Scotland’s system for children in care.

Professor John Robertson OBA

There’s something important missing from the above ‘news‘ today on children in care in Scotland – how big a problem is this and is it growing or shrinking?

Surely, we need to know the answers?

Here’s why that is not on the agenda in the MSM in Scotland:

Massive fall in number of children in care as progressive policies work to reduce poverty and as violent crime reduces

From Children’s Social Work Statistics: Looked After Children 2023/24 published 22 April 2025, 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. 

https://www.gov.scot/publications/childrens-social-work-statistics-looked-after-children-2023-24/pages/looked-after-children/

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:

‘The Canary in the Coalmine’ – Abortions shocking 36% more common in England & Wales after 18 years of SNP rule

Abortion and shoplifting – signs of the pressure on the poor to survive which are moderated at least to some extent in Scotland

Daily Record’s putrid reporting to exploit one baby death to mislead on the country with the cleanest hospitals and the lowest stillbirth rate in the UK

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