Children's social work statistics: 2019 to 2020

Child Protection

Number of children on the child protection register increased by 3%, but is lower than the peak in 2014

There was a decrease in the number of child protection registrations and deregistrations in the last year, by 8% and 9% respectively

Most common causes for concern were emotional and domestic abuse, parental substance misuse, and neglect

This section presents data on children on the child protection register from 1 August 2019 to 31 July 2020. This will be referred to as 2020 for ease of reporting (with 2018-19 referred to as 2019 and so on). Child protection means protecting a child from abuse or neglect. This can either be in cases where abuse or neglect has taken place, or in cases where a likelihood of significant harm or neglect has been identified. The risk of harm or neglect is considered at a Child Protection Case Conference. Where a child is believed to be at risk of significant harm, their name will be added to the child protection register (a child protection registration).

This was the eighth year that child protection data has been collected entirely at individual level.

Children on the child protection register

The number of children on the child protection register increased from 2,580 in 2019 to 2,654 in 2020 (a 3% increase). There was a general upward trend in the number of children on the child protection register, until 2014 when the number peaked at 2,877. However, the number on the register then reduced in each of the next four years, before rising again slightly in 2019 and 2020.

As is usual, the number of children on the register in 2020 will be revised in next year's publication, as updated information is received from local authorities. This report includes revised figures in 2019 for all local authorities.

Between 2008 and 2018, there were more children aged under five than five or over on the child protection register. This changed in 2019, with just over half of children being aged five or over. In 2020, again around half of children on the child protection register were aged under five (1,325) and half were 5 or over (1,329).

There is no strong gender pattern among children on the child protection register – 47% were boys, 48% were girls, and 5% were unborn (Table 2.1). Because of a change in how unborn children were recorded by local authorities in 2010, figures for unborn children are only comparable from 2011 onwards.

Table 2.1: Number of children on the child protection register, by gender ⁽¹⁾

	Number			Percentage
	2011	2019	2020	2011	2019	2020
Male	1,282	1,358	1,260	50%	53%	47%
Female	1,209	1,224	1,271	47%	47%	48%
Unborns	80	97	123	3%	4%	5%
All Children	2,571	2,580	2,654	100%	100%	100%

(1) Unborn children include both unborn children with a known gender and those with an unknown gender. Those with a known gender are not included in the boys or girls categories in this table.

At child protection case conferences, multiple concerns can be recorded (rather than just the main category of concern). This means that the total number of concerns is larger than the total number of registrations. For the 2,654 children on the child protection register at 31 July 2020, there were 7,315 concerns at the case conferences at which they were registered – an average of 2.8 concerns per conference. Chart 6 below shows the most common concerns identified were domestic (1,132) and emotional (1,028) abuse, neglect (1,112), and parental substance misuse (1,135). The parental substance misuse category is further broken down by the type of substance misused. Alcohol misuse only was identified as a concern in 333 conferences, drug misuse only in 536 conferences and both in 266 conferences. Figures are shown in full in Additional Table 4.3.

Child protection registrations and deregistrations

The number of registrations to the child protection register decreased by 8% between 2019 and 2020. The proportion of children registered who had never been registered before stayed at 80% in 2020 (Table 2.2). The remaining 20% of registrations on the child protection register were for children who had been registered previously. The largest group of these children was those who had been previously registered 2 years ago or more, with this group making up 11% of all registrations in 2020.

Table 2.2: Number of registrations following an initial, pre-birth or transfer-in case conference by length of time since previous deregistration

	Number			Percentage
Time since last deregistration	2010	2019	2020	2010	2019	2020
Never been registered before	2,971	3,427	3,163	84%	80%	80%
Registered before but time unknown	0	0	0	0%	0%	0%
Less than 6 months	81	99	104	2%	2%	3%
6 months - < 1 year	98	104	81	3%	2%	2%
1 year - < 18 months	67	107	89	2%	2%	2%
18 months - < 2 years	60	96	59	2%	2%	1%
2 years or more	269	456	446	8%	11%	11%
Not known if been registered before	5	6	15	0%	0%	0%
Total	3,551	4,295	3,957	100%	100%	100%

(1) This is calculated as a proportion of registrations excluding cases where it is not known if a child had been registered before.

