Our response to the latest data on children in care
Our chief executive Fraser McKinlay shares his views on the latest data from The Scottish Government, on children in care in Scotland
Thursday, 24 April, 2025
Part of: News
On Tuesday 22nd April, the Scottish Government published: Children’s Social Work Statistics: Looked After Children 2023/24.
Our chief executive Fraser McKinlay has shared his thoughts on the publication, and what Scotland must do moving forward.
He said: “The statistics show a decrease in the overall number of children in care in Scotland on 31st July 2024, continuing a trend over the last few years.
“The promise says that “where children are safe in their families and feel loved, they must stay”. The continuing downward trend may well be an indication that the hard work of so many people across Scotland is helping keep families together.
But more information is needed to fully understand what lies behind the numbers. As my colleague, Claire Stuart, said in her recent blog, ‘each number isn’t just a number— it’s a person, and a number cannot show the experience they are having, whether in care, or not. National statistics cannot say if the experiences of Scotland's care experienced children, young people and adults are improving.’
“The latest statistics also show that just over half of children experiencing the care system lived in Scotland’s most deprived areas, compared to just three per cent from the least deprived areas. This confirms what is already known – that to keep the promise is to end child poverty. When families lack financial resources, homes are cramped and putting food on the table is a struggle, meeting the needs of children can be challenging.
“As the promise said five years ago; there must be significant, ongoing, and persistent commitment to ending poverty and mitigating the impacts for Scotland’s children, families, and communities.
“Another area the statistics provide an insight on is the number of young people receiving continuing care, with only 22 per cent of those eligible for continuing care receiving it. It is hard to understand why these numbers are so low, and steps must be taken to ensure young people get the care they deserve.
“Taken together, today’s statistics do what high level numbers always do – provide some indicators of progress and others that demonstrate that Scotland needs to be moving faster and going further.
“What Scotland must be sure of is that every single child and young person is in the best place for them, with the care they need — and that requires a shift from counting numbers to understanding and meeting needs.
“More focus is also needed on what life is like for care experienced adults, and if they are getting what they need to thrive.
“That is why The Promise Scotland, alongside the Scottish Government and COSLA, will be working on telling this whole story, by developing the Promise Story of Progress over the rest of 2025, to provide more insight on the views of the care community, and the progress being made by organisations across Scotland.
“So, when the next set of statistics are published on the lives of children and young people, Scotland will have a better understanding of what the numbers mean.”
You can read the full report here.