This report is part of the Children’s Social Work Statistics publication series. The data used to produce the statistics was collected from 32 local authorities across Scotland. The figures refer to the reporting year 1st August 2024 to 31st July 2025.
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.
Key findings include:
Looked after children
- On 31 July 2025, 11,824 children were looked after. This is a small increase from 11,780 on 31 July 2024 but down 23% overall since 2014-15 (15,400).
- The rate of children looked after per 1,000 children slightly increased to 11.8 in 2025 from 11.6 per 1,000 children in 2024. This represents a marginal rise since the previous year, up to which there had been a steady decline since a peak in 2011.
- A total of 2,411 looked after children were looked after at home on 31 July 2025. This is a 5% increase since 2024 (2,298) but down 39% overall since 2014-15. This accounts for 20% of all looked after children, consistent with the previous two years but an overall decrease from 25% in 2015.
- On 31 July 2025, the most common placements away from home were kinship care (35% of looked after children), foster care (28%), and residential accommodation (12%). Since 2022, there has been a higher proportion of looked after children in kinship care than foster care, and kinship care has been the most common placement type.
- During 2024-25, 3,195 children started to be looked after – down 1% since 2023-24 (3,242) and down 24% since 2014-15 (4,198).
- A total of 3,279 children ceased to be looked after during 2024-25 – down 8% since 2023-24 (3,548) and down 25% since 2014-15 (4,371).
- Of those children whose home postcode at the time of becoming looked after was recorded, a little below half (46%) have a home address in one of the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland, whereas 4% were from one of the 20% least deprived areas in Scotland.
Care Leavers
- During 2024-25, 958 young people aged 16 years or over ceased to be looked after and were eligible for continuing care. Of these, 38% (367) entered continuing care. This is compared to 32% (327) entering continuing care in 2023-24.
- On 31 July 2025, 1,155 young people were in continuing care, 23% of those who were eligible for continuing care at the time of ceasing to be looked after (4,927). This is a similar proportion to the previous year when 22% of those eligible were in continuing care (1,115).
- On 31 July 2025, an estimated 9,386 young people were eligible for aftercare services. 4,545 (48% of those eligible, compared to a revised estimate of 51% for the previous year) were receiving aftercare services.
- 1,951 (54%) of those in aftercare were in education, training or employment – a similar proportion to the previous year when 2,049 young people were in education, training or employment (54%).
