Child protection information for children under 4 years: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/02867
Date received: 26 November 2017
Date responded: 22 December 2017

Information requested

You asked for information for all children born from 1st August 2012 to 31st July 2013 inclusive and covering events occurring before their 4th Birthday, including any pre-birth investigations or case conferences, relating to:

• Number of children investigated
• Total number of investigations on these children
• Number of children subject of a Child Protection Case Conference
• Number of children registered at a Child Protection Case Conference
• Number of children registered before their 4th birthday with a concern for emotional abuse identified at any of their Child Protection case conferences
• Number of children registered before their 4th birthday with a concern for neglect identified at any of their Child Protection case conferences
• Number of children registered before their 4th birthday with a concern for physical abuse identified at any of their Child Protection case conferences
• Number of children registered before their 4th birthday with a concern for sexual abuse identified at any of their Child Protection case conferences
• Number of children registered at any time before their 4th birthday where at any of their Case Conferences the following concerns: sexual abuse, physical abuse, child sexual exploitation, child exploitation or child trafficking have never been identified

Response

I have provided you with links to two sources of statistical information that may be of help to you. You should note that the Scottish Government does not hold any figures, beyond the sources of information provided to you in this email.

Children's Social Work Statistics

The Scottish Government publishes annual Children's Social Work Statistics. This is information collected from local authorities and secure units on children and young people, generally younger than their mid-twenties, who were formally looked after, under child protection measures, or in secure care at some point between August 2015 and July 2016. This is the most recent period for which we have collated information, and this was published on March 28, 2017. You can find these statistics here Children's Social Work Statistics 2015/16

The Children's Social Work Statistics contains figures relating to concerns identified at the case conferences of children who were on the child protection register 2007-2016 at table 2.3.

Chart 5 contains statistics of concerns identified at the case conferences of children who were on the child protection register in 2016.

Previous years Children's Social Work Statistics can be found here Children and Young People - Publications. The child protection data collected from 2012 onwards should not be compared to previous years' data on category of abuse/risk. The reason for this is that the categories of abuse used prior to 2012 related to the main category of abuse/risk for registrations on the child protection register. Subsequently the data gathered was concerns identified at the case conferences of children who were on the child protection register. The categories were changed in 2011-12 and replaced with the list of causes for concern , which are not compatible. Unlike the main category of abuse, more than one cause for concern can be recorded per child.

Table relating to 'Concerns identified at the case conferences of children who were on the child protection register by local authority' provides a breakdown of the type of concern raised at a case conference. You may wish to note that more than one concern can be raised for the same child.

Local Authority contact details

Although the statistics published by the Scottish Government provide figures for registrations following initial Case Conference by category of abuse/risk identified at conference, we are not able to provide further analysis for all children born from 1st August 2012 to 31st July 2013 inclusive and covering events occurring before their 4th birthday for each local authority.

This information will be available from each local authority and you can find the contact details for the relevant department of local authorities at: Care Information Scotland

Scottish Children's Reporters Administration Official Statistics

You may also wish to look at the figures provided by the Scottish Children's Reporters Administration (SCRA). SCRA is a national body focused on children and young people most at risk, and works to support the operation of the Children's Hearings System in Scotland. As such, they collate and publish information on the reasons that children are referred to the Reporter. Please note that these figures are not published by the Scottish Government.

Their latest annual report can be found here, alongside links to previous years' statistics: SCRA Official Statistics

SCRA's figures refer to the 'grounds for referral': these reasons (grounds) under which children are referred to the Reporter are those set out in section 67(2) of the Children (Scotland) Act 2011 and are given in full in Annex 1 of their publication.

Summary table 1b shows the numbers of children referred to the Children's Reporter, and the associated number of referrals in the year for each ground of referral.

Section 25(1) of FOISA

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. 

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses