Area deprivation

On 31 July 2025, of the children registered during the year for whom details of an interagency referral discussion (IRD) were provided, an estimated 48% were from the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland at the time of the IRD. The second largest proportion of registrations were made for children in the 20-40% most deprived areas (25%), with this pattern continuing with decreasing area deprivation (Table 1.6). In 2023-24, a similar proportion of children registered during the year with details of an interagency referral discussion were seen across the area deprivation quintiles, with 48% in the 20% most deprived areas and 26% in the 20-40% most deprived areas.

Table 1.6 Number of children registered to the Child Protection Register by Local Authority and area deprivation quintile, 31 July 2024-25 [Note 1]

[Note 1] Postcodes are recorded in the interagency referral discussion (IRD) data for each child. For each child protection registration, area deprivation quintile were derived from the associated (IRD) for that child. In some cases, it was not possible to associate an IRD with the registration. This may be because no IRD data was provided for that child, or no IRD occurred within 90 days of the registration.