News

Children’s charity NCH Scotland has called for urgent action after a report found families with children make up 54 per cent of all those living in poverty.

NCH Scotland has compiled a 'factfile' from a wide range of official sources to provide a picture of Scotland’s young people.

It finds 9,000 children run away from home every year for more than one night, and nearly 20 per cent of children attending the Sick Children’s Hospital in Glasgow have found signs of malnutrition.

There are 46,000 multiple deprived households in rural Scotland. But in Glasgow, 42 per cent of children live in families dependent on income support, compared to 25 per cent in Scotland as a whole. In Scotland, 2,361 children were on the child protection registers.

Other figures in the factfile show 6,000 children rang Childline worried about bullying last year. There were 6,500 requests to Women’s Aid for refuge, but only 319 places available.

Angus Skinner, chief inspector of social work at the Scottish Executive, said: "Good information is crucial to good decision making. NCH Scotland’s excellent factfile gathers together in one volume a range of information about the lives of children and young people in Scotland."