How fostering and adoption services vary between local authorities.

The Scottish Government does not collect information about local fostering and adoption services. Rather it provides the legislative framework for fostering and adoption services in Scotland through the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 and the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009, which set out the functions and duties of local authorities in the services they provide. Responsibility for managing services that respond to the individual needs of the children who come into care, lies with local authorities.
Information on looked after children and young people, including those in foster care and those who have been adopted, is however collected from local authorities through the Scottish Government’s annual Children’s Social Work Statistics at: and the Care Inspectorate’s Adoption and Fostering Statistical Bulletin .