Fostering and adoption statistics for Scotland 2024-2025
Scotland’s national fostering and adoption statistics for 2024-25 have been published (29 October) by the Care Inspectorate, the registered body for these services.
The report from the Care Inspectorate explores the official data collected by the Care Inspectorate from fostering and adoption services over a five-year period from 2019 to 2024, and provides insight into fostering, adoption, and also about the take up of Continuing Care in foster care in Scotland over the last four years.
The data shows that the number of foster care households caring for children and young people continues to decrease. On 31 December 2024, there were 2,828 foster care households in Scotland, a drop of 5.7% from 2023. The number of children being cared for by foster carers also declined to 3,680, down from 3,918 the previous year.
Similar to previous years, 24% of children who are part of the same family who were to be cared for in foster care were placed with separate foster carers, sometimes following assessment of their needs and at other times due to emergency situations and a lack of appropriate resources.
The report advises that services should aim for children to be cared for away from home on a permanent basis without delay, once it has been identified that is what is best for the child.
The number of adoption approvals for children and young people also saw a decline, with 190 approvals, a drop of 4% on the previous year.
In 2024, 43% of the adoption approvals were for children between the ages of two and five, and 52% were for infants younger than two years old, consistent with the previous year. There are fewer than five households approved for family groups of three or more children. This is similar to the previous year.
The report highlights there are still delays, sometimes of six months or longer, in adoption approvals by an adoption panel, and further delays in matching a child with their adoptive family and becoming legally adopted.
This is also the fourth year that the data includes information on ‘Continuing Care’ data for foster care. Continuing Care is where, after their sixteenth birthdays, children and young people are supported to be able to stay being cared for by current carers should they wish to, until they are 21 years old. During 2024, more children and young people being cared for by foster carers exercised their right to Continuing Care (518 children and young people) and more households were registered as continuing care households (517), than in the previous three years.
Read the Fostering and adoption statistics report
Read CELCIS's blog posts on data collection in Scotland:
Looking beyond the data at Continuing Care and Aftercare
When data tells us the what but not the why