The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) has published their Official Statistics 2019/20 today, Thursday 30 July 2020.

The full set of statistics includes:

The statistics show that in 2019/20, 12,849 children and young people in Scotland were referred to the Children’s Reporter:

  • 10,823 on non-offence (care and protection) grounds
  • 2,840 on offence grounds

Of the 12,849 children and young people referred, 814 children and young people had both care and protection and offence referrals in the year.

Lack of parental care is the most common ground (the reason) a child or young person is referred to the Reporter. More children are referred on this ground in the first year of their life than any other age (13.1% of the children and young people referred on this ground).

The figure of 12,849 children and young people referred to the Reporter in 2019/20 equates to 1.4% of all children and young people in Scotland.

The most common ages for children and young people to be referred to the Reporter continue to be 14 and 15 years. This has historically been the case for both care and protection and offence grounds, but for the past two years 13 and 14 are the most common ages for care and protection grounds.

In 2019/20, 30,363 Children’s Hearings were held across Scotland for 13,316 children and young people.

The number of children and young people with Child Protection Orders (CPOs) in 2019/20 was 547. Of the 547 children and young people with Child Protection Order referrals received in 2019/20, 115 (21.0%) were aged under 20 days at the date of receipt and 237 (43.3%) were aged under two years.

At 31 March 2020, 8,875 children and young people were subject to Compulsory Supervision Orders. Of the 8,875 children and young people subject to a Compulsory Supervision Order, 84.5% have only ever been referred on care and protection grounds.

The full set of Official Statistics (including previous years) can be found in detail in the Resources section of SCRA’s website.

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