Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson Margaret Smith MSP has welcomed figures showing a drop in the number of children being referred to the Children's Reporter in the last year.

The figures released by the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA) also revealed that this decrease is not happening evenly across Scotland with the referral rate in some areas still remaining above 9 per cent of the child population.

Commenting, Mrs Smith said:

"These figures reveal some positive trends and I welcome the 10.5 per cent drop in children being referred to the Children's Reporter. People should not use referral to the Children's Panel as an easy option.

"The Scottish Government must now focus on those geographic areas where referrals have not reduced to see how improvements can be made."