Table 2.3 shows the numbers of deregistrations from the child protection register, by length of time registered and reason for deregistration. There were 3,879 deregistrations from the child protection register in the year to 31 July 2020, a 9% decrease from the 4,245 recorded in 2019. The most common reason for deregistration in 2020 was an improved home situation, recorded in 53% of cases. In almost half (48%) of deregistrations, the child had been on the child protection register for less than 6 months, and in 86% of cases for less than one year.

Table 2.3: Length of time registered and reason for deregistration from the child protection register ⁽¹⁾

	Number			Percentage
Time since last deregistration	2010	2019	2020	2010	2019	2020
Length of time registered
Less than 6 months	1,592	2,149	1,856	42%	51%	48%
6 months to under 1 year	1,483	1,551	1,464	39%	37%	38%
1 year to under 18 months	460	356	362	12%	8%	9%
18 months to under 2 years	168	103	101	4%	2%	3%
2 years or more	123	43	55	3%	1%	1%
No date of registration information	0	43	41	0%	1%	1%
Reason for deregistration		0	0
Child taken into care & risk reduced	538	500	465	14%	12%	12%
Child with other carers	275	307	312	7%	7%	8%
Child died	*	11	9	*	0%	0%
Removal of perpetrator	81	144	123	2%	3%	3%
Improved home situation	1,220	2,227	2,074	32%	52%	53%
Child automatically deregistered because of age	8	12	6	0%	0%	0%
Child moved away - no continued risk	26	37	30	1%	1%	1%
Other reason	1,674	1,007	860	44%	24%	22%
Reason not known	0	0	0	0%	100%	0%
Total	3,822	4,245	3,879	100%	100%	100%

(1) Includes where a child transferred to another local authority and where reason has not been recorded.

Charts 6a and 6b show the number of children being registered on and deregistered from the child protection register in each of the last two years by month. While the number of deregistrations relative to the number of registrations has fluctuated across each of the last two years, and the patterns are broadly similar in each year, the number of deregistrations reached its lowest level over the two years in April 2020 at 225. The second lowest level of deregistrations over the two year period was recorded in July 2020.

In 2019-20, the numbers of registrations and deregistrations were lower than in 2018-19 in the period August to March (prior to the COVID-19 pandemic) by 9% and 7% respectively. For the remainder of the year, the numbers were lower than in the equivalent period the previous year by 5% and 13%.

Chart 7 shows that, since 2015, the percentage of deregistrations of children who spent less than six months on the child protection register increased each year till 2019, peaking at 51%. The current figure has fallen back to 48% of deregistrations in 2019-20. There has been a corresponding increase in the last year in the proportion of deregistrations for children who spent 6 months or more on the child protection register, with 38% of deregistrations in 2019-20 being of children who spent between 6 months and a year on the child protection register.

Child Protection Register Geographical Comparisons

Number on the register within Scotland

Table 2.4 shows the number and rate of children under 16 who were on the child protection register in Scotland in July 2020 by local authority. The rate varied from 0.5 per 1,000 children in the East Renfrewshire to 6.1 per 1,000 children in North Ayrshire.

There is a lot of variability from year to year in the numbers of children on the child protection register at a local authority level due to the small numbers of children involved in each local authority.

