The Scottish Children's Reporter Administration has published its Official Statistics 2011/12, which reveal that for the fifth consecutive year there has been a fall in the number of children and young people being referred to the Reporter.
There has been an increase in the number of children with Child Protection Orders (CPOs) for the fourth consecutive year.
The number of children and young people referred to the Reporter fell from 39,217 in 2010/11 to 31,593 in 2011/12. Despite the fall in numbers, the total still accounts for 3.5% of the Scottish child population.
The majority of referrals continue to be based on concerns about the welfare of children and young people. The two most common grounds for referral were that the child was a ‘victim of a Schedule 1 offence’ (13,151 children) and lack of parental care (11,194 children).
SCRA’s Principal Reporter/Chief Executive Neil Hunter said: “Despite the decrease in overall referrals, there continues to be significant numbers of younger children coming to the attention of the Reporter.
“We highlighted this issue last year, as over the last few years we have seen proportional increases in the number of very young children referred to the Reporter, mainly due to lack of parental care or because they are the victims of offences such as neglect and ill treatment.
“Very young children are more likely to be referred for lack of parental care, with more children being referred in the first year of their life than any other age. More than 20% of the children referred on this ground were aged between birth and two years.”
