Glasgow and Scotland

The number of children on local authority Child Protection Registers has fluctuated over the past seven years, increasing between 2013 and 2014 but decreasing since then. In Glasgow, the number dropped sharply between 2016 and 2017 (by 20%). Glasgow's share of the total number of children on a Child Protection Register in Scotland was 16% as at 31st July 2019. 

When a child's name is placed on a local authority's Child Protection Register, one of a number of categories of abuse is recorded against the registration. The above chart shows the numbers of children who were registered against each category in Glasgow and Scotland. Some figures are suppressed due to low numbers.

In Glasgow, the most common categories of abuse were 'neglect', 'domestic abuse' and 'non-engaging family', whereas in Scotland as a whole, the most common categories were 'neglect' and 'parental substance misuse'.

Notes

Children on the Child Protection Register - This indicator reports information on the number of children on the Child Protection Register, aged 0 to 15 years. Estimates of the 0-15 years population are applied to calculate the relative measure of the number of children on the Child Protection Register per 1,000 population.

Data for this indicator at Scotland and Scottish local authority level, including Glasgow City Council, was sourced from the Scottish Government annual report on Children's Social Work Statistics. This report is compiled by the Scottish Government from annual data returns on children in the child protection system, which are submitted by all 32 local authorities in Scotland. Information on children from English local authority areas, including population estimates applied to calculate rates per 1,000 population (aged 0-15 years) was obtained from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Some information at Glasgow and sub Glasgow level was extracted from Social Work Services monthly performance reports.

'Parental alcohol misuse' and 'Parental drug misuse' are not sub-categories of 'Parental substance abuse'.

The number of children who are social work service users (including those 'looked after' and accommodated or on the Child Protection Register) is derived from careFirst (the client information system used by Glasgow City Council Social Work Services); population estimates for areas within Scotland are obtained from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) (formerly GROS) or from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for English local authorities and numbers/rates of children referred to the Children’s Reporter are drawn from the SCRA website.