broadly stable since 2011 (Table 1.3a).

Table 1.3a: Number of children starting to be looked after by age ^{[1],[2 ]}

Age	Number			Percentage
	2011	2020	2021	2011	2020	2021
Under 1	701	531	442	15%	15%	16%
1-4	1,127	815	599	24%	23%	22%
5-11	1,485	1,060	907	31%	30%	33%
12-15	1,389	922	695	29%	26%	25%
16-17	44	158	94	1%	5%	3%
18-21[3]	0	*	*	0%	*	*
Not known	0	*	*	0%	*	*
Total	4,746	3,490	2,738	100%	100%	100%

^[1] A child may start to be looked after more than once in a year and so may be counted more than once.

^[2] Table cells containing * have been suppressed to maintain confidentiality.

In 2021, 53% of children starting to become looked after were male, and 47% were female. Compared to the previous year, this reflects a decrease in the disparity between males (55%) and females (45%) starting to become looked after (Table 1.3b).

Table 1.3b: Number of children starting to be looked after by sex ^{[1],[2 ]}

Sex	Number			Percentage
	2011	2020	2021	2011	2020	2021
Male	2,436	1,904	1,454	51%	55%	53%
Female	2,310	1,586	1,283	49%	45%	47%
Total	4,746	3,490	2,738	100%	100%	100%

^[1] A child may start to be looked after more than once in a year and so may be counted more than once.

^[2] For a very small number of children Male or Female sex was not specified. To maintain their confidentiality they have been counted in the Male category.

Episodes of care ceasing

3,856 episodes of care ceased in 2021 – an increase from 3,325 episodes in the previous year.

4% of children ceasing to be looked after had been looked after for under 6 weeks – the lowest this figure has been (since 2003).

Compared with 2011, a higher proportion of children ceasing to be looked after had been looked after for five years or longer – up from 13% in 2011 to 21% in 2021 (Table 1.4). Meanwhile the proportion of children looked after for a shorter period of time, especially for between 6 months and under 1 year, decreased (from 16% in 2011 to 10% 2021).

Table 1.4: Number of children ceasing be looked after by length of time looked after ^[1]

Length of time looked after	Number			Percentage
	2011	2020	2021	2011	2020	2021
Under 6 weeks	299	264	172	6%	8%	4%
6 weeks to under 6 months	348	301	270	8%	9%	7%
6 months to under 1 year	717	400	372	16%	12%	10%
1 year to under 3 years	1,880	1,184	1,497	41%	36%	39%
3 years to under 5 years	748	496	729	16%	15%	19%
5 years and over	619	680	816	13%	20%	21%
Not known	0	0	0	0%	0%	0%
Total	4,611	3,325	3,856	100%	100%	100%

^[1] A child may cease to be looked after more than once in a year and so may be counted more than once.

Destination of children ceasing to be looked after

The recorded destinations of children ceasing to be looked after are shown in Table 1.5.

56% of children ceasing to be looked after in 2021 had a recorded destination of at home with their biological parents – a 4% point decrease since 2011 (60%).

14% of children ceasing to be looked after in 2021 went to stay with their friends/relatives.

2% of children ceased to be looked after with a Kinship Care Order – a figure which has remained relatively stable since 2018 (3%), when this information was first included in these statistics.

6% of children ceased to be looked after due to being adopted – a figure which has remained stable since 2011 (6%). The majority of children who were adopted (66%) were below the age of 5 years.

↑ Overall, there was an increase in children who were in Kinship Care when they ceased to be looked after, from 13% in 2011 to 16% in 2021.

Table 1.5: Children ceasing to be looked after, by destination ^[1]

Destination	Number			Percentage
	2011	2020	2021	2011	2020	2021
Home with (biological) parents	2,766	1,807	2,166	60%	54%	56%
Kinship Carers (friends/relatives)	603	481	532	13%	14%	14%
Kinship Care Order[2]	-	53	84	-	2%	2%
Former Foster Carers	55	85	47	1%	3%	1%
Continuing Care[2]	-	229	267	-	7%	7%
Adoption	264	192	224	6%	6%	6%
Supported accommodation / own tenancy	285	245	244	6%	7%	6%
Other[3]	225	202	276	5%	6%	7%
Not known	413	31	16	9%	1%	0%
Total	4,611	3,325	3,856	100%	100%	100%

^[1] This excludes planned series of short term placements. A child may cease to be looked after more than once during the year and will be counted once for each episode of care ending.

^[2] New destination categories of 'Continuing Care' and 'Kinship Care Order' were added in 2018. Previously, children who left care for 'Continuing Care' were mostly recorded in the ‘Foster Carers’ destination category, while those whole left care under a 'Kinship Care Order' were mostly recorded in the ‘Kinship Carers (friends/relatives)’ category.