Table 2.4: Number of children on the child protection register and rate per 1,000 population aged 0-15 by local authority

	2010		2019		2020
Local authority	Number on Register	Rate(1,2)	Number on Register	Rate(1,2)	Number on Register	Rate(1,2)
Aberdeen City	119	3.7	119	3.4	142	4.0
Aberdeenshire	51	1.1	103	2.1	111	2.3
Angus	92	4.5	45	2.4	36	1.9
Argyll and Bute	43	2.9	28	2.2	49	3.8
City of Edinburgh	256	3.6	122	1.5	95	1.2
Clackmannanshire	56	5.9	24	2.7	41	4.6
Dumfries and Galloway	100	3.9	18	0.8	26	1.1
Dundee City	70	2.9	90	3.7	102	4.2
East Ayrshire	42	1.9	100	4.7	78	3.7
East Dunbartonshire	28	1.5	55	2.8	37	1.9
East Lothian	70	3.8	48	2.4	52	2.6
East Renfrewshire	31	1.7	15	0.8	9	0.5
Falkirk	73	2.6	124	4.4	142	5.1
Fife	220	3.4	205	3.2	147	2.3
Glasgow City	286	3.0	415	4.1	420	4.2
Highland	99	2.4	91	2.3	129	3.3
Inverclyde	35	2.5	47	3.7	61	4.8
Midlothian	96	6.2	49	2.7	49	2.7
Moray	44	2.6	47	2.9	31	1.9
Na h-Eileanan Siar	*	*	*	*	*	*
North Ayrshire	60	2.4	104	4.6	137	6.1
North Lanarkshire	63	1.0	162	2.6	118	1.9
Orkney Islands	*	*	*	*	10	2.8
Perth and Kinross	49	1.9	78	3.2	95	3.9
Renfrewshire	119	3.9	83	2.7	98	3.2
Scottish Borders	32	1.6	46	2.4	34	1.8
Shetland Islands	10	2.2	12	2.9	*	*
South Ayrshire	43	2.3	37	2.1	29	1.6
South Lanarkshire	135	2.4	116	2.1	160	2.9
Stirling	43	2.7	42	2.7	46	3.0
West Dunbartonshire	27	1.6	44	2.8	66	4.2
West Lothian	119	3.4	104	2.9	92	2.6
Scotland	2,518	2.7	2,580	2.8	2,654	2.9

(1) Per 1,000 population aged 0-15. Source: National Records of Scotland, 2007-2019 mid-year population estimates
(2) The rate shown in this table includes unborn children who are on the register

Number of child protection investigations within Scotland

A child protection investigation is a joint^[4] investigation launched following an Inter-agency Referral Discussion in order to determine if any child protection action is needed and whether a child protection case conference should be held.

Data on child protection investigations has been published for the first time in Table 2.5. The rate of child protection investigations varied from 1.2 in East Renfrewshire to 39.7 per 1,000 children in Clackmannanshire.

The number of initial and pre-birth child protection case conferences and registrations from these is also shown; for those with an investigation recorded within 90 days prior to case conference, the child's progression through the child protection process from investigation to case conference and potentially registration can be followed.

However, there were 733 out of 4,978 total initial and pre-birth case conferences where no investigation was recorded within 90 days prior to case conference; this suggests that the investigations for these conferences may be missing from the figures shown. There may be other legitimate reasons for the investigation not being within 90 days prior to case conference.

Table 2.5: Number of child protection investigations, initial and pre-birth case conferences, registrations from these conferences and rates per 1,000 population aged 0-15 by local authority, 2019-20 ^(1),(2)

