The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) has recently published its Annual Report for 2010/11, which shows that for the fourth year running there has been a fall (7.8%) in the number of children and young people being referred to its service.
The majority of referrals made to the Reporter were related to concerns about child welfare. Almost 17,000 children were referred because they were 'victims of a Schedule 1 offence' and around 13,000 because of lack of parental care.
There has also continued to be a large number of younger children being referred to the Reporter.
SCRA’s Chair Carole Wilkinson, said:
“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.
“A total of 4,839 children aged under two years were referred in 2010/11, this amounts to 12.4% of all the children referred in the year. In addition, the number of children with Child Protection Orders (CPOs) increased for a third year to 678 in 2010/11, compared to 665 in 2009/10. “