^[3] ‘Other’ includes residential care, homeless, in custody and other destination.

Aftercare services

Aftercare services refer to local authorities’ duty to provide advice, guidance, and assistance for young people who, at the point of leaving care, have reached 16 years of age. As such, the current section refers to ‘young people/person’ rather than ‘children/child’.

↓ The proportion of young people with a pathway plan at the time they ceased to be looked after was 71% – down from 79% in the previous year.

↓ The proportion of young people with a pathway co-ordinator at the time they ceased to be looked after was 56% – down from 70% in the previous year.

Pathway plans and co-ordinators

Young people whose final placement was ‘at home’ were less likely to have a pathway plan or a pathway coordinator, than those who had been placed ‘away from home’ (Table 1.6).

Table 1.6: Pathway plans and nominated pathway co-ordinators of young people who were at least 16 years of age on the date they ceased to be looked after during 2020-21 ^[1],[2]

	Number looked after			Percentage looked after
	at home	away from home	Total	at home	away from home	Total
With pathway plan	235	759	994	55%	78%	71%
Without pathway plan	193	218	411	45%	22%	29%
With pathway co-ordinator	214	574	788	50%	59%	56%
Without pathway co-ordinator	214	403	617	50%	41%	44%
Total	428	977	1,405	100%	100%	100%

^[1] Figures include all episodes of ceasing to be looked after beyond 16 years of age (i.e. a young person may be counted more than once).

^[2] It may be the case that some young people who don't have a relevant pathway plan/coordinator may be receiving similar support from adult services instead.

Table 1.6: Continued

	Number looked after away from home (breakdown by category)
	Kinship Carers: friends/relatives	Foster Carers	Prospective adopters/other community	Residential Care
With pathway plan	185	238	64	272
Without pathway plan	97	51	11	59
With pathway co-ordinator	137	165	56	216
Without pathway co-ordinator	145	124	19	115
Total	282	289	75	331

Eligibility for aftercare

Since April 2015, aftercare eligibility was extended to cover all care leavers up to, and including, people aged 25 years (where it previously only covered up to their 21^st birthday).

The highest proportion of eligible young people in receipt of aftercare services were those aged 19-21 years (58%). The lowest proportion of children in receipt of aftercare services were those aged 16 years (46%).

7,323 young people were eligible for aftercare services – a 2% increase since the previous year (7,198). Figures for those eligible for aftercare have risen substantially since 2016 (4,602).

54% of young people eligible were in receipt of aftercare services – a decrease from the previous year (57%).

Table 1.7: Number of young people eligible for aftercare services on 31 July 2021 by age ^[1]

Status	16	17	18	19-21	22+	Total
In receipt of aftercare	118	311	619	1,584	1,299	3,931
Not in receipt of aftercare	136	264	544	1,150	1,298	3,392
Total eligible for aftercare	254	575	1,163	2,734	2,597	7,323
In receipt of aftercare	46%	54%	53%	58%	50%	54%
Not in receipt of aftercare	54%	46%	47%	42%	50%	46%
Total eligible for aftercare	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%

^[1] Age on 31 July 2021

Continuing Care

Continuing Care is the continued provision of the accommodation and other assistance being provided by local authorities immediately before the young person ceased to be looked after. Only children who cease to be looked after aged 16 years or over and were looked after away from home are eligible for Continuing Care.

534 young people were in Continuing Care at 31 July 2021 – a sharp rise from 88 recorded as being in Continuing Care at 31 July 2020. This increase may be partly explained by improvement in recording by local authorities.

During 2021, the number of young people recorded as ceasing to looked after with a destination of Continuing Care was 267 – an increase from 218 in the previous year.

Cross-UK comparisons

Scotland has the highest rate of Looked After Children (131 per 10,000 children) when compared to the other nations within the UK (Chart 3). It is followed by Wales (115 per 10,000), Northern Ireland (80 per 10,000), and England (67 per 10,000). Since 2016, all other UK countries, and in particular Wales, have seen a gradual increase in the rate of Looked After Children.

^[1] Scotland data used here is as at 31st March 2021 for comparability purposes with other UK countries. Please refer to Cross-UK comparability background notes for further information.

^[2] England data source: Children looked after in England including adoptions 2021

^[3] Wales data source: Children Looked After 2021

^[4] Northern Ireland Source: Children's Social Care Statistics for Northern Ireland 2020/21

^[5] Rate per 10,000 calculates using NRS mid 2020 population estimates for those aged under 18 years.