Public sector strategic workforce position: child rights and wellbeing impact assessment

Annex 1 – Background information

Impacts on parents in the workforce

In the UK as a whole the percentage of people in employment is lower for lone parents (65.9%) than for mothers (80.8%) or fathers (92.9%) living in a couple or those without dependent children (71.2%)^[6]. In Scotland, the employment rate of lone parents (67.1%)^[7] is lower than that of parents in a couple (87.2%) with the employment rate being markedly lower for lone parents of children aged 0 to 2 (55.6%). Lone mothers living with dependent children have an employment rate of 64.7% compared to 91.1% for lone fathers living with dependent children.

In Scotland, 35.3% of maternities were in women aged 30-34, 26.0% in 25-29 year olds and 20.2% in 35-39 year olds.^[8] Female workers aged 25 to 57 (39 plus 18 years) are therefore a likely group of female workers to be living with or financially supporting dependent children under 18. We do not have similar data on the ages of male workers who may be living with or financially supporting dependent children in Scotland, but in England and Wales the age of fathers at birth skews slightly older than the age of mothers (mean age 33.8 and 30.9 respectively)^[9], and there are substantially more fathers over 40 than mothers over 40 (92,000 and 31,000 respectively), so the age range of men with dependent children is likely to include more individuals in older age groups. In both fathers and mothers, the age window is large enough to cover multiple age groups within the workforce.

Impacts on young people as users of public services

Children’s social care

In the 2024/25 financial year, covering April 2024 to March 2025, 43,915 applications were received for Scottish Child Payment and 43,820 applications were processed. As of 31 March 2025, 326,225 children aged 0-15 years were actively benefitting from Scottish Child Payment.^[10] Social Security Scotland employs around 4,000 FTE staff.^[11]

On 31 July 2024, 11,844 children were looked after. The rate of children looked after per 1,000 children was 11.7 in 2024. On 31 July 2024, the most common placements away from home were kinship care (35%), foster care (32%), and residential accommodation (11%).^[12] 40.3% of those in residential accommodation were in a local authority home.

On 31 July 2024, 1,115 young people were in continuing care. This is 22% of those who were eligible for continuing care at the time of ceasing to be looked after (4,985).

On 31 July 2024, an estimated 9,369 young people were eligible for aftercare services. 4,454 (48% of those eligible) were receiving aftercare services. 2,047 (55%) of those in aftercare were in education, training, or employment (785 in training/employment).

On 31 July 2024, 2,129 children were on the child protection register. During the year, 3,167 children were registered onto the child protection register. Around half (48%) of children added to the child protection register in 2023-24 lived in one of the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland. This compares to 3% in the 20% least deprived areas in Scotland.^[13]

Schools

Across publicly funded schools, the pupil: teacher ratio is 13.3.^[14] Across all schools, the highest pupil: teacher ratio is in primary schools at 15.5. There are around 53,000 teachers in Scotland of whom around 700 works in ELC settings.

Early learning and childcare

Of the households with a child aged 2, 3 or 4, or aged 5 and not in school, 41% used local authority nursery for childcare.^[15] 49% of single parent households and 51% of large family households used local authority nursery for childcare. The main reasons for using childcare (after ‘so that I/my partner can work’ (73%)) were ‘for my child’s social development’ (29%), ‘for my child’s learning and language development’ (25%) and ‘to help prepare my child for school’ (17%).