Fostering and adoption take the lead in Scottish care

The latest children’s social work statistics show that 5,541 children were looked after by foster carers or prospective adopters during 2011/12.

This compares with 5,153 children who are living with their parents and subject to supervision requirements set by a children’s hearing.

The statistics also reveal that more children are being placed in kinship care, with 4,076 children being looked after this way in 2012 compared with 3,910 in 2011.

Ruth Stark, manager of the Scottish Association of Social Work, said the use of kinship care was a growing trend in social work in Scotland.

“Increasingly social workers are seeking relatives and friends to look after children through kinship care arrangements,” she said.

“It’s good practice to do that but there is also an issue about money involved.”

The figures also show that while the number of looked-after children in Scotland has risen by 49 per cent since 2001, the rate of increase is slowing, climbing less than 1 per cent between 2010/11 and 2011/12.

But the growth rate and proportion of looked-after children in Scotland remains higher than in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

This is still the case when children looked after at home, which are not counted in the figures for the rest of the UK, are excluded from the figures.

However, the proportion of children on the child protection register remained lower in Scotland than the rest of the UK.

Children are also remaining on the register for shorter periods of time, with the proportion registered for less than six months rising 8 per cent, while the proportion registered for 12 to 18 months falling 9 per cent between 2010/11 and 2011/12.

Glasgow had the highest level of looked-after children, with 4 per cent of children being on the child protection register or looked after.

Orkney had the least.

In total there are 16,248 looked-after children in Scotland at the end of July 2012, 17 more than the year before and equivalent to 1.8 per cent of the under-18 population in the country.