Scotland's Child Protection Statistics, the official figures collected by all 32 local authorities in Scotland, show how many children are involved in Scotland’s child protection processes.  These statistics help us to understand the number of children involved in Scotland’s child protection processes, the forms of abuse and neglect they have experienced, and how local authorities and partner agencies have responded.

In this blog post, Dr Alex McTier, Evidence and Evaluation Specialist at CELCIS who led the development of the Minimum Dataset for Child Protection Committees, examines what the latest statistics show, advising caution in seeing an apparently static picture and encouraging us to continue improving the data collected about children’s lives.

Scotland’s Child Protection Statistics 2024-2025: Is there really no change?