	Child protection investigations		Child protection initial and pre-birth case conferences				Child protection registrations from initial and pre-birth case conferences
Local authority	Number(3)	Rate(2)	Number with an investigation recorded within 90 days of case conference	Number with no investigation recorded within 90 days of case conference(4)	Total	Rate(2)	Number with an investigation recorded within 90 days of case conference	Number with no investigation recorded within 90 days of case conference(3)	Total	Rate(2)
Aberdeen City	269	7.6	183	3	186	5.3	156	3	159	4.5
Aberdeenshire	408	8.3	144	14	158	3.2	134	13	147	3.0
Angus	266	13.9	50	70	120	6.3	38	62	100	5.2
Argyll and Bute	114	8.8	39	36	75	5.8	38	29	67	5.2
City of Edinburgh	1,026	13.0	159	30	189	2.4	143	26	169	2.1
Clackmannanshire	355	39.7	70	37	107	12.0	47	22	69	7.7
Dumfries and Galloway	383	16.5	57	11	68	2.9	32	9	41	1.8
Dundee City	698	29.0	128	29	157	6.5	127	29	156	6.5
East Ayrshire	384	18.2	211	15	226	10.7	139	8	147	7.0
East Dunbartonshire	170	8.8	79	8	87	4.5	40	7	47	2.4
East Lothian	360	18.3	55	14	69	3.5	50	9	59	3.0
East Renfrewshire	23	1.2	20	0	20	1.0	19	0	19	1.0
Falkirk	459	16.3	181	8	189	6.7	150	5	155	5.5
Fife	892	13.8	317	1	318	4.9	282	1	283	4.4
Glasgow City	1,740	17.3	654	3	657	6.5	449	2	451	4.5
Highland	412	10.6	22	145	167	4.3	20	136	156	4.0
Inverclyde	125	9.9	94	28	122	9.7	76	19	95	7.5
Midlothian	567	31.6	92	20	112	6.2	76	18	94	5.2
Moray	240	14.9	27	23	50	3.1	23	17	40	2.5
Na h-Eileanan Siar	15	3.5	3	23	26	6.1	1	8	9	2.1
North Ayrshire	430	19.1	295	1	296	13.2	243	1	244	10.9
North Lanarkshire	720	11.5	271	15	286	4.6	208	10	218	3.5
Orkney Islands	67	18.7	13	1	14	3.9	10	1	11	3.1
Perth and Kinross	303	12.4	112	16	128	5.2	102	15	117	4.8
Renfrewshire	405	13.4	224	1	225	7.4	136	0	136	4.5
Scottish Borders	118	6.2	39	5	44	2.3	32	5	37	1.9
Shetland Islands	96	22.9	10	5	15	3.6	8	3	11	2.6
South Ayrshire	157	8.9	63	0	63	3.6	46	0	46	2.6
South Lanarkshire	699	12.6	366	35	401	7.2	252	23	275	4.9
Stirling	100	6.5	0	52	52	3.4	0	50	50	3.2
West Dunbartonshire	241	15.4	114	29	143	9.1	72	6	78	5.0
West Lothian	692	19.5	153	55	208	5.9	114	49	163	4.6
Scotland	12,934	14.0	4,245	733	4,978	5.4	3,263	586	3,849	4.2

(1) Per 1,000 population aged 0-15. Source: National Records of Scotland, mid-year 2019 population estimates.
(2) The rate shown in this table includes unborn children who are on the register
(3) Includes 135 child protection investigations that took place prior to 1 August 2019 (in 2018-19) where the resulting case conference took place on or after 1 August 2019 (in 2019-20).
(4) Case conferences with no investigation recorded within 90 days are cases where no investigation was recorded in the data provided to Scottish Government in the 90 days preceding the case conference.

Cross-UK child protection comparisons

Child protection systems across the United Kingdom vary but are generally comparable. Scotland's data collection year runs from 1 August to 31 July, so end‑year figures are typically reported at 31 July in this publication, while the collection year in England, Wales and Northern Ireland runs from 1 April to 31 March (so end-year figures are at 31 March). In Chart 8, we report the Scotland figures at the 31st March to allow better comparison with the other countries.

The proportion of children on the child protection register has been broadly stable in Scotland over the last decade and this proportion is notably lower compared with the rest of the UK. Scotland did not experience the large increases in children on the register in 2007-2011 as seen in the rest of the UK. There is more information on the comparability of child protection data across the UK on the Scottish Government website.

The data used to produce the charts and tables on child protection in the publication are available in the supporting files accompanying the publication. There are also additional tables available in the supporting files.

Children's social work statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)