Glasgow City Region
Numbers of looked-after children in the Glasgow City Region
Glasgow has by far the largest number of looked-after children among the City Region local authorities. As at 31st July 2019, North Lanarkshire, despite having the largest number of looked-after children in the neighbouring council areas, had just 34% of the total for Glasgow. East Renfrewshire, which had the lowest number of looked-after children, had just 4% of Glasgow's total.
Trends in numbers of looked-after children, Glasgow City Region
The number of looked-after children in Glasgow far exceeds that of the neighbouring City Region local authorities. In 2019, the number of looked-after children from these areas ranged from 102 in East Renfrewshire to 850 in North Lanarkshire, compared to 2,523 in Glasgow.
Percentages of looked-after children in the Glasgow City Region
Glasgow had the second highest percentage of looked-after children (2.3%) of the eight Glasgow City region local authorities, behind West Dunbartonshire 2.9%. These two authorities, as well as Renfrewshire and Inverclyde, had percentages of looked-after children above the Scottish average.
Trends in percentages of looked-after children, Glasgow City Region
Glasgow had the highest percentage of children who were looked after in every year from 2011 to 2017, until West Dunbartonshire overtook Glasgow in 2018 and 2019. The percentage of looked-after children has been slowly decreasing in Glasgow since 2011. In 2019, East Renfrewshire had the lowest percentage of children who were looked after (0.5%), with the Glasgow rate (2.3%) almost five times higher.
Notes
Looked-after children - This indicator reports information on numbers of 'looked after' children and care leavers, aged 0 to 21 years. Estimates of the 0-18 years population are applied to calculate relative measures of percentage of the child population. (Few children aged 18+ are 'looked after' which explains why the population base used is 0-18 years rather than 0-21 years).
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 Looked After Statistics. This report is compiled by the Scottish Government from annual data returns on 'looked after' children and care leavers, which are submitted by all 32 local authorities in Scotland. Some information at Glasgow and sub Glasgow level was extracted from Social Work Services monthly performance reports.
Children most commonly become 'looked after' following a referral to the Children's Reporter.
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.