Professor John Robertson OBA
From Children’s Social Work Statistics: Looked After Children 2023/24 published today, we can see that the number of children requiring to be in the care of the local authority in Scotland has fallen from 15 600 in 2014 to 11 842 in 2024, a 24% fall.
Looked after children are defined as those in the care of their local authority (Children Scotland Act 1995). There are many reasons children may become looked after including: facing abuse or neglect at home; having disabilities that require special care; unaccompanied minors seeking asylum, or illegally trafficked into the UK; or involvement in the youth justice system.
This is one of the ‘canary in the coalmine’ statistics for any society, like the abortion or stillbirth rates and shoplifting which, in Scotland, have been lower than in England or even falling for the last 10 years or so. In a society where increased numbers of children have to be taken in to care, where abortion rates and stillbirth rates climb, where women are increasingly shoplifting essentials, those children and women are telling you that society is in deepening trouble.
More detail on these:
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
What about the Tory two child cap being retained by Labour as the new UK government, what negative impact on poverty is that having ?
When Labour were in opposition some of their , now government ministers , opposed it as a policy.
I sourced the below information from a very good online source , Saul Staniforth’s Twitter ‘X’ account, he also has a Blue Sky account too.
In 2020 Jonathan Reynolds, now Labour’s Sec of State for Business & Trade, was “calling for the two child benefit cap to be scrapped”.
As back then in the HOC , while he was a part of the Shadow cabinet, he said:
“At the beginning of this crisis the opposition (Tories) asked for five urgent measures to stop families falling into significant hardship. The sharing of the £20 increase to Universal credit across legacy benefits, scrapping the savings threshold so savers weren’t punished, ending the punitive two child limit and the benefit cap so that people could receive what the government has already announced. And turning the Universal credit advance into a grant , not a loan. Those five measures would have been a big step towards alleviating child poverty and giving people the support they need”
So Reynolds saw “ending the punitive two child limit and the benefit cap” as one measure that would have been a significant “big step” for the former Tory UK government to take to “alleviate child poverty” but now that his party are in charge then he and his party no longer view that to be the case.
Really ?
Also even earlier in 2019 we heard Labour MP , Rushanara Ali, who is also now a part of the Labour UK government as the Minister for Homelessness and Democracy, where she said in the HOC:
“Over a hundred MP’s supported the campaign to scrap the two child poverty , eh the two child limit policy, which is a campaign supported across parties, including the Honourable member for Glasgow Central (SNP Alison Thewliss). Some three million children will still be affected by the policy, even though the government has decided to relax it somewhat. Can I ask the Minister to heed that advice from MP’s and scrap the policy altogether”.
Well she is now part of a Labour government who have also decided NOT to “scrap that policy altogether” and so she is also not “heeding the advice” that she herself once gave to the Tory UK government.
Also Saul Staniforth tweeted “Starmer suspended MPs from the PLP who voted to scrap the cap, a position he himself also previously held”!
I also read this online (also via Saul’s ‘X’ account) that in June last year, prior to the UK GE, on the BBC ‘s Newsnight programme Victoria Derbyshire interviewed Darren Jones , a Labour MP, and now since were Labour elected last year as the new UK government, he, Darren Jones, is now the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
Victoria said: “You could fully fund and fully cost lifting the two child benefit cap, and you are making the choice not to do that. That’s right, isn’t it?”
Darren Jones replied : “Well, these are trade offs. We’ve made the commitment not to increase taxes”.
“Not increase taxes” but keep the Tory two Child Benefit cap, as in the same Tory two child cap that those within his party attacked the Tory UK government for instigating and maintaining as a policy.
Got it. You , and your Labour party, are hypocrites and are also a party that exists to clearly only protect the “Few” (many of whom donate to your party) at the expense of the “Many” (who are too poor to donate to your party therefore they get treated with disdain and contempt by your party).
Now that should have told all voters in Scotland , prior to the 2024 UK GE, that if you VOTE LABOUR YOU GET TORY (policies and rhetoric).
Perhaps that could now be shared as one of (too) many examples in time for the 2026 Scottish elections, where if we do not vote for the SNP via a majority then more will continue to suffer for way too long via Labour’s cruel Tory UK reserved policies.
Liz S
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O/T a case of stuff Scotland’s fisherman.
Starmer close to EU arms deal — at the expense of fishermen
British firms will be able to bid for the new €150 billion EU defence fund after the UK makes concessions on fishing quotas
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The fall in number of children in care. Kinship payments so children can stay within the family. Less children are being born. Population trends are down in all European countries without migration.
Children in care receive educational grants. They have extended foster care. They do not pay council tax and get affordable housing.
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