Cross-Border Placements Regulations: island communities impact assessment

Data

The Regulations impact on a small group of children in the care system. Since 2019 here have been 35 placements of children with Deprivation of Liberty orders. Only two of these has been on a Scottish island.

The latest Looked After Children Statistics in relation to Scotland published in March 2022 (for 2020-21) show that 13,255 children were looked after as at July 2021. The majority (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 – 1,286 (10%) were placed in residential accommodation, including 4% placed in a Local Authority home. Of this, 304 children were placed in 'other residential' placements - private/independent residential placements for young people with complex needs.

It is difficult to correlate this data to cross-border placements involving DOL orders; there have only been 35 such placements involving petitions to the Court of Session, since the first petition in 2019. This number is too small to extrapolate any clear trends.