More than half of poverty figure made up of families with children

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.”