Information regarding deaths of children and young people in care: FOI release

Information requested

Information regarding the deaths of children and young people in care across the calendar years 2021-2025 inclusive. You also asked for the following information in relation to the deaths of children and young people in care:

• a list of names, with ethnicity, gender, age and date of death, and
• the type of care the children/young people were under.

Response

While our aim is to provide information where possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some information you have requested because an exemption under section 39(1) (Health, Safety, and Welfare) of FOISA applies to this information. We have a responsibility to ensure that any information released does not, or is unlikely, to cause harm. Due to the nature of some of the data requested, disclosure could adversely affect the wellbeing of individuals. Additionally, there is a risk of “jigsaw identification,” whereby combining multiple pieces of information from this request, or future requests, could identify individuals. To proactively mitigate against the risks set out above we have not included the following information in the response to your request:

• Names of children and young people who have died in care
• Specific ages of children and young people who have died in care
• Specific dates of death

We do not request, collect or hold data on the gender or ethnicity of children and young people who have died in care and are unable to provide you with this information. Because of this an exemption under section 17(1) (information not held) of FOISA applies.

For the purpose of your request, we have assumed that “children and young people in care” relates to children who, at the time of their death, were looked after by a local authority in terms of section 17(6) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (“the 1995 Act”) or were treated as such in accordance with section 17A of the 1995 Act. We have also assumed this request includes a request for information in relation to the deaths of children and young people known as ‘care leavers’ who, at the time of their death, were no longer looked after but were entitled to Continuing Care as per section 26A of the 1995 Act or Aftercare support as per section 29 of the 1995 Act. If this assumption is incorrect, please get in touch to provide clarification.

To ensure as much information as possible can be provided in response to your request, we have aggregated and anonymised the data for each year you have requested. This data includes the total number of children and young people who have died each year, who were at the time of their death, looked after or fell within the definition of ‘care leavers’ as described above. This figure has then been broken down in to age ranges for each year.

Anonymised and aggregated data has also been provided in regards to the child or young person’s ‘looked after’ status at the time of their death for each year requested. This data has been split in to three categories:

• ‘Looked after’ in terms of section 17(6) or 17A of the 1995 Act
• Entitled to ‘continuing care’ as per section 26A of the 1995 Act
• Entitled to ‘aftercare’ as per section 29 of the 1995 Act

The data has been enclosed in the pdf document attached.

About FOI

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

FOI 202600508918 - Information Released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

107.2 kB