Professor John Robertson OBA, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair

This caught me off-guard today. I was astonished to read this and to see that it is not a major news item for ‘our’ media.

From the Scottish Government, yesterday:

On 31 July 2024, 2,129 children were on the child protection register, representing a 3% increase on 2023 (2,077) and a 26% decrease on 2014 (2,877).

During the year, 3,167 children were registered onto the child protection register, representing a 2% decrease on 2022-23 (3,234) and a 31% decrease on 2013-14 (4,622).

https://www.gov.scot/publications/childrens-social-work-statistics-child-protection-2023-24/

These are massive reductions in only 10 years and must indicate major socio-economic changes determining the numbers of children at such risk that they require to be placed on the child protection register.

Looking at the very different rates in the 4 UK nations, we must recognise that different legislative frameworks will reduce the comparability to some extent but the enormous scale of the difference, approaching twice as many children, pro rata in the other 3 nations, surely requires further explanation. It’s hard to imagine that this widening gap does not indicate also rather more fundamental causes such as the differing levels of poverty, of child poverty, of crime, of youth crime, of affordable housing and so on, which are a consequence of cumulative Scottish Government policies such as the Child Payment, the bedroom tax compensation, better resourcing of policing, schools, housing and hospitals.

Were the figures the other way round, as with drug deaths, we can be sure the Scottish media and opposition parties would be quick to lay responsibility for the increased number on this register at the door of the SNP Government.

We know that poverty, especially child poverty is significantly lower in Scotland, that rents and council tax are lower too. We know that there are more home visitors, nurses, midwives, doctors, teachers and police officers, per head in Scotland. We know that there have been far fewer days lost to industrial action to reduce the effectiveness of public services especially health. We know that crime generally but in particular violent crime and drug abuse among the young has fallen dramatically in Scotland. All of these trends and, no doubt, others have created a better world for the poor in Scotland, sheltered at least in part, from the full force of Tory austerity felt in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

I don’t doubt the reasons for this widening gap between Scotland and the other 3 nations will be caused by more than just the above factors and more complex in their interplay but there can be no doubt it has not arisen by chance. That there are far fewer children requiring to be on the child protection register in Scotland is due, at least in part to the efforts of the SNP this last 18 years.

Footnote – this is another ‘canary in the coalmine.‘

When abortion or stillbirth rates increase you know a society is in trouble. If the number of children on a child protection register increases, that’s another warning that things are not well. All three are falling in Scotland.

‘The Canary in the Coalmine’ – Abortions shocking 36% more common in England & Wales

NHS England’s ‘alarming decline’ in 12 key metrics being averted by SNP Government – Stillbirth, ‘The Canary in the Coalmine’

X reader https://x.com/aytykia suggests this will have been a factor too:

Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC)

https://www.gov.scot/policies/girfec/