THE number of children at risk of being affected by serious cases of domestic abuse in Dunfermline is on the rise.

That’s according to a Fife Council report on children’s services in the city, which also found that cases of neglect and the number of youngsters placed on the Child Protection Register last year were up but cases of domestic, sexual and physical abuse decreased.

The findings were presented to the City of Dunfermline area committee and showed that the number of families with a ‘risk management plan’ – a framework that identifies domestic abuse victims at most risk – increased from 46 to 63, while the number of kids being neglected showed a jump of 13 per cent.

There were no cases of sexual or physical abuse reported for children on the Child Protection Register in 2014 and while domestic and emotional abuse dropped to four and 48 per cent respectively, there was an increase of ‘other categories’ of abuse from nine to 22 per cent.

The number of youngsters referred to the Children’s Reporter saw a significant reduction in Fife from 73.3 per 1000 to 59.5, while there was also a reduction in the number of children and young people with five or more separate referrals in a six-month period.

Attendance rates at high school showed a steady improvement during the previous five sessions, with Dunfermline’s 92.3 per cent rate higher than the rest of Fife in 2013/2014, while exclusions fell over the same period to 59.3 per 1000 pupils.

The report noted that while “Fife has relatively high numbers of young people in foster care and low numbers looked after by parents/relatives”, “the overall percentages of those with parents, friends and relatives has remained the same” in the Dunfermline area, with slight increases in the numbers being placed in foster and residential care.

Dunfermline was found to have bucked the national trend on under-16 pregnancy rates, with the city having a rate of 4.9 per 1000 as opposed to the national average of 5.6.

The study added that in 2011, four Fife secondary schools were identified to provide a “targeted approach with an aim to reduce both risk taking behaviours and teenage pregnancy” but none of Dunfermline’s four high schools were identified for extra support due to the rate “being much lower than the Fife and national averages”.

The oral health of Primary 1 children continued to show improvement, with 68.2 per cent showing “no obvious sign of dental decay” in an increase from 59.7 per cent in 2010, with a target set for 2017 of 75 per cent.

Children at Primary 1 level in Dunfermline were also found to be at, or above, the appropriate Curriculum for Excellence level for their age in literacy (94.9 per cent) and numeracy (95.6 per cent), while Primary 4 pupils showed an increase in attaining the appropriate levels of literacy and numeracy.