This report is the first of its kind produced by the SSSC. It provides an examination of trends within residential child care from 2010 to 2020 looking at changes not just in the workforce but also in services, providers and children in care

In 2020 we published a plan for putting care experienced children, young people and adults at the heart of what we do in 2020-2023. Part of that strategy included a commitment to ‘…develop a report examining the last 10 years of residential child care workforce data’. This report draws on workforce data held by the SSSC for the period 2010 to 2020 and also makes use of data on the numbers of residential child care services and the numbers of looked after children from data collected by the Care Inspectorate and Scottish Government. This report is the first of its kind produced by the SSSC. It provides an examination of trends within residential child care from 2010 to 2020 looking at changes not just in the workforce but also in services, providers and children in care.

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The report makes a number of key findings:

Ÿ The overall residential child care workforce has increased by 16% since 2010.

Ÿ The workforce has increased across all three types of employers (public, private and voluntary) with the greatest growth seen among private providers with a 28% increase.

Ÿ The number of children and young people in some form of residential care has decreased by 3% since 2010.

Ÿ The number of residential child care services has increased by 37% since 2010.

Ÿ The number of care homes for children and young people has increased by 46%.

Ÿ The number of residential special schools and secure accommodation services fell by 5% and 29% respectively.

Ÿ The number of providers of residential child care services has increased by 15%.

Ÿ The number of private sector residential care homes has increased from 61 in 2010 to 142 in 2020, a 133% increase.

ŸThere has been an increase in the number of care staff and a corresponding decrease in the proportion and number of managerial staff and also ancillary and auxiliary staff.

Ÿ The numbers of services based in local authorities appears to be distributed unevenly.