Children with developmental concerns almost doubles

Scottish Liberal Democrat communities spokesperson Willie Rennie MSP has today urged the SNP government to do far more to support children from poorer backgrounds, as new figures revealed that the percentage of children with developmental concerns has almost doubled since 2019.

Child health reviews are offered to all children in Scotland. These reviews refer to assessments of a child’s development at 13-15 months, 27-30 months and 4-5 years.

The figures from Public Health Scotland published this week show:

• Of those children who received a 4-5 year review, the percentage with developmental concerns  increased from 11.87% in 2019 to 17.71% in 2024.
• 16.68% of children who received a 27-30 month review (1,915 children) had a concern noted about at least one area of their development;
• There were high numbers of children who had a concern noted in the following areas: gross motor, speech, language and communication and emotional and behavioural;
• 11.53% of children who received a 27-30 month review had a new or previous concern recorded for speech, language and communication, while 8.1% of children who received a 13-15 month review had a new or previous concern recorded for gross motor.

Mr Rennie said:

“Scotland’s children should be growing up in the best environment, but on the SNP’s watch far too many are showing developmental concerns.

“The pandemic was incredibly challenging for parents and children. Rather than invest to support families, SNP ministers have fallen short.

“The government must put in place extra support for all those children who have had a developmental concern noted. I want to see ministers doing everything in their power to ensure that issues are identified and addressed as early as possible so that every child can flourish, no matter their background or circumstance